Decoded: The Mall Visit

How often do people actually go to the mall? You can guess, assume or get the real answer from the Mall Effect Index. It checks this every year by asking hundreds of regular visitors across Romania’s biggest cities. The 2026 wave, based on 806 responses, found something worth sitting with: 54% go to the mall at least once a week. Not for a special occasion. Not when there’s a reason. Just weekly. That’s not foot traffic passing through. That’s a habit. And a habit is a very different opportunity than an occasion.

That kind of frequency doesn’t happen by accident. On average, people travel 9 km and give up nearly an hour to get there. Then they stay for another two and a half hours once they’re inside. Nobody ends up at a mall 9 km away by accident. That’s a trip that gets planned. Frequent, long, deliberate: those are not the features of an occasional destination. That’s a habit, with a shape to it.

The most digital generation is also the one most likely to want to hold something first.

How often and how long: that’s the frame. Why is what’s inside it. Let’s start with shopping. It’s the top answer for 88% of respondents. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is everything around it. People are staying for reasons that have nothing to do with buying anything. More go to grab a bite, 54% up from 48%. Cinema and socializing have grown too, 45% and 42% respectively, both up several points. All of it is what people do while they’re already there, or, more and more, why they came in the first place. Different reasons. Same walls to look at.

As it turns out, they aren’t just being looked at. 82% of people can say what was on them. It doesn’t stop at noticing; 64% say they bought something as a direct result, up from 60% the previous year. Almost two out of three people who’ve seen an ad in a mall acted on it. Not glanced at it. Acted on it.

Not every purchase happens on the spot. Some of it just starts there. 69% of people say they see or try a product in person before buying it online. The store isn’t a lost sale, it’s just step one. And it’s highest among the group you’d expect to skip it entirely: 81% of Gen Z do this. The most digital generation is also the one most likely to want to hold something first. Online didn’t replace the visit. It just moved to after it.

None of this is a theory about why indoor advertising works. It’s a description of what people already do.

Source: The Mall Effect Index 2026, Reveal Marketing Research for Generatik. 806 respondents, Romania’s largest cities, March 2026.