Singapore malls try new tricks to draw in crowds as threat of online shopping looms

Online shopping in Singapore is lackluster even after Amazon Inc. debuted its Prime service in mid-2017. The island’s malls are trying hard to keep it that way.

With some of the nation’s biggest mall operators reporting falling rents and rising vacancies, landlords, just like those elsewhere in Asia and the U.S., are being forced to reposition. They’re making room for yoga studios, boxing gyms and climbing walls -- plus expanding their food and beverage options -- to make sure people come for the dining and fun, and hopefully, stay for some shopping.

Centers around the world have tried similar stunts in recent years -- often to no avail -- but in tiny Singapore, where it’s often joked that shopping is the national sport, they do have an advantage. Online shopping penetration ranks behind Slovakia and Greece in the city-state, putting it relatively low down for developed economies, and the government is weighing a tax on e-commerce imports from 2020.

There are early signs the gambit is working -- at least in terms of driving up traffic.

At VivoCity, the island’s largest shopping center, visitor numbers rose 3.1 percent in the six months through Sept. 30 from a year earlier as owner Mapletree Commercial Trust added an arcade complete with a full-sized bumper car ring. Yet actual shopping fell slightly.

In other malls, visitors can spend a day taking a cooking class or participating in a complimentary yoga session. At CapitaLand’s Clarke Quay, you’ll be able to sip margaritas while playing a round of indoor mini golf. CapitaLand’s Westgate mall and its soon-to-open revamped Funan mall will feature an ABC Cooking Studio, where people can sign up for bread-baking lessons or classes on how to make wagashi, traditional Japanese sweets.