The Dynamics of Visitation Patterns and Consumer Purchase Interest in Shopping Centers

The post-pandemic recovery of urban shopping centers has been markedly uneven, leaving many struggling to regain pre-crisis occupancy levels. This study addresses this pressing issue by investigating which commercial attraction factors most effectively drive visitation and purchase intention in Indonesia’s challenging recovery context. Beyond the traditional variables of convenience, tenant variety, internal environment, leisure mix, and promotion, this research introduces and validates staff professionalism as a critical, novel factor in the post-pandemic retail landscape. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire distributed to active visitors to shopping centers through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using SEM to test the proposed relationships. The findings reveal that tenant variety and staff professionalism are the primary drivers significantly increasing visit frequency, which in turn strongly boosts purchase intention. Interestingly, while promotion did not affect visitation, it had a direct and significant impact on purchase intention. Conversely, factors such as convenience, internal environment, and leisure mix had no significant effect on visit frequency in this setting. The primary scientific contribution of this work is the empirical confirmation of human-centric service quality as a key stimulus for recovery. This re-prioritization offers a targeted solution for reversing low occupancy in the post-pandemic era.