Saturday, November 10, 2007

REIT Retailers Forecast A Surge In Festive Spending

Source : Channel NewsAsia, 09 November 2007

Singapore shoppers are expected to throng the malls in greater numbers this coming year-end holiday season.

And mall managers said they would be spending more money on promotions this year to keep the crowds coming in.

They have set aside a bigger budget of up to S$300,000 for each mall.

Frasers Centrepoint has seven malls under its umbrella, with an average weekly traffic count of 320,000 shoppers.

It is expecting the number to jump by 20 percent over the next month in the run-up to the year-end festive season, with consumers more willing to splurge on luxury goods.

Raymond Chan, Marketing Manager of Frasers Centrepoint Malls, said: "In view of the upturn in the Singapore economy, we foresee a very robust consumer spending this season, and we hope to see a 10 percent increase year-on-year. Compared to last Christmas, we hope to see a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in traffic and tenant sales."

Frasers is optimistic that the booming economy will translate into higher year-end bonuses, resulting in shoppers being more than willing to indulge.

Over at CapitaLand, it is taking on a common holiday theme for the 15 malls under its brand this year.

This will allow it to save on advertising and seasonal decoration costs by buying in bulk.

Pua Seck Guan, CEO of CapitaLand Retail, said: "During Christmas, we spend quite a fair bit of money to create shopping ambience and festive ambience. We spend in the region of S$30,000 on decorating the malls, and on top of that, we are looking in the order of about S$100,000 to do advertising and promotion. So in general, we are spending between S$100,000 and S$300,000 for each mall."

Across its portfolio, CapitaLand is setting aside up to some S$3 million on promotions for the year-end holiday season. - CNA/so

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