The shopping mall market - Italy (2023)

1.1 Definition and presentation

According to Legislative Decree No. 114/1998 Art.4 Paragraph 1, a shopping center is defined as "a medium or large sales structure in which several businesses are included in a structure with a specific purpose and benefit from common infrastructure and service spaces managed as a unit."

The first modern shopping malls appeared in the United States in the early 20th century, in 1907, near Baltimore, when a group of stores built an outdoor parking lot for their customers according to Samuel Feinberg The J.C. Nichols de Kansas City shopping center, founded in 1921, is often claimed as the first out-of-town business group.

The global mall market has been facing a crisis for several years, which has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. This decline is particularly visible in the United States. Actually, large groups such as Macy's and Lord&Taylor have already announced they are in crisis and other mall chains have been forced to close. In fact, according to Green Street Advisor, 50 % of malls are likely to close by 2021.

In Italy, there are 1,269 malls, with 35,000 stores involved, contributing 4 % of the national GDP. The largest shopping centers are located in Campania and Lazio, where we find the Centro Commerciale Campania and the Porta di Roma shopping mall, covering 200,000 and 150,000 square meters, respectively.

The development of digital technology has produced an accelerating change in consumer shopping habits. The latest market trends concern both spatial extension, i.e., the increase in the average area of shopping centers, and temporal extension, indicating the ability of consumers to shop anytime directly from home through digital devices. However, market players are struggling to manage omnichannel and meet consumer demand in this area.