BY JORGE VILLA
WITH SM Supermalls reaching a milestone of 40 years, the country’s leading retail chain is ready to embrace a new era with remarkable growth, technological innovation, and putting the customer and the community first.
SM Supermalls plans to invest over P150 billion in 16 major redevelopments and 12 new lifestyle malls with the goal of complting the plan by 2030.
“[We’re opening a new mall] ever year; not just in Metro Manila or Luzon,” said Steven Tan, president of SM Supermalls.
“We’re expanding our footprint even in the Visayas and Mindanao area. Next year, you will see a very iconic mall that will open in Zamboanga; later next year, one in Nuvali in Sta. Rosa.”
Other malls in the pipeline include Harrison Plaza in Manila in 2027, SM Malolos, Bulacan in 2028, Cavite in 2029, and Pasay in 2030.
Redeveloping existing malls
Tan also emphasized how important it is to keep current malls in development, and to keep providing customers with experiences to which they will look forward.
“It’s not just about the size,” he added. “It’s also about the experience — new moments in these malls that will be opening.
Aside from opening new malls, we also are redeveloping our malls to future-proof our shopping centers.”
SM now has 88 malls. Other upcoming malls include SM La Union, which will open in October.
Tan added how significant the design of the mall is aside from the personality and character of each one.
“What I meant by the bold new era: Even the design of the mall in La Union is very coastal. It has hues of blue and there will be a sandbar. We also tapped the best of La Union and bring it to the shopping center. Nowadays, you really have to curate it. It has more personality and character,” he said.
Even SM Megamall is being given a major facelift. Tan narrated the changes that management wishes to do with it, including a feature that is very similar to Singapore’s Garden By the Bay.
He added: “Everyone’s familiar with Megamall. But Megamall — even before I joined SM — is very transactional. You go, you buy, then you leave. It’s a very successful mall, but it’s plainly transactional. You buy your essentials there. You go to shop there because the stores are complete. We expanded Megamall with Mega Fashion Hall. The mall] changed the retail landscape in that area. We brought in Tim Ho Wan and Din Tai Fung. When H&M just opened its first store in Megamall. So, there’s a lot of firsts that happened in Megamall.”
He continued: “But this time, we’re pushing the envelope a notch higher. What will we be doing? We will add more parking because we know parking is a problem in Megamall. We will be add thousands of parking spaces. On top of Megamall A, we will have something that the Philippines has never seen before. There’s going to be an indoor rooftop garden. Just like Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.”
Taking care of communities in which SM operates
Tan shared how SM takes care of communities, which includes the people who work for SM as well as its tenants.
“When we build a mall, we make sure that approximately around 80 percent of the employees are locally hired. So, there’s really that sense of togetherness when we open a shopping center,” Tan said.
He added: “Our tenant partners are also a community. We work with them. That’s why we earn from them. And also, we have to make sure that they also earn in our shopping center. That’s why we do a lot of things such as activations and big events whether it’s the World Pyro Competition, a dance fest, or a meet and greet by the actor in of Superman the movie. We do what we do because we also want to ensure that we guarantee foot traffic for them. So that’s what I mean by shared progress.”
“We can’t be the only ones earning. We should all benefit,” Tan said.
Thriving where the customer is king
Tan also reiterated that SM has always put the customer above everything else.
“So, it’s really in our DNA to keep on evolving and then, always thinking of what the consumer really wants. At the heart of it, if you come to think of it, there’s really no rocket science behind it. It’s just about understanding people. It’s simply understanding your consumer,” he said.
In fact, SM Supermalls makes sure that it studies what the customers want.
He adds: “From what we’re seeing…we also did a study on that, and we all also looked around regionally whether it’s in Seoul or Bangkok. You see that our consumers want space. They want more places where they could really de-stress. That’s why, if you would notice, in the new Sta. Rosa in Nuvali, it has a one-hectare garden inside the mall.”
He continued: “But we all know that, also, the Filipinos dislike the heat; they don’t want to perspire. So, we air-conditioned the space. You have natural lighting. The heat doesn’t go in, and there’s an area where you could relax and destress.”
SM has also prepared itself for the boom of e-commerce and has gone with the trend by increasing its food options, offering more experiences and even offering an SM e-commerce platform.
He carries: “People want a place where they can hang out and celebrate. So, if you see Mall of Asia, we have, like, more than 200 restaurants at the moment.
Mega Fashion Hall is also full of good, casual-dining restaurants. So, those are the things that we did and we adjusted even before the entry of e-commerce into the Philippines.”
He concluded: “We’re not saying e-commerce is not important because we also have SM Malls online. At the end of the day, the consumer is king. They are the winners because so we provide everything for them. If they want to eat in the restaurant, good, but if they want to order from Din Tai Fung or Tim Ho Wan, we could do that also for them and have it delivered. So, you have to be present whether online or offline. For me, that really is the future of retail.”
