Meadowhall gets Eid sales boost, fashion stores benefit

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 27, 2018

The giant Meadowhall mall in Sheffield said Wednesday that it saw its “most successful” Eid al-Fitr marketing campaign to date, with sales and footfall during the Eid weekend up by 8% and 4.9% respectively, the former the strongest year-on-year growth of 2018.

In a world where footfall numbers have been challenging in recent periods, it's encouraging that's the sales uplift outstripped the footfall rise, showing that those consumers who are going into physical stores are spending more per head when they do so.

During the Eid weekend, a number of Meadowhall’s fashion retailers saw sales increases in excess of 25% as people bought gifts for loved ones to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The mall’s operator, British Land, said that Flannels, Diesel, Tessuti, Hugo Boss, Brother2Brother, River Island and House of Fraser were all particularly strong performers during the Eid celebrations at Meadowhall.

It also said the improvement was driven by “a combination of extensive collaboration with retailers, increased marketing investment, and the positive impact of Meadowhall’s £60 million transformation, which has created a lighter and brighter centre with an even more compelling line-up of brands.”

That's hard to argue with given that the refurbishment saw almost 80 retailers spending more than £46 million to create new or upsized stores at Meadowhall, with 28 new additions alone totalling over 80,000 sq ft of space.

Meadowhall’s Eid celebrations ran over three days “as part of British Land’s strategy of delivering tailored events to attract visitors from across the region.”  

Experiences such as henna artists and a series of hidden envelopes containing gift cards to be found by the public were added inducements.

And the property giant also promoted its Eid focus on social media. Travel, halal-friendly food and lifestyle blogger Asma Younus (jetsetchick.com) shared her experience of shopping and dining on social media throughout the day that she was there. The social media activity reached more than 31,000 people, creating significant engagement across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Other successful events at Meadowhall in the last 12 months have included Ladies’ Night and Student Night, which delivered 49% and 16% increases in sales respectively versus the same events in 2016.