The effect of non-spatial attributes on shopping center sales performance

This research examines the effect of non-spatial attributes on the sales performance of enclosed shopping centers. The study considers enclosed shopping centers as a set of anchor and non-anchor retailers characterized by spatial and nonspatial attributes. The research is motivated by the retail inter-store externality argument, which is based on two premises. First, anchor retailers enhance the sales of non-anchor retailers by attracting consumers to the shopping center and creating a shopping spillover effect. Second, non-anchor retailers, as a group, affect their own sales performance by locating close to one another and satisfying the consumers' multipurpose shopping needs. Shopping center sales performance is measured in terms of non-anchor retail sales per square foot. Anchor retailer non-spatial attributes are measured in terms of anchor retail fashion image while non-anchor retailer non-spatial attributes are measured in terms of non-anchor retail mix. The study tests the null hypothesis that anchor retail fashion image and non-anchor retail mix do not affect non-anchor retail sales per square foot against the alternative hypothesis that a more fashion-oriented anchor retail image and a more heterogeneous non-anchor retail mix lead to more non-anchor retail sales per square foot. The hypothesis is tested using an extensive shopping center data set of more than 3,000 retailers in 41 enclosed shopping centers. The test is conducted at the aggregate shopping center level as well as the disaggregate retailer merchandise category and individual retailer levels. The analysis indicates that anchor retail fashion image and non-anchor retail mix significantly affect non-anchor retail sales per square foot. The results support the existence of non-spatial inter-store externalities in enclosed shopping centers and the argument that the non-spatial allocation decision is as important as the spatial allocation decision to enclosed shopping center sales performance maximization.