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THE INDONESIAN Shopping Center Management Association (APPBI) considers that there is a need for a new paradigm in managing shopping centers so that they can continue to survive and adapt in the midst of the new normality of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We all know that with this pandemic, we have to adapt to the new normal. To be able to go to the new normal, of course, we must have a new paradigm, especially for shopping managers for visitors and tenants,” said APPBI Chairman Alphonsus Widjaja in a webinar recently.
According to him, currently visitors actually no longer need a shopping center because there are many alternative places to meet these needs, including through online shopping.
However, he said, they still need a place to meet their needs as social beings, namely to interact directly.
Therefore, Alphonsus said the manager must be able to find a concept so that the shopping center is not only a place for shopping, but also a place for visitors to interact with each other.
“So, the manager must be smart, must be innovative, must be creative in providing something for customers to vent their needs as social beings,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the tenant side, Alphonsus considered that there was a need for a new selling concept so that their merchandise could still be sold. He said that today’s shopping centers should no longer just sell business premises, but must become businesses themselves.
“So, a shopping center must be able to provide a concept that is not just a place to sell, no longer sells a place of business, but the place must be crossed out, so it must become a business,” Alphonsus noted.
Shopping centers, he continued that must be able to provide, renting a place is not just renting out a place, but more for the business, because these tenants they need a new concept, not just selling. The current task of the shopping center manager is to unite the two interests. This is what he calls the new paradigm.
“Managers must be able to combine all of this, must be able to manage the needs of customers and tenants. If it is like that, there will be no more debate on rental prices, all kinds of things will not happen,” he concluded. [antaranews/photo special]
