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The role of place in city centre retailing

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Abstract

City centre offerings, including shopping, restaurants and cafés, and a lively atmosphere are vital place attributes, which together with several other elements create an attractive place. However, city centre retailing is facing serious competition from e-commerce and external shopping malls, and dying city centres appear to have become a worldwide epidemic in the last decade. To retain visitors in the city centre is a prioritized issue and a current topic, for both retail and place branding research. In the present study the role of different elements of city centre retailing in the promotion of a city as a retail destination is explored by analysing photos published on Instagram by a Town Centre Management initiative. The following research question is answered: What role can the place play in city centre retailing? The study is inter-disciplinary, showing how retail attributes and place elements can reinforce each other and together offer opportunities for unique customer experience in a city centre, for the benefit of both retailing and the city brand. Three dominant visual themes of the place’s role in the marketing of a city centre are identified: the place as a frame, the place as a living room, and the place as a stage.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden

    Lisa Källström & Simon Persson

  2. Centre for Retail Research, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Lisa Källström

  3. Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jakob Westergren

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  1. Lisa Källström
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  2. Simon Persson
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  3. Jakob Westergren
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Correspondence to Lisa Källström.

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Källström, L., Persson, S. & Westergren, J. The role of place in city centre retailing. Place Brand Public Dipl 17, 36–49 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-019-00158-y

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