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Lim Beng Chee is pushing his mall-owning firm CMA to create unique experiences for shoppers, including tennis courts and rooftop gardensVery few people understand shopping malls like Lim Beng Chee, the chief executive of Capital Malls Asia (CMA).儲存Overseeing an international portfolio across five countries that attracts two to three million shoppers daily, Lim is firmly against cookie-cutter malls. CMA runs 19 properties in Singapore, like Clarke Quay, mostly along the city-state’s subway lines.The group likes to break its traditional mould when foraying into the mainland market, for example by recreating streetscapes inside its centres, and is even constructing a mall in Chengdu with a rooftop garden and tennis court.CMA now operates 51 malls in 36 cities on the mainland, and another 10 are on the way. It’s also been a pioneer of sort, helping prominent international brands such as Gap open their first stores on the mainland.Lim shares with the Post his strategy for striking the right balance of stores in CMA’s properties throughout the globe and tells us why supermarkets are key to good malls in China and why cinemas are the way to capture an Indian shopper’s heart.What is your approach to managing tenant mix? In Hong Kong, lower profit margin retailers like food and beverage (F&B) outlets and cinemas are struggling to find space in prime retail districts. IFC Mall for instance has nearly halved the number of F&B outlets since 2006.That situation is probably quite unique to Hong Kong. A lot of the properties are not owned by a single owner so a lot of the shop houses will want to maximise rents. For us, the shopping mall is quite different. We are looking for balance and we can afford to balance the rentals. For example, if you want to maximise rents, why should you have a supermarket in the mall? They take up a lot of space and don’t really pay that much in rent but we know this is what our shoppers need so we have to balance.Having said that, we want to make sure our retailers are working hard to provide the best services to our shoppers. Those that are sluggish obviously have to be changed but we need not maximise every single thing. After a while, you need to come back to the shoppers. I still remember when IFC first opened back in 2004, there were hardly any F&B outlets. Then they shifted to have food and now they’re shifting back, so I think they’re trying to find the balance.What differences in customer behaviour have you noticed across countries?China is about lifestyle. We may not think much of drinking coffee at Starbucks but in some second- and third-tier cities, it has become an affordable luxury. People may go on dates to Starbucks whereas in Hong Kong, Starbucks is very ordinary. They are always looking for aspirational brands and like to discover new brands.In India, it’s very intense because there’s a lack of good retail outlets. Young people are quite affluent because of the success of the outsourcing business. They have the money to spend but not enough good outlets to go to. One of the key entertainments they have is cinema. In China if you open a mall, a supermarket is essential. In India, the supermarket can be small but the cinema must be good. If you ask the average Indian, especially those from Mumbai or Bangalore, young people watch two to three movies a week compared to Hongkongers who maybe watch a movie once a month.What are the most significant challenges to opening up in a second- or third-tier Chinese city?The challenge has always been 新蒲崗迷你倉hat shoppers are not familiar with a shopping mall and not enough good retailers go into this market but it’s slowly opening up. It’s a chicken and egg issue. Good-quality retailers are wary of bad landlords so they want to open in a good shopping mall. As a retailer you invest into the store. But with a lot of good shopping mall owners going to second and third-tier cities, it brought quite a lot of retailers into the market – that created the variety and the shoppers are happy to come in and created a win-win situation.The question is how do you actually bring all these good retailers in? With good retailers you get better sales so that gives us better rentals and it creates a virtuous cycle. Good retailers bring in better shoppers. Better shoppers bring in better retailers.What is the most exciting frontier for CMA?Actually I don’t think it’s about cities, it’s about us creating new products. If you go to Singapore and see our malls, almost every one of our malls is quite different – positioning wise, the way we do our hardware, the way we engage our shoppers. The shopper profile varies.Likewise in China, we’re trying to create something different. For example we’re going to open a new mall in Chengdu and create one of the largest rooftop gardens where the families can come in and bring their kids. The old folks can exercise, you can play tennis, you can bring your dog. In some places the landscape is quite harsh, so we’re creating softscapes and we’ll have restaurants by the park. With every one we are trying to do something different.Chinese shoppers tend to prefer malls over standalone street boutiques. Do you think that’s a trend that’s here to stay and if so, will the West adapt to Chinese preferences as their influence as consumers grows?Malls are doing very well in the US. It’s just that within New York City there’s no available land to build a shopping mall and in Europe, there are small retailer protection rights so new malls can only be opened on the outskirts. But Westfield just opened two malls in London and they are doing very well because although shoppers do like to go outdoors to shop, the weather is sometimes not so friendly. The constant drizzle in London is not very convenient and parking in Oxford Street is crazy.Because Asia developed a bit later, we actually have land that can be earmarked for shopping. That helps in aggregating things and from an efficiency point of view it’s a lot easier for retailers. In a shopping mall we will have a loading and unloading bay so it’s easier for suppliers to come in.How are you keeping pace with customers’ digital behaviour?It’s still early days for apps. There’s a whole range of shoppers – the more senior ones will not be familiar with apps so we have to cater to both these communities. One of the apps we have is for store directories – that’s quite usual but I think there are more opportunities for us to engage our shoppers better through their smartphone.For example, I went to see Hysan Place in Causeway Bay and they have a table booking system. It’s on the second floor, you have to physically go up to the counter to book but it’s the central counter to reserve tables at any of their restaurants.These are things we will have to do in the next few years but we have to do it at a pace where our customers are comfortable. Technology is always changing. If I implement something that’s too aggressive and customers don’t respond, it’s actually a waste of resources. We always look to calibrate at the right pace.mini storage