By Yen Feng

AT ZIMPLE, a fashion retail shop at Far East Plaza, sales assistant Shalene Peh is busy talking a customer out of buying a hot pink, knee-length dress.

'This makes you look a bit dao,' she tells her teen charge, who was already looking a bit unfriendly wearing her sunglasses indoors.

'Why not try the black, with a high-waisted belt. Will make you look slimmer.'

Ten minutes later, she made the sale.

'Selling clothes isn't about selling clothes,' the 20-year-old said later. 'Young buyers are shopping for opinions. What they want is someone their age telling them what looks good.'

With her long, blonde hair extensions and blue contact lenses, Ms Peh may be the answer to how malls can fight back the increasing popularity of Internet shopping among Net-savvy Gen Y-ers.

These days, blog shops and online shopping 'sprees' are all the rage, but teens are not clicking just for the discounts that come with Internet buys.

Most online shops are social networks that let shoppers share and post opinions on what's hot at the moment.

Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar malls, these Web shops provide the

'authenticity of experience' by convincing shoppers that the clothes they purchase online will allow them to fit in where it matters most - with their friends, according to a report by the Pew Internet & Life Project, an American research centre, last year.

At blog shops run by youth, teen models wearing posted sale items draw hundreds of requests within hours.

Meanwhile, at Spree2shop.com, a local directory of blog shops, users can recommend popular looks as well as give tips on how to pair accessories.

Malls aiming to attract the teen dollar, such as Far East Plaza, The Heeren and the upcoming *scape, can learn from such Internet shopping behaviour.

After all, malls are the physical equivalent of teen social networks.

After school and over weekends, thousands of young people gather at malls to study, trade gossip, and discuss what's in and what's out.

They shop, too, of course, and sales assistants like Ms Peh can do a lot to convince browsers to pick up something from the rack and take it home.

To young shoppers on a limited budget, personalised service does not have to be a luxury good.

And they should not have to look for it online.

By installing someone young, trendy and personable as service staff, shops can offer the same kind of personal advice that online social networks are good for, with little effort.

Retailers only need to realise this to translate some of the wide profit margins rent-free, virtual shops can command back to in-store sales.

In the long run, this may be just the ticket to raise standards of retail service in Singapore.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Dec 22, 2008.