The full name of MALL is SHOPPINGMALL, which is generally transliterated as "Moore" or "Shangpinmao" in China. It means a super large shopping mall and is an emerging composite commercial format. Western countries also call it SHOPPINGCENTER, which means "shopping center". As an emerging business form, SHOPPINGMALL has been popular in developed countries such as Europe and the United States since the 1950s. It has now become the mainstream retail format in European and American countries, with sales accounting for about half of their total social consumer goods. In recent years, MALL has begun to sweep across China, quickly spreading to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places.
SHOPPINGMALL is a "one-stop" consumption place integrating shopping, dining, accommodation, leisure, entertainment and sightseeing. In the United States, MALL has accounted for more than 50% of the country's retail sales, and its turnover reached US$1 trillion in 2000 alone.