South African shopping centres face challenges as some big tenants seek to reduce outlets or shut brick-and-mortar operations.
This week's decision by Standard Bank to shut 91 branches, which will affect 1,200 jobs, is a growing trend.
Edcon, the owner of Edgars, the largest fashion retailer in the country, is reducing its number of stores.
Keillen Ndlovu, head of listed property at Stanlib, said furniture retailers, which once took up a big part of malls, were also shrinking their space.
Banks' spatial reduction and closure of branches are more likely to have a negative effect on secondary retail centres in urban or metropolitan areas, said Ndlovu, while rural and township malls were less vulnerable.
"Though banks do not feature as the top tenants, landlords will have to find innovative ways to let the space vacated by them [banks] and some of the retailers such as Edcon," he said.
Ndlovu said retailers were going for smaller and more productive stores to reduce costs.
"Retailers will continue to retain stores in flagship centres, which are more like destinations, and provide a full range of products. Our challenge in SA is that we have too much retail space."
Shopping centres worldwide are going through a transition. A Global Property CEO conference in the US this month released data from a survey that showed 39% of people who visited a mall went to be entertained, 24% to shop, 15% to eat and 14% to pick up or return goods, while 8% said malls would not exist in 10 years.
Changes in banking are forcing traditional banks to rethink business. As banks migrate to online, owners of South African malls are left under immense pressure.
A banking analyst said the move by Standard Bank was less about the bank and more about clients' preference to interact with the bank or transact.
Standard Bank last week reported a volume increase of 26% in its digital transactions in its full year. Its mobile app users surged 30%.
In-person interactions have dropped by 13% in the period.
Ten years ago, the FirstRand-owned FNB reported that 70% of its transactions were done in branches. Today 71% of transactions are digital...