As e-commerce companies are raining discounts and grabbing a large part of the festive season spends, malls are banking on their experiential quotient to attract customers.

 Deep discounts, cash-backs and other offers have made e-commerce the must-go destination for the bargain hunters. E-commerce has already pocketed a considerable portion of discretionary festive spends, but malls are not disheartened. .

“Consumers come back to malls as they miss the holistic retail experience. Moreover, they see that malls are no longer just shopping destinations but places where they can unwind and get entertained. With the discount seasons becoming a vogue even across malls, shoppers are all geared up to feel the experience whether in malls or in the virtual world, as per their convenience,” said Anuj Kejriwal, MD & CEO of Anarock Retail.

Fine dining restaurants, cafes and theme-based entertainment centres. have increasingly become popular in leading malls over the last few years to increase ‘mall loyalty’. Each mall has a long list of events lined up for the festive season. “Discounts are not just the only criteria for shopping. Events, product launches, services associated with products — the experience part is very important in retail. After two slow years of demonetization and GST, we have started seeing healthy growth in footfalls,” said Yogeshwar Sharma, CEO, Select Citywalk.

Select Citywalk is celebrating #GreenWaliDiwali and has adopted an eco-friendly approach for Diwali this year. The shopping centre is hosting a series of activities ranging from Diwali Bazaar to Shopping Promotions, Magnum Opus Ramayana, Kids Diwali Workshops and sustainable initiatives such as “Recycling Newspapers, Saving Trees, which plant one tree for every 50 kg of old newspapers collected from consumers.

 Atria Mall at Worli, Mumbai, has recently opened ‘The Game’  with more than 10 real world sports activities and 40 arcade games, including bungee soccer, adventure walk and human gyroscope roller-coaster.

“Our idea was always to create something out of the box and premium, a space where you can unwind and challenge a new skill. We have sourced our experiences from all across the world to marry the latest in technology,” Prasuk Jain, Managing Director, Chiliad Procons said.