Europe’s mega mall – Istanbul Cevahir

Located in Sisli, one of the most crowded areas of the city, Istanbul Cevahir has over 300 stores spread over six floors. The mall is opened year-round, from 10:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m. For New Year’s and other religious holidays, the timetable is extended to midnight.

Istanbul Cevahir was opened in October 2005, the costs of the project being around $250 million. Cevahirler Group developer sold the project in 2007 to buyout firm St. Marins for an estimated $750 million. The management of the mall has been outsourced to real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle.

Richard M. Davies (photo) director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s office in Turkey told Wall-Street what measures have been put in place to increase traffic of Istanbul Cevahir, one of the largest malls in Europe, as he prefers to refer to it, as many retail players use GLA (Gross Leasable Area) as a determinant metric to determine the largest malls. (e.n 110,000sqm).

“In order to combat the situation, we have established a strong marketing and promotions strategy to increase the shopper catchment area and to drive the spend of our visitors. This has been through special marketing events such as: Country Months- a whole month dedicated to a chosen country’s culture, music, food, trade and some other major aspects. We have had France, Italy and Sweden”.

Another event, “Traffic Week” was aimed at rewarding motorists who obeyed the traffic rules for one week. Around 10,000 posters were published by the police department and delivered to all schools, reserved more than 100 bus lines to advertise the event.

Additionally, Valentine’s Day is also celebrated at Istanbul Cevahir: three couples can win a trip to Paris to celebrate the event, lucky couples being selected from customers who spent over 50Turkish lira (around €23) in the center.

Another marketing solution consisted in a combination of retailer promotions, Davies continued, such as Samsung’s Basketball Show Event where celebrity basketball players participated.

“In addition, we also carefully monitor our expenditure budget and managed the overall costs particularly when items such as utilities have seen country wide increases. We maintain close relationships with our retailers and monitor their performance through individual discussion and a review of their turnover performance where this is provided,” said the director of Jones Lang LaSalle, Turkey.