The shopping malls have been classified by the International council of shopping centers. They have been classified into eight basic types. These include community center, neighborhood center, fashion center, specialty center, outlet center, superregional center, and a theme or festival center. When this list was published in 1999, it was made common for all countries. However, later this list was only meant specifically for the United States and then a separate list was published for the rest of Europe.

A neighborhood center

A neighborhood center is a small scale mall that serves a local neighborhood specifically. They mostly have a drugstore or a supermarket as an anchor. They are also commonly arranged in the format of a strip mall. These types of malls have a retail area of around 30,000 to 150,000 square feet. They also serve a primary area in a 3 mile radius.

A community hall

A community hall can be said to be larger than a neighborhood center. It also offers a very wide range of goods. They mostly feature two anchor stores that are extremely larger than that of a neighborhood center.

A regional center

A regional center is a type of a shopping mall that is designed in such a manner that it can serve a much larger area when compared to a conventional shopping mall. Thus it is capable of offering a much larger retail area and thus it can serve numerous customers at a single point of time.

Superregional center

This is a very large type of shopping center. It covers an area of over 800,000 square feet and this is a gross leasable area.

A fashion center

A fashion shopping center usually consists of upscale boutiques and apparel shops and these cater to customers who are rich or have access to a higher level of income. They also have a retail area that ranges between 80,000 to 250,000 square feet.

A power center

A power center is a very large shopping center that features a lot of big box retailers as anchors. They have a retail area that is in between 250,000 to 600,000 square feet and they also have a primary trade area of 5 to 10 miles.

Festival center

These types of shopping centers have a very distinct and unifying theme that is followed by individual shops and also their architecture. They are mostly located in the urban areas and cater to a large number of tourists.