Westfield has launched an online Searchable Mall, replacing its three year old e-commerce site.

The Searchable Mall evolves Westfield’s digital strategy from an e-commerce site to an online destination, which helps shoppers find what they want in their local Westfield shopping centre and to purchase either instore or online.

“The Searchable Mall is the first of many global digital initiatives, enabled by Westfield Labs, which embraces the use of technology to better connect the digital shopper with our physical shopping malls,” said Steven Lowy, co-CEO of Westfield Group.

“After launching Westfield Labs in San Francisco in 2012, all Westfield markets – Australia, NZ, UK and USA – have been working on developing digital innovations that leverage technologies to create new physical retail experiences for the digital shopper.

“We are excited to release the first stage of our Searchable Mall in Australia in conjunction with our retail partners, who share the potential of the new westfield.com.au platform in influencing traffic and sales in-centre and online,” Lowy said.

The Searchable Mall’s first release includes more than 93,000 fashion and beauty products from Australian retailers such as David Jones, Country Road, Cue, Cotton On, Betts, Sass and Bide, General Pants, Glue, Katies, Supre, Diva, Pumpkin Patch, Jeanswest, Tarocash, Sportscraft, Alannah Hill, Oxford, Bras n Things, and David Lawrence among others.

Shoppers can find fashion and beauty products available at their local Westfield shopping centre as well as finding stores, opening hours, deals, events, and movie times across any screen.

While the platform helps inform shoppers from web to store, shoppers can also click out to retailer websites to purchase products online.

Westfield research of 6700 Australian adults that used the previous Westfield website as part of their shopping journey, found that those shoppers who browsed the website were more likely to visit their local Westfield, and spent significantly more than those who did not.

“The creation of Westfield’s Searchable Mall is an important digital innovation in connecting our retailers with our shoppers,” said John Batistich, Westfield marketing director.

“This is a step towards providing shoppers with a total retail experience, boosting their ability to seamlessly shop their way across any touchpoint anytime, anywhere.”

Further categories and upgraded functionality of the site will be rolled out in 2014.