Shopping Centers Association of India (SCAI) today marked a new milestone for the Indian Retail and Shopping Centre industry. The apex body of Modern and Organised retail in India today announced the launch of the World’s First Consumer Centric ‘Trusted Shopping Centre’ mark certification for malls. This new certification mark was launched under the existing IRF Trusted Mark Certification scheme. The ‘Trusted Shopping Centre’ mark is a third-party certification on customer service metrics and benchmarks; audited by globally accredited certification bodies (CBs) and in India, NABCB (under Quality Council of India, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, (GoI) accredited CBs in accordance with ISO/IEC 17065.
The ‘Trusted Shopping Centre’ mark certification scheme incorporates additional ‘New Normal’ checklists for shopping centers and all retail formats, categories and channels. This third-party certification will assure compliance of safety & hygiene measures by retailers and shopping centres as recommended in SCAI and MoHFW guidelines and SOPs specifically developed by respective trade bodies for retailers across all formats, categories and channels; multiplexes, leisure & entertainment, salons, spas and gyms, restaurants & food courts among others.
Sushil Mohta, Chairman, SCAI East Chapter – who is also the Chairman of Merlin Group of Companies and Partner-Director, South City Group – said, “ The audit process will be independently assessed by an impartial third party, includes ensuring a periodical internal check, Mystery Audit by real customers trained for the purpose and physical audit of SOPs and implementations by a registered and global certification bodies, shall encourage retailers and shopping centres not only to adhere to the stringent standards but also motivate them to continuously improvise on benchmarking customer centric measures that are critical to assure a robust retail environment for customers. This will also help in gaining confidence of consumers and all stakeholders by ensuring them that the certified stores/centres follow global best practices and comply with all prescribed regulations and will strengthen the belief in the whole system of retail and shopping centre operations manifold towards customer centricity. This certification shall endeavour to facilitate trade, fair competition and consumer acceptance on a national, regional and international level.”
