The likes of telephones and kiddie cars are widely accepted means of generating mall revenue, but many other tools are now available, while some are being largely improved.

Despite being around for some time, gift cards are still not widely acknowledged within the shopping centre industry and many shopping centres, according to Alphyra's associate director of gift services Sally Hunter, don't realise they provide an opportunity to make money as well.

Gift cards are usually available at customer service desks and allow consumers to purchase a specific amount that can be redeemed in any store within the centre. Any money left goes back to the centre, which is also able to charge a £2 fee for purchase of the card in addition to the card's value.

"It is straightforward for the shopping centre to implement," says Hunter. "We can fit them up with a terminal and a Mastercard banking platform so any retailer that can accept Mastercard can accept this card. Shopping centres are keen on the concept because some already have paper vouchers but with a plastic card they can generate revenue."

Alphyra, which has recently done a deal with leading outlet mall operator Value Retail Group, is the first company to offer a pan-European card. This means that someone who purchases a gift card at Bicester Village can redeem it at any Value Retail centre in Europe. Similarly, mall owners can market their gift cards so they can be redeemed at just one or all of their malls. "We help owners to market the cards to match their key drivers," says Hunter.

Store Financial's commercial director Stuart Green was first to introduce the idea of gift cards into Europe while he was head of commercialisation for the Birmingham Alliance, introducing gift cards into Bullring and Buchanan Galleries.

"Hammerson felt the model was a touch aggressive to provide a really good customer service," says Green. "I did research in USA and in Canada and Store Financial commands the Canadian market."

With a wish to expand into the UK market Green brought the concept to the UK in October 2006, but with an understanding of the shopping centre perspective, provided a much better customer service. "We now have the entire McArthurGlen portfolio, thecentre:mk and a pilot scheme in County Mall, Crawley," he says. "Our whole point is we don't take money out at the front end. Some malls charge £2 - that wasn't going to work with every mall but it gives them the choice whether to charge and provide a revenue stream or not to charge."

Like other gift-card systems, the centre and Store Financial make their income by sharing any money left on the card after its expiration 50/50.

As an added bonus for the gift card service provided by Store Financial, Green says the company collects names and addresses of everyone who purchases a card and can then determine where they are spending.

"We are not looking to make money until three years down the line," says Green, "so it is in our interest that the mall and their customers are as happy as possible, and that works really well.

"We can take this data and see who the people are that are spending, where they are spending and then communicate with them on a much greater level, like Tesco does."

Another popular way for shopping centres to generate revenue is through the introduction of a car valet service in the car park. Motorclean works on a revenue share basis with shopping centres, such as Bluewater in Kent, where Motorclean pays a basic rent for its bays and the centre takes a commission from each instance of a service being sold.

"The arrangement provides such an excellent revenue stream for Bluewater that the number of bays was recently doubled to 60," says MotorClean director John Hammond. In the final week of October, Motorclean will launch a new concession at Meadowhall in Sheffield. It has established a similar relationship with Meadowhall and will be taking 43 bays to start.

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