5 Kinds of Businesses Able to Take Advantage of the Shifting Retail Mall Market

Malls are undergoing a transformation, as I noted on Small Business Trends last year—and that transformation is accelerating. As the way consumers shop changes, malls are losing the big department stores that were their traditional anchor tenants. While that’s bad news for mall owners, it can be good news for small business owners (and you don’t even have to be a retailer to take advantage of the trend. Here’s a quick overview of the current and future state of America’s malls and how small business owners can benefit from these changes. Empty retail space in malls is hurting communities, which lose jobs for residents, as well as income from retail sales tax. Of course, mall owners as well as city leaders want to fill these empty spaces. Here are 5 things the experts predict will fill vacant mall space, and ways both retail and non-retail businesses can take advantage of them.