Orchard Road Business Strategy

Orchard Road has long been Singapore’s premier retail and dining destination. We led a 10-member consortium to undertake a comprehensive business study of the challenges the destination faced.

As lead consultant, we brought together multi-disciplinary and international expertise to help inform the Singapore Government’s efforts to respond to a changing retail landscape and rejuvenate Orchard Road.

We shaped Orchard Road’s 15–20 year development blueprint by analysing its economic positioning, understanding customer profiles and needs and contextualising its urban conditions. 

Our approach involved:

• Evaluating Orchard Road’s economic performance, physical appeal and place management
• Benchmarking Orchard Road against other retail precincts worldwide
• Undertaking consumer research to understand locals’ changing relationship with Orchard Road
• Developing recommendations on land use, design, mobility and precinct management, and evaluating proposed strategies through cost-benefit analyses
• Undertaking workshops and multi-level engagements with private and public-sector stakeholders

Using this analysis, we developed three broad repositioning strategies to balance short and long-term approaches with different levels of intervention.

1. Creating a lifestyle destination through diverse uses
   Activating the side streets and ground plane, turning the strip’s linear profile into four vibrant sub-precincts for Arts & Culture, Core Retail, Youth & Subculture, and Family-Friendly Offerings.
2. Mobility improvements to connect Singapore Botanic Gardens and Fort Canning Park 
   Creating a stronger network of green connections from the Botanic Gardens through Orchard Road, Fort Canning and on to the Singapore River.
3. Placemaking and activation initiatives to create memorable places
   Working with the community and stakeholders, we developed high-quality placemaking and activation initiatives. Together, we focused on the breadth and quality of services, the street experience, events and activities that attract people from across the city and the scale and quality of family-friendly events and facilities.