LONDON – The world’s largest mall owners are harnessing digital technology to stem an erosion in their tenant base by online retailing and to keep shoppers coming to their centers.

London-based Hammerson plans to use software that tracks visitors to its malls using the signal from their mobile phones. Australia’s Westfield Group has set up a virtual mall, and landlords Simon Property Group of Indianapolis and Unibail-Rodamco of Paris are encouraging shoppers to add new and more sophisticated smartphone applications.

“The big beasts of the jungle are showing that they are alive, ready and willing to embrace these trends,” said Joshua Bamfield, director of Newark, England-based Centre for Retail Research. For some town-center shopping streets and smaller retail centers, “it’s another nail in the coffin.”

Online shopping is helping retailers reach their customers with fewer stores, making them pickier about the amount of space they lease and where shops are located. Mall landlords, seeking to grow rental income and raise property values, are using technology to attract more visitors and track the habits and movements of shoppers to better meet the needs of their increasingly selective tenants.

New mobile technology won’t necessarily give big malls an insurmountable advantage, said Patrik Karrberg, a researcher at the London School of Economics’ Information Systems Innovation Group.

“These applications are pretty simple to create” and have allowed independent artists in music and entertainment to compete successfully using social media, he said. Similarly, independent retailers can drive sales by signing up to services like Groupon’s online coupon program.

The rise of web shopping means that going to a store will become a leisure activity or a quick visit for a last-minute purchase, Gerard Groener, chief executive officer of Corio, said in an interview. That’s pushing landlords to make malls more compelling or closer to transportation hubs, he said.

Corio, the Netherlands-based owner of 45 malls in six countries, plans to create a club membership with smartphone applications to compile a database of consumer spending that it may go on to sell as a service, Groener said in an interview.

Simon Property, the biggest U.S. shopping-mall owner, last year introduced the shopkick Inc. smartphone application that alerts visitors to promotions available from retailers. The application complements Simon’s mobile shopper club.

Westfield in November opened its online virtual mall serving Australia and New Zealand, offering shoppers a price comparison tool to search for goods and services carried by 130 retailers. The service provides a single checkout and links on social network sites for shoppers to give feedback on merchandise and service quality.

Westfield signed up online retailers that aren’t already its tenants.