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Question: Discuss why Consumers Purchase Products Online instead of in Shopping Centres. Answer: Preference of online marketing over shopping malls The shopping malls estimated that the sale in online retail marketing will be more than double within the next 3-4 years and thus pose a danger to the industry. The shopping malls will face alarming challenges if this growth continues. The shopping malls needs to adopt multi channel strategies in order to compete with online marketing. Thus, to meet up these current challenges online marketplaces have gained significant importance and are preferred by customers around the world. The purchasing powers of the people are increasing and it is creating much better opportunities for the commercial players. As the purchasing power increases, the growth rate of the retail sector also increases and it is challenged by various consumer habits. With the development of the market, the customers are making an increasing demand for varied services such as fast and quick delivery, free shipping. Online retail stores are a boon to the people because they allow the customers to buy the latest product s and services. Moreover, it allows the customers to shop from any place around the country and they need not visit the stores physically for purchasing the products. The customers prefer convenience as their main preference and so they have shifted to online marketing. In shopping malls, the customers are provided with a limited choice for the products. However, if the customers purchases or visits the online stores, he/she is provided with a wider choice for the products and it becomes easier for them to select and make a final decision (Taylor, 2011). The online stores do not have a definite time and the customers can shop anytime and any day according to their convenience. This helps in saving the energy and efficiency of the customers. As online marketplaces provide with unlimited choices for the products and there is limited time in the hands of the customers, it becomes easy for the consumers to choose or select the product and also compare them with the other products. Physical constraints restrict the shopping malls to display their products or a full view of their items. Moreover, the consumers find it more comfortable to purchase the products online rather than visiting the stores. The customers of this generation are highly conscious about the price charged to them by the shopping malls and online marketing stores. The rental expenses of the shopping malls are indirectly imposing a huge burden on the customers. This has penetrated the customers to online marketing. The customers are more focused on buying music, apparel, electronics, outdoor games, sporting from the online stores due to wider variability of products and low cost compared to the malls (French, 2013). The quality of products in the online sites also differs a lot and this helps in determine the frequency of customers in the online stores. The consumers prefer to buy good quality product when they spend a huge sum of money. Quality matters a lot for the customers in any kind of purchasing whether it is online or offline. The trust of the customers is another important factor affecting the business (Miller Washington, 2011). Some people prefer and trust online shopping while a considerable sum of people do not prefer. Moreover, online shopping also involves a considerable amount of risk because the customers cannot see or touch the product. The products ordered sometimes even get damaged and so people generally do not prefer to buy tangible products through online mode. In online shopping, it takes a considerable amount of time for the delivery of the products which is not a major factor when the customer visits the shopping stores (Lee, Kim Lee, 2013). Amazon will launch its business in Australia very soon and this is posing a threat to the shopping malls. The shopping malls are in the risk of shutting down their businesses. According to pwc Global Report, 2017 around 14% of the people in Australia purchases products from Amazon. Amazon will attract more customers in the next few years and it will capture a giant portion of the market. Online shopping in Australia is primarily done through computers and mobile phones. The trend of online shopping over traditional shops is shown in the below diagram: Fig -Usage of the varied modes of shopping channels over time Source- pwc Global 2017 It is seen that the preference of shopping malls is increasing at a very slow rate compared to the online mode. Shopping through mobile and PC constitutes online shopping. According to 2016 Global online shopping study report, 29% of the Australians prefers shopping through their mobile devices. It is depicted from the graph that online shopping through PC is declining because customers prefer user friendly technologies and they prefer to shop through mobiles and tablets (Peterson, 2014). The click and collect technology helps the customers to shop through various online channels. This enables the customers to order online and pick the products at their desired location. It has become a very popular and convenient service for the customers. The shopping malls are also suffering huge losses because of the widespread closure of various departmental stores. If these continue, it becomes difficult to for the shopping mall owners to find separate tenant. This has raised the cost of rental and it is indirectly imposing burden upon the customers (Adnan, 2014). The customers thus, are shifting to online stores and prefer to buy products at a cheaper rate. However, it cannot be denied that a portion of the customers in Australia also prefer bricks and mortar rather than shopping online. They prefer to shop through the stores because they can touch and feel the product before they purchase them. They also do not prefer to keep waiting for their products to be shipped. They choo se face-to-face communication with the sales associates when purchasing the products rather than just getting a glimpse of the product. These personalized interactions with the sales associates give them a satisfying experience for their products. The consumers prefer to purchase various grocery items from the shopping malls rather than purchasing them online. This is because they need the products for immediate consumption and cannot wait for the products to be shipped to them (Ozuduru, Varol Ercoskun, 2014). The shopping malls are constantly organizing various shows to attract the customers and to keep the consumers coming to their stores but the frequencies of online customers are increasing rapidly. The shopping malls are adopting various marketing strategies to tempt the shoppers. Customers prefer online shopping because they get a huge discount when they shop or purchase through various apps. It is user friendly and easier for them rather than visiting these shopping malls (Babin Zikmund, 2016). Moreover, the shoppers are aware and they gather much information from the internet before purchasing the products. They do not feel it necessary to go to the retail stores and enquire the sales associates to explain them about the particular product. Research also indicates that men spend more amounts on buying luxury products online than women. They prefer buying various kinds of electronic products while women prefer buying cosmetic products. The shopping behavior of the individuals is al so changing in terms of variety and type of the product which is being purchased online. The demand for bigger items such as furniture, sporting goods, home dcor products and other electronic appliances are showing a massive growth of online customers (Medrano et al, 2016). The sale of these products is expected to increase by 3.5 % over the previous year. 15 % of the customers purchase the electronics and dcor items through the online stores. Thus, it can be clearly stated that the demand for these products through the online mode has increased over the past few years. Moreover, shopping across the cross border channels is also rapidly increasing and it is increasing the international retail trade industry. The problem of security in transaction while making payment through the online mode is another important aspect which affects the purchasing behavior of the people of Australia. Considering varied factors such as fashion, quality, price, exchange policy, brand the consumers pref er the security, delivery, quality and price over all of them. To make an authentic and reliable purchasing decision, price is one of the important factors which are affecting them (Erkip Ozuduru 2015). When a particular brand is not available in the shopping malls or in the retail market in Australia, people prefer to research and find out the particular product online. Some people also prefer to use varied cues based on their prior experience when purchasing the products online. The cost of maintaining a physical store is very huge and this bears a direct burden on the consumers. It is also seen that online shopping is mainly preferred by the youth and the middle aged customers in Australia (Speer, 2012). Moreover, it can be said that urgency is the main criteria which helps the customer to decide whether to purchase the products online or offline. Thus, it can be said that the reliability and viability of the online stores has led to the decline of traditional stores. Marketing plan for Westfield Sydney Marketing plan is the motivating and growing tool used by big businesses to move forward in their business successfully. Large businesses usually make a marketing plan to forecast the behaviour of the consumers it targets and design its business that best suit the needs of the consumers. The marketing plan tool also helps the company to fight competition that they face from their substitutes and other companies. The marketing plan needs to cover some important information about the business in order to move successfully such as analysing the current market situation of the organization, deciding on the future target market of the company to cope up with the challenges, setting goals for the next few years and estimating cost to achieve these goals (Armstrong et. al., 2014). The online retail service is posing a threat to the shopping malls all over the world due to the ease of shopping that they offer to the customers. Consumer gets the opportunity to shop from this online site without putting much physical effort. Retail items compromises around 8 percent of the total product offered by the online service. The same threat is experienced by the shopping mall of Westfield Sydney, which is one of the best shopping mall in Australia. Thus, this makes it important for the Westfield Sydney mall in Australia to draw a marketing plan for them in order to survive the tough competition from the online retailers. Current market situation of Westfield Sydney Westfield Sydney is one of the best shopping mall of Australia located in Sydney area. It is known for offering wide range of retail items to the consumers around the years. The retail items offered by the mall varies from dresses, shoes, skirts, jewellery, men wears, kids wears, games and also food items. It is located in one of the largest trade area of the country from where it operates its business and reaches out to its customers. Consumers in Sydney, Australia are keen about retail goods that add to the benefits of the shopping mall. Some of the brands that do business in this mall are Gucci, Fendi, Prada, Miu Miu and many more. There are 344 retail stores in Westfield Sydney mall and the company marked an annual sale of $1.17 billion (Products, 2017). The company also holds their own online site for offering the customers with all types of products they want at their footsteps. However, the sales and demand for shopping centres are experiencing a decreasing trend over the past few years. This has put a detrimental effect on the profit of the shopping mall. This fall in the visitors of the shopping mall is due to increased preferences for online shopping (Rose Dhandayudham, 2014). This is evident from the above analysis of increasing threat that the online shopping in Australia on shopping mall. On the other hand, it is noticed that the branded stores in the mall are charged a very high price for operating their business in the mall. This force the brand to shift the cost burden to the consumers that pushes up their product price. This reduces their customers who visit their store for shopping as they get the same product online at a less rate. Online sites can also carry out their advertising strategy in a better and cost effective way compared to the shopping malls. This can also prove to be a threat for the shopping mall industry in the upcoming years. Figure 1: Westfield performance Source: (Westfield Sydney. 2017) Target market Targeting is one of the most crucial decisions a company has to make in order to attain maximum profit for their business. Failure to target the right market based on customers, location and preference might lead to a downfall in the business. Shopping malls usually target a wide customer base as they offer all types of goods and services to the customers of all age type (Aithal, Shailashree Kumar, 2015). However, this type of marketing strategy is becoming common among the online selling stores as well. Thus, the company needs to streamline their target marketing strategy so that they can target a market base with the best possible service. This will help the company look unique than others. Westfield Sydney shopping mall should try to plan out some targeting strategy to target the customers on activities and services that they cant avail from the online shopping sites. Targeting can vary across age, location and likings of the consumers. Shopping malls offer various types of goods and services such as retail goods, gaming experiences, parlour experiences and movies and theatres. The retail industry gets the tough competition from the online websites. However, the services offered by the shopping mall cannot be availed online and this put them on a stronger side compared to the online shopping sites. Thus, the shopping malls should form their targeting strategy by planning things for these service which will help them balance their revenue lost from retail stores. Westfield should work and renovate their gaming zones and movie theatres so that young generations are attracted to these services. By doing this they can also target the young customers who comes to visit these gaming and movie zones (Barton, 2015). Westfield mall operate in the most crowded trading zone of Sydney. These areas are mainly crowded with working class and customers aged above thirty. The mall should plan to expand their mall in areas surrounded by college and universities. This will help the mall to attract young traffic easily from these areas that have strong cravings for games and movies (Sit Birch, 2014). Moreover, the mall already has their online sites through which they get to know the needs of the customers. Thus it can motivate the retail stores in the mall to offer more discounts to the consumers so that the online pricing does not differ much from the in store pricing. This will help the mall to target mass market that experienced a drop over few years (Alavi et. al., 2016). Goals for the next few years The goals of the mall are to maintain the annual sales and customer base it has or increase them compared to other years. The main goal is not to lose the market share in the hands of the online industries. However, Westfield also wants to maintain their online website and aims to attract maximum old age traffic in their online website (Wu, 2013). This will help the company to gain the market from all side and combat the competition they are facing from other online sites. The company aims to increase the spending amount per person from $14,000 to $ 20,000 in the next coming years. The gaming zone is intended to increase at least four new games every year to give a changing experience to the customers along with storing some of their high demanded games. In the movie theatres, the company aims to add one more screen so that the people can get to choose from more number of movies to watch. In their online service, the company can add up dry cleaning services so that the people can get laundry services from their doorsteps. This will help the company to capture both the traditional shopping mall as well as the online industry (Kursunluoglu, 2014). Tactics to reach out to the market The goals of any company long term or short term can only be reached with a perfect strategy of executing it within a plan. Thus, Westfield should plan some tactics to reach its goal. The tactics can include marketing strategy, time design and other necessary tools. The company can use online tool for advertising as the threat to the company is mainly from the online sector. This shows that people are much dependent on online sites for all their needs (Vinerean, 2013). Westfield mall can carry out their online marketing initiative through their own online sites by posting their page on Face book and other social media. Social media is becoming the most preferred promotional tool by all the physical stores as well as the online stores (Okazaki Taylor, 2013). Along with this, the shopping mall can advertise their game addition in their gaming zone with the help of banner advertising outside the mall. This will increase customer recognition about the special features and facilities bei ng offered by the company. Cost estimation Cost is the most important factor to execute the plan made by the company and fulfil the goals it has desired to achieve. The cost of the company is both the time and money required to fulfil its goals. Categories of investment Cost Promotional activity $ 50,000 for one year Setting of extra gaming zone $ 20,000 Setting of one extra movie theatre $ 30,000 Maintenance of home service providers $ 40,000 Total $ 1,40,000 Table 1: Cost estimation for one year Source: (Authors creation) The above table shows the cost estimation of Westfield Sydney for the upcoming year which will help them develop many areas of their shopping malls in order to offer best experience to the customers and survive successfully in this increasing competition from online sectors References Adnan, H. (2014). An analysis of the factors affecting online purchasing behavior of Pakistani consumers.International Journal of Marketing Studies,6(5), 133. Aithal, P. S., Shailashree, V. T., Kumar, P. M. 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