Differences between Department Stores and Shopping Malls

                                        
To meet the various needs of consumers, a wide range of business modes such as shopping malls and department stores emerged and become popular over the past few years. 

As to consumers, these two parties are similar. As a matter of fact, there are still some differences between them. Below we will have a brief analysis of it. 


Different consumer base
 
The target consumers of traditional department stores are mainly determined by the incomes and levels of the consumers. The average transaction value and marketing rate are the two key performance indicators for department stores. 
 
In shopping malls, there are far more factors that affect its performance indicators, such as age, preference, psychology, consumer behavior and so on. One important thing that shopping malls shall do is to gather brands with similar positioning and nature. 


Different retailing functions
 
The main products in traditional department stores are clothes, bags, cosmetics and so on, they usually divide the products into categories. 
 
The main clients of shopping malls are stores but not consumers directly. Therefore, shopping malls tend to focus more on the brands and combine different kinds of brands to maximize the economies of scale. 


Different operating methods
 
Department stores are generally managed and operated while shopping malls are more likely to operate in a decentralized manner. 
 
To illustrate, department stores can determine the prices and cash flows to some extent while shopping malls provide more spaces for brands themselves. 
 
Besides, department stores pay more attention to their brand value and consumers while shopping malls focus more on their settled brands and the consumer base. 


Different brand effects
 
In terms of shopping malls and department stores, they both have some brand effects, which are accumulated by the brands and consumers. In shopping malls, the brand effects are reflected in the daily necessaries while in department stores, they are reflected in the consumer lifestyle.