Shopping centers built their dominance on a simple promise: bring together the best retailers under one roof, and shoppers will come. For decades, that promise held. Today, it is fracturing. E-commerce has absorbed much of the transactional shopping that once filled mall corridors, and the tenants that anchored those properties—large department stores and big-box chains—are closing at an accelerating pace. What remains is a sector at a crossroads, one that must either evolve or accept irrelevance.

The good news is that the path forward is becoming clearer. Across the industry, the most forward-thinking shopping center operators are discovering that experiential retail and destination-led entertainment are not just gap-fillers for empty units. They are the foundation of a new retail model, one built around human connection, physical activity, and community. This article addresses the questions shopping center operators and landlords are asking right now.

Why are shopping centers struggling to attract visitors today?

Shopping centers are struggling because the core reason people visited them—to buy products—has largely been replaced by online alternatives. When consumers can purchase almost anything from a screen in seconds, a trip to a physical mall requires a stronger justification. Without that justification, foot traffic declines, anchor tenants exit, and a downward spiral begins that is difficult to reverse.

The structural shift runs deeper than convenience. Consumer priorities have changed. Research consistently shows that people, particularly families and younger adults, place greater value on shared experiences than on material purchases. A Saturday afternoon is now more likely to be spent looking for something to do together rather than something to buy separately. Traditional shopping center formats were never designed with that motivation in mind.

The anchor tenant problem

For much of retail history, large department stores served as anchor tenants, drawing thousands of visitors who would then browse surrounding shops. As those anchors have closed, the footfall they generated has not been replaced by smaller retailers alone. The vacancy left behind is both physical and psychological. An empty unit signals decline, discouraging both visitors and prospective tenants from committing to a property.

The experience gap

Secondary malls and lifestyle centers are particularly exposed to this challenge. They lack the premium-brand pull of flagship destinations and the convenience of local retail. Without a compelling reason to visit, they occupy an uncomfortable middle ground. Filling that gap requires a fundamentally different type of tenant—one that generates repeat visits, extended dwell time, and genuine community attachment.

What does ‘beyond retail’ mean for modern shopping centers?

Going beyond retail means transforming a shopping center from a place where people come to buy things into a destination where people come to do things together. It means anchoring properties with tenants that offer experiences, activities, wellness, dining, and entertainment, creating reasons to visit that no online platform can replicate. The shift is not about abandoning retail but about building a richer ecosystem around it.

The most successful examples of this evolution share a common thread: they give visitors a reason to stay longer. When dwell time increases, spending across the entire property increases with it. Food and beverage operators, smaller retailers, and service providers all benefit when an experiential anchor draws families in and keeps them engaged for two, three, or even four hours at a stretch.

This is where the concept of the future-proof destination becomes more than a phrase. Properties that invest in experience-led tenants build a resilience that transactional retail simply cannot provide. A family that visits an indoor activity park on a Saturday morning is not there because an algorithm served them an advertisement. They are there because the experience itself is the product, and that experience cannot be delivered to their door.

At SuperPark, this philosophy shapes everything we build. Our parks are designed not as entertainment add-ons but as genuine community hubs—places where movement, play, and togetherness create the kind of loyalty that keeps families returning week after week. That repeat visitation is exactly what modern shopping centers need most.

How do activity parks help shopping centers increase foot traffic?

Indoor activity parks increase shopping center foot traffic by serving as high-frequency destination anchors. Unlike traditional retail, which a visitor may patronize only occasionally, a well-designed activity park draws families on a regular, recurring basis. Children want to return. Parents plan visits in advance. That predictable repeat visitation creates a consistent flow of people through the property that benefits every surrounding tenant.

The mechanics are straightforward. When a family spends two to three hours inside an activity park, they arrive hungry, they leave hungry, and they pass dozens of retail and service outlets along the way. Food and beverage sales rise. Impulse purchases increase. Neighboring tenants gain exposure to an audience that is already in a positive, engaged mindset, which is the ideal state for discretionary spending.

The multi-generational advantage

One of the most commercially significant aspects of activity parks is their ability to attract visitors across multiple generations simultaneously. A property that draws toddlers, teenagers, parents, and grandparents in a single visit serves a far broader audience than any single-category retailer could reach. This breadth of appeal makes the activity park a uniquely powerful traffic driver in a way that cinemas or arcades, which tend to skew toward specific age groups, cannot fully match.

Revitalizing vacant space

Activity parks are also well suited to occupying the large-format spaces left behind by departed anchor tenants. Formats ranging from roughly 1,500 to 3,500 square meters can be adapted to accommodate the full range of zones and activities that define the concept. What was once a liability—an oversized empty unit that deterred other tenants—becomes the property’s most compelling asset. SuperPark’s experience across 26 parks in 12 countries demonstrates that this transformation is not theoretical. It is repeatable and scalable.

What should shopping center operators look for in an experience tenant?

Shopping center operators should look for experience tenants that generate repeat visits, serve multiple age groups, require minimal ongoing operational support from the landlord, and have a proven track record across different markets. The strongest candidates are those whose business model is built around community engagement rather than one-time novelty, because novelty fades while genuine connection compounds over time.

Evaluating an experience tenant goes beyond reviewing the concept. Operators should examine the depth of the tenant’s operational support systems. A tenant that opens successfully but struggles to maintain quality will damage the property’s reputation alongside its own. The best experience partners arrive with comprehensive frameworks covering staff training, marketing, programming, and day-to-day operations, ensuring that the quality visitors experience on opening day is the quality they experience two years later.

• Repeat visitation potential: Does the concept give families a reason to return weekly or monthly, or is it a one-visit experience?
• Age range served: The broader the demographic appeal, the greater the traffic impact across the whole property.
• Space adaptability: Can the tenant occupy and activate large-format vacancies that are difficult to fill with conventional retailers?
• Operational maturity: Does the partner have a proven system for maintaining consistent quality across multiple locations?
• Brand positioning: Does the tenant’s identity elevate the property’s overall perception and attract new visitor segments?

From our perspective at SuperPark, the future of shopping center entertainment belongs to concepts that tie financial performance directly to human outcomes. Properties that thrive will be those that stop asking, “How do we fill this space?” and start asking, “How do we build a community here?” The distinction matters enormously, because a community keeps coming back, while a filled space may not. Operators who understand that difference are the ones building thriving destinations rather than managing declining ones.

Want to know more? Contact us and partner with SuperPark!