FEATURES


Consumer Profiles and Behavior in Australian Shopping Centers


New Benchmarks for Assessing Mall Shopping Patterns MATTHEW BAILEY*


Abstract: Australian shopping-center consumers tend to be purpose/mission-driven. Food/liquor/groceries purchases drive sales in centers of all sizes, although the diversity and strength of regional centers’ tenant mixes results in more varied spending patterns, more time in center and more leisure shopping than in other center types.


Since at least the early 20th century, women have


been viewed as the principal shoppers in Australian households. Despite the many social and economic changes in the intervening years, the typical shopping- center customer is a female living with a partner, either with or without children at home. (See Table 2-1.) This was just one of the results of extensive customer-exit surveys in Australian centers1 that elicited data on shopping-center patronage, expenditure and other demographic patterns. (Please see Box 2-1 for an explanation of the study’s methodology.) Figure 2-1


Profile of the Typical Australian Shopping-Center Customer (2011 Study)


Age Gender


Household Income Occupation


Average Spending Per Center Visit (All Customers)


By Neighborhood Center By Sub-Regional Center By Regional Center


Average Trip Duration (minutes) By Neighborhood Center


By Sub-Regional Center By Regional Center


Average Frequency of Visits (weekly /less than once a week)


By Neighborhood Center By Sub-Regional Center By Regional Center


Source: Directional Insights * Principal Consultant, Directional Insights


1 Similar surveys have been conducted in the United States and Canada, with the most recent results published as articles by Jean Lambert and John Connolly, “After the Recession: Surprising New Patterns of U.S. Mall Shoppers,” and John Connolly, “Canadian Mall Shoppers More Purposeful,”


both from Retail Property Insights, Vol. 18 (No. 2) 2011. 2 Calculated from the midpoints of age brackets, and not including customers under 15 years of age.


INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS 1 4 RETAIL PROPERTY INSIGHTS VOL. 20, NO. 1, 2013


46 years Female


A$75,000


Pensioner/ Professional/ Home Duties


A$69 A$60


A$69 A$86


59 43


60 80


74.1%/ 25.9% 84.4%/ 15.6%


74.6%/ 25.4% 65.4%/ 34.6%


Australian shopping-center customers are in the


workforce less than the national average. The dominant occupational/role groups were retirees/pensioners, professionals and those carrying out home duties. Average household income throughout the study period (2010-2012) was approximately A$75,000, with the average age of customers 46 years (although those under the age of 15 are not included in this calculation). Customers overwhelmingly traveled to shopping centers by car, with a high proportion engaged in shopping with specific purchases in mind. The strong food-and-grocery underpinning of Australian shopping centers was the main reason consumers visited.


Demographics Females accounted for 72.3% of shopping-center


customers. The highest proportion of customers consisted of those between 50 and 59 years of age (18.0%), with an approximate average age of 46 years.2 Chart 2-1 indicates a relatively even distribution of shoppers across most age brackets, with the exception of smaller percentages of younger (15-20 years) and older (70 years and over) customers. The two dominant household living arrangements were “married/de facto with children at home” (30.4%), and “married/de facto no children at home” (27.0%). The average household size was 2.9 people, with the largest percentage of respondents living in two-person households (34.8%). Just under 50% of interviewees lived in households of three or more people. Direct comparison with data from the most recent


Australian Census (2011) is difficult for a number of these categories, as exit surveys recorded lifestage household


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45