Sihle Zulu, Oasys Project Manager
During recent years, Oasys Innovations, South Africa's leading supplier of exhibitions and events infrastructure, diversified their services into shopping malls with shopfitting for well-known retail brands, including information technology and motorcycle brands as well as stand-alone booths for special promotions.
Says Sihle Zulu, Oasys Project Manager for shopping mall installations: “We have become a preferred supplier to many of the shopping malls around the country, the most recent being the Maponya Mall and Jabulani Shopping Centres in Soweto. The mix of shopping centres vary from very upmarket ones that attract visitors from a wide geographical area, to those that are more suburban focused. With nearly 400,000 carpet tiles in 33 different colours, and more than 23,000 stock items of furniture for rent, we have the capacity to supply many shopping centres with items for special promotions in their walkways.
Zulu says that shell schemes for branded booths in shopping malls for concentrated day-to-day promotions have become a good revenue stream for the company. "Our experience with infrastructure for exhibition organisers and exhibition stands for end-users has certainly positioned us well to service shopping malls and shopping villages. We have a project management team especially assigned to service this market which means that we are not detracted by the activities of the other activation companies in the Oasys Innovations group of companies.”
Zulu says that the steady growth in the population will require the establishment of new shopping malls and that companies will continue to increase their marketing spend to get a share of the disposable income. “Even though there is a credit squeeze people will not stop buying and the malls offer goods and services for the rich and the poor. Many shop owners represent well known brands and compete with other brands in the same space. They therefore need to change their merchandise and generic presentation more frequently in order to stay innovative and attractive to shoppers. In this case we have teamed up with designers overseas who are responsible for the global appearance of specific brands and have successfully executed shopfitting assignments on their behalf.”
Oasys Innovations company management confirmed that developments around online viewing of shopping mall facilities, exhibitions and booths in shopping malls have fast become a reality and that designs will be developed to accommodate “friendly” viewing to make informed decisions.