Review on Fun Republic, Coimbatore

Coimbatore has braced itself to the second mall in the city, Fun Republic, from E-City Ventures of the Essel Group. The group straddles across different industrial spectrums: media, entertainment, technology, infrastructure etc. For Fun Republic, the Coimbatore mall is the fifth mall it has opened in the country and there are malls elsewhere managed by group outfits.

It is located on Avinashi road in Peelamedu area in the city, a cluster of educational institutions, the mall is offering a different shopping experience to the consumers. The mall brings together some of the hottest names in the retail sector: Shoppers Stop, Reliance group, a host of other retail brands like Lee, Anita Dongre and fast food giant McDonald’s etc., from different business segments.

The significance of the mall, apart from its location, is its design itself. The large dome-shaped structure boasts of a beautiful atrium and the frontage of the shops/restaurants in the six-level structure has been so designed that they face the 15,000 sq.ft atrium. 

The strong demand for mall space in Coimbatore is reflected in the demand for retail space in Fun Republic with nearly 100-odd retailers picking up a space of about 3.25 lakh sq ft. in the mall, which has come up on about 3.5 acres that belonged earlier to the National Textile Corporation.

Great care has been taken on the ‘zoning mix’- like the ground floor of the mall being set apart for very premium brands, the first floor for men’s wear, second floor for women’s and kids wear, third floor for room furnishings and home appliances/electronics/gaming, fourth floor for multiplex and food court etc. In the initial weeks, though only about 20 retail outlets were opened, the mall had 15,000 walk-ins.

The total number of retailers in the mall is around 90-100. While Shoppers Stop will be the key brand, another popular retailer is Reliance Mart and the retailers are chosen carefully to give a mix of international, national and local brand experience to the avid shoppers.

The two most frequent complaints cited in the survey are first, the parking facility, which the customer feels is comparatively small and has a bad odour when they enter the parking lot. Second, they feel that too many of the stores carry the same merchandise and there are less varieties which are quite expensive. The third-most cited problem by the respondents is that the mall is more congested and small when compared to Brookefields.

Beyond complaints about the nature of mall shopping, we also find problems in three areas of basic mall infrastructure that drive loyalty:

• The mall is not at all clean and well maintained.
• The washrooms are overcrowded and has a bad odour.
• There is no AC in the mall, which creates a humid atmosphere with more of shoppers flowing in.

A first step would be to concentrate on the maintenance, as well as improvising the parking lot system. And then to evaluate the mall's common areas, by developing programs to counteract the sameness of the stores and merchandise, which is a turn off for the mall shoppers. They should understand that different types of consumers come to the shopping experience with varied expectations and different triggers that will generate mall loyalty. Instead of trying to make broad sweeping changes, they should create opportunities for discovery in the common areas and thinking of the mall as a destination will encourage shoppers to spend more time shopping at the mall.