Disaggregating the travel components in shopping centre choice : An agenda for valuation practices

Transport mode attributes have often been neglected in the retailing and transportation literature in retail outlets choice studies. Most of the retailing and transportation literature has only adopted the traditional measures of deterrence, namely, travel time, distance and/or travel cost. Similar phenomena exist in real estate research, particularly in real estate market analysis and valuation. However, a few studies have shown that other attributes of the travel component, such as comfort, reliability of transport mode, etc., are significant in affecting shopping centres’ patronage. With the heightening of issues such as sustainable development and environmental pollution, many governments are gearing to provide greater choices and better quality public transport modes to shopping centres. Therefore, with more transport options, shoppers are likely to consider the characteristics of each transport option in greater detail in their choice of shopping centres. Therefore, in view of this widespread phenomenon, it is timely to provide greater understanding of the travel components in shopping trips. In the light of the above development, this paper aims to disaggregate the travel components in shopping centre choice. By way of principal component analysis, it presents the salient dimensions of transport attributes and shopping centre characteristics in shopping centre choice. Using the weighted factor rating, it found that, in addition to the shopping centre attributes, as well as the conventional measures of travel components, shoppers consider other travel factors in their choice of shopping centres. This in turn has implications on valuation practices.