The examination ofsales density of stores in shopping malls by space syntax method

Today, many shopping centers cannot sustain their existence because of their functional inadequacies. Due to the fact that shopping centers fail to respond adequately to users' needs, and businesses in the shopping centers fail to reach their target profits and their closure decisions, the life expectancy of shopping centers is shortened. The purpose of this study is to investigate the source of consumer movements in the shopping centers. In this study, it was discussed whether consumer route in the shopping centers depends on the strength or plan's configuration of store brands. The investigation of the consumer preferences towards store brands will shed light on layout plan and space design of shopping centers. The space syntax method, which is a kind of spatial reading, is the leading one of the methods used in this study. The space syntax method is used to associate with the morphological properties of the space and the user's social experience. Primarily, the points that are expected to be high in the value of integration in the shopping center and are often referred to as knot points are determined. These points are analyzed by space syntax method in a mathematical analysis. The obtained data is compared with observational data and data of the strength of store brands and information about the design of the stores at the points of analysis are obtained. The observation method is used to determine the concentration of consumers in the shopping center. The consumers who prefer these points are counted by instantaneous snapshots in the places which are determined in the layout plan of the shopping center. Finally, brand rating is carried out in order to determine store's attractiveness. Thanks to this method, the stores in the shopping center which were chosen as the fieldwork are rated by utilizing the brand strength reports published by international companies. The main reason for the use of observational data is that observation of pedestrian movements can give clues as to how spatial configuration leads the consumer. The spatial syntax is a method which has a mathematical substructure that is used to achieve these clues. In the beginning, the shopping centers have been discussed several times due to this method. Ahmet Verdil's master's thesis, "Transformation of Space-Behavior Relation: Dissertation of Shopping Centers Using the Method of Space Syntax", examined the relationship between user movement and space towards shopping malls. Ervin Garip analyzed the relationship between layout plan in shopping centers and marketing strategy of consumer behavior in his doctoral thesis entitled "Examining Consumers' Spatial Behavior in Retail Stores in the Framework of Space Syntax". In the article, "Spatial Factors Affecting Wayfinding And Orientation A Case Study in a Shopping Mall" by Ufuk Doğu and Feyzan Erkip, published in Environment and Behaviour Journal, spatial configuration of the navigation behaviors of users in shopping centers, visual accessibility and how circulation systems and signs are affected were examined through the Ankara Karum Shopping Center which has a very diverse user population. In her master's thesis, Medine Marina Temel aimed to analyze wayfinding orientation towards user groups by using two different examples of shopping center. In the first part of the study, the aim and method of the study is explained. In the second part, the perceptual and cognitive processes of the individuals are elaborated, and theories of perception are mentioned. The issues of wayfinding and orientation that are important for consumers in shopping centers are explained. The consumer behaviors are classified as separate title to which shopping depends. In the third part, it is examined how the shopping centers have changed throughout the history depending on the social, economic and political situation of the society. When studies done on the historical process are examined, it can be seen that the transformation of shopping places is affected by the Industrial Revolution to a great extent. The final point in the transformation of shopping places is the shopping centers that are in the effort to satisfy people in every sense in the 21st century. The social and economic needs before the industrialization have changed with this revolution, and the reflection of this change on shopping and meeting places can be clearly read towards layout plan, structure and material changes. When increasing population density in cities, and hand-over and changes in the pattern of production with industrialization are considered, changes on trade will also be inevitable. Accordingly, product marketing tactics will not only depend on the quality of the product and it is expected that shopping places will be developed from an architectural perspective so that products can be sold better. The concepts of "agora" and "forum" which are mentioned in Roman and Greek civilizations, the first great civilizations in history, refer the center of the cities and people would meet their shopping needs around here. People who trade before the Industrial Revolution used trade routes, such as the Silk Route and the Spice Trade, to sell their products. The caravansaries and inns built on these trade routes were used for accommodation purposes and they also had shops in them. When the Ottoman Period in the medieval period was examined, it is obvious that trade began with inns and continued with Arasta, Bedesten and covered bazaars. The Arasta Bazaar was the structures that began to be built in the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. The Bedesten was started to be built from the end of the Seljuk period. Bazaars are covered or open shopping structures where built-in commerce was made, and its streets are usually divided according to range of the products. The bazaars began to form around the Bedesten which had the core duty. In addition, this section discusses how shopping centers should be designed. Site selection and location, transportation and accessibility, demographic factors, spatial readability and planning, and architecture and management are the topics that are respectively examined in this section. If the planning of the shopping center is simple and clear for the user, the user will not have difficulty in spatial reading and will feel more comfortable. Therefore, the increase in time spent in shopping centers will increase the sales. The fourth section is the section in which the fieldwork is described. In this section, the research methodology is discussed. The purpose of the study is explained and information about the shopping center which is selected for the purpose of fieldwork is provided. As mentioned in the previous sections, the variation of users' actions in the shopping areas depending on the store's attractiveness and the synthetic characteristics of the space are examined through the fieldwork. Shopping is based on trademark values, consumer intensity and plan's configuration. In the fieldwork section, the data obtained as a result of the relation of these three subjects, to which shopping is connected, is used to determine the attractiveness store's attractiveness in the shopping center, the influence of the layout plan and the user density on each other. Three analytical methods are used when the fieldwork is being done. These analyzes are syntactic analysis, the analysis of user density and the analysis of store's attractiveness. In the observation analysis at the shopping center, the number of consumers detected at the point of analysis is equivalent to mathematical data of user density. The trademark values of the stores are determined based on the evaluation reports of international and national brands. The syntactic values of the points taken into account are also used as mathematical data. The point of analysis are determined based on the points of decision to help wayfinding decisions which have been examined under the title 'The Determination of Wayfinding and Orientation in the Shopping Centers', in the second part of the thesis. The points of decision in the shopping centers are the routing points for the store area that the consumer wants to reach. Shopping centers are social and commercial structures that have many activities in their structures. They are also complex buildings where people come together or meet daily life's needs. In the fieldwork, consumer movements are mainly examined. The strong relationship between spatial configuration and spatial perception reveals that the space is more understandable. The spatial configuration of the shopping center is one of the most effective factors that may influence consumer's decision for wayfinding and route preferences. The most important factor that the managers of the shopping center take into consideration is to lead the consumer in the space as desired and keep the consumer in the space as long as possible. Space planner should use spatial configuration in the most efficient way in order to adopt the principals that managers demand from planner. The Spatial Syntax Method is the method that can be used to analyze the operation of the designed layout plan as targeted. The observations were made at the point of analysis determined in the plan of shopping center. Thanks to observation analysis, the number of consumers walking through these points of decision has been determined. Only one-way transitions of consumers were taken into consideration and the number of returns was uncounted. The period of 5-minute observation is determined by the longest time spent in-store visit and in the window display at the front of the store. The rating system which is used in the brand evaluation has been established by taking into consideration the reports in recent years which are prepared by brand rating agencies, such as Brand Finance, for international and domestic brands. The brand rating can vary from 10 to 100 points. Relations were established in order to examine the relationship of analysis data to each other. A model as a kind of abstraction of the relationships between integration, perspective, connectivity and isovist, and brand rating and the number of consumers at the points of analysis was established in the section of 'Relations'. The data obtained from the analyses was performed by a simple linear regression analysis in SPSS Software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). The statistical comparison results were evaluated under the titles such as "The Relation between Syntax and User Density", "The Relation between Syntax and Store's Attractiveness" and "The Relation between User Density and Store's Attractiveness". In the section of "Results", a diagram of the obtained statistical results was created and the results were generally interpreted. The relationship between user density and store attraction and the shopping center's syntactic characteristics was considered as a result of the store sales design.