Bricks still click.
 
Although challenged by the e-commerce boom, brick-and-mortar companies continue to strive since, for decades, they have been part of the lives of millions of Filipinos.
 
Proof of this are the malls.
 
SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy highlighted key qualities such as strength, durability, value, and sustainability as reasons why brick-and-mortar businesses, particularly shopping malls, remain to be relevant in the digital age.
 
“Our malls are indeed called cities, places where families and friends gather together to eat out, have fun, and even do their business transactions, and hear Sunday mass,” Sy said during the recently concluded SM Partners Summit in Pasay City.
 
Consumer tastes have changed along with the advancement of technology, but so to have malls, he said. This is through efficient relationships between mall owners and brand leaders, he said.
 
“Together (SM and its partners) have changed the Filipino lifestyle forever,” he said, as he honored SM’s partner-brands that have been there since the establishment of its first mall in North EDSA in 1985.
 
Sy also announced SM’s plan to open six more malls in 2016 and develop four to five new malls each year thereafter to achieve its long-term goal of building a total of 100 malls across the Philippines.
 
Just last October, it opened its 55th mall in the country—SM Center Sangandaan in Caloocan City—while reinforcing further its spot as the largest local shopping retail operator with a total retail footprint of 6.82 million square meters.
 
To celebrate how malls have withstood the test of time, the retail forum discussed how the industry can persist in championing retail by bridging the gap between “bricks” and “clicks”—those with physical infrastructure versus online