Large non-food retailers are moving into space that department stores used to occupy, according to the latest shopping centre data.
Urbis’ latest Shopping Centre Benchmarks found that sales at non-food mini-majors rose 7.0 per cent year on year. The report named Uniqlo as an example of the retailers taking on space traditionally held by department stores.
The data covers 516 Australian centres, from neighbourhood centres to CBD and super-regional sites. Together they account for 14.6 million square metres of gross leasable area, $118.8 billion in reported turnover and 46,743 tenants.
Super-regional centres recorded a 5.0 per cent lift in retail sales, which drove solid growth across regional centres overall. Bruce Shaw, director at retail architecture firm Buchan Group, said premium and luxury fashion and strong demand for cosmetics were behind the rebound.
“This recovery creates a timely opportunity to reimagine the role of department stores so they can either remain relevant and contribute to the long-term health of these centres or be reconfigured for a higher and better use,” Shaw said.
He also noted there are fewer new-to-market mini-majors available than a decade ago. He said this gives landlords and retailers good reason to work together on new anchor strategies, formats and experiences.
Jewellery was the fastest-growing category in the report, up 11.6 per cent. Entertainment rose 8.8 per cent and retail services 6.2 per cent. Food catering and food retail grew 7.5 per cent and 6.9 per cent respectively, and were the strongest growth drivers across every centre type.
“The shift towards experiences and in-centre consumption also highlights the growing social role of shopping precincts and is helping centres remain resilient as e-commerce continues to expand,” Urbis director Ian Shimmin said.
CBD centres had the strongest growth of any centre type, at 7.1 per cent. Outer-metropolitan centres were among the weakest at 3.9 per cent, even though these areas lead the country in population growth.
“Some of Australia’s outer metropolitan growth areas are experiencing comparatively weaker retail growth despite strong population growth, with mortgage pressures clearly influencing household spending,” Shimmin said.