Commercial spaces in Development Process:Comparative review of customer experiences of buying from megamalls or local shops

Today, commercial spaces are part of urban spaces that, in addition to economic functions, have been considered by theorists as a forum for meeting and dialogue consistent with the goals of human-oriented cities. In this paper, the role of these spaces in the process of urban development has been examined and a comparative assessment of customer experiences of buying from megamalls, as one of the features of development, and local shops has been carried out.The statistical sample of the present study is 416 people selected from three commercial complexes located in Tehran and local shops within a 500-m radius of these shopping malls. The three megamalls and commercial complexes under consideration are: Palladium Complex in District 1, Ekbatan Megamall in District 5 and Kian Complex in District 17. Also, the respondents were selected through systematic sampling, taking into account their age and sex. The respondents were interviews for gathering research information.The results of independent t-test showed that customers of megamalls and commercial complexes with an mean of 14.4 more than those of local shops with an mean of 12.6, found their referrals to be suitable for their communication network. There is also a significant relationship between the rate of referrals to megamalls with the correlation coefficient of 0.251 with megamalls as a network generator. On the other hand, sellers' trust in megamalls and commercial complexes with a mean of 2.85 is higher than that of local shops with a mean of 1.45.