Online shopping might be cheap and convenient, but it's also one-dimensional and impersonal compared to a well-crafted retail brand strategy and an elegant interior design of a shopping mall. By offering such a bottomless well of upper to middle market, experience-focused shopping, Emporium Melbourne and its tenants hope to show us the light.
As part of a process of shopping centre design renewal, we continually benchmark the best in class mall operations across the globe and on a recent visit to Australia, we photographed the Emporium Melbourne in Melbourne's city centre business district. The images in this article are from the benchmark visit and the Internet.
It is here we present design ideas and a shopping mall format to inspire mall operators and management teams to consider re-engineering the mall format.
The traditional planning technique of a retail mall weighted at both ends with anchor tenants has been cleverly overcome at the Emporium Melbourne by a process of intelligent retail planning and interior design.
Innovative mall design incorporates value-added elements that attempt to address the convenience of online purchasing and to recast the mall as the new city centre or downtown hub.
When it comes to retail interior shopping mall planning, design and branding strategies, we aim to plan the GLA, to animate as many retail brands and as many experiences as possible by making the shopping experience a retail wonderland.
The Emporium Melbourne is a high-end, interconnected, city centre, the vertical retail environment of a high standard. The development links to the established, iconic department stores of Myer and David Jones, as well as GPO Melbourne, The Strand Arcade and Melbourne Central, and reflects the character and shopping experience of Melbourne's network of laneways which interlink city business district streets. It has also been designed with the larger footprints required by international brands, including Uniqlo, Top Shop, Zara and other prominent retailers.
The centre's GIC & CFS Retail Trust Property Group developers spent $1.2 billion on the project, which took almost seven years to complete. The Buchan Group were responsible for the centre planning design and features retail stores and eateries located over a 48,000-square-metre GLA.
Emporium Melbourne's Cafe Food Court experience provides 30 ‘fast and healthy' food choices for those shoppers who are trying to keep slim and their bodies in check or when the dark-side tempts, to indulge the Cafe Court is here to answer visitor prayers, bringing healthy eating to the city business district.
Shoppers can treat themselves to an incredible culinary experience with Cafe Food Court's diverse and delicious healthy selection.
Here's a snapshot of the healthy choices on offer and a point of difference in it's Cafe Food Court design, selected to attract a more discerning customer. There isn't an American fast-food chain insight. The 1100-seat space is populated by eateries such as I Love Pho, St Kilda's Chinta Ria, George Calombaris' souvlaki bar Jimmy Grant's and Sydney burger chain Charlie & Co.
“I believe people love their food, and they're always looking for a new and interesting food product and environments to visit,” says Campbell Rigg
Why not call and talk to us about your shopping mall design or refurbishment programme, branding, digital and social media requirements.