DAILY | HONG KONG EDITION Thursday, June 10, 2021 | 15 BUSINESSFOCUS Retail focus shifting to consumer engagement

Innovations that describe global brands’ premier presence in a region. With the mall offer intrigue help attracting domestic and foreign firms drive sales names like Senses Amuseum Van Gogh Art Coffee and Xiyouji’s con- cept shops, such a configuration is By HE WEI in likely to drive local economies [email protected] which can have a spillover regional effect, said Chun Meiling, K11’s sen- As online shopping has surged ior vice-president of operations. over the past few years, people have “Central China still has a lot of been questioning the fate of brick- space for improvement in intro- and-mortar retailers. ducing novel commercial content,” With the COVID-19 pandemic Chun said. “Wuhan’s GDP hovers adding insult to injury, whether around eighth or ninth place traditional stores are able to stay nationally, and the real economy afloat is an oft-asked question. from auto manufacturing to digital But early signs of renewal are and healthcare are rather solid. being noticed, with new physical That’s why we see an untapped stores popping up in larger cities consumption potential, and we and renovating themselves to need to grasp the mindsets of nota- adapt to changing shopping habits. bly the young generation of shop- Industry insiders believe that phys- pers.” ical retailers can make a comeback The debut economy concept also by charting entirely different manages to make a splash in courses. metropolises like Shanghai. In late Shui On Land, a leading property April, Japanese real estate giant developer that runs iconic Xintian- Mitsui Fudosan opened its first di commercial complexes in Shang- overseas LaLaport shopping com- hai and elsewhere, is orchestrating plex in the city, aiming to tap into a number of changes as it cele- consumer needs of upper and mid- brates its 20th anniversary this dle-income Chinese households. year in the country. One particular magnet is an Efforts include renovating its 18-meter-tall Freedom Gundam iconic mall on Shanghai’s down- robot located at the entrance. The town into a building move is to draw avid comic book that sets sustainability standards fans to the venue to purchase prod- by incorporating experiential ele- ucts related to anime characters. ments into mall design and attract- According to K11’s Chun, innova- ing a wide array of tenants to tions that offer intrigue, if not nec- become an overall one-stop solu- essarily inspiration, have a better tion for shoppers’ comprehensive chance of winning. Referencing the needs. Visitors take pictures at the 18-meter-tall Freedom Gundam robot light show in new area, Shanghai, on May 28. history and evolution of music box- According to Zhang Bin, execu- ZHANG HENGWEI / CHINA NEWS SERVICE es, the interior of Wuhan K11 Art tive director of Shui On Manage- Mall I is modeled on a gigantic, ment and China , artisanal music box. shopping centers and malls are The most iconic part of the main morphing into “consumer engage- entrance is the key and gear- ment spaces” and transforming Based on extensive shaped ceiling. The atrium adopts into mixed-use commercial offer- the shape of a pipe organ that runs ings to cater to a new generation of research, we see from the first floor to the top floor, shoppers. much more room with gear-shaped designs in gilded “The heart of renewed store forms weaving upwards toward the designs lies in addressing the inter- for growth in top of the escalator. secting needs of both the city and intraregional trade “We do want to play the art card the people. We see sustainability as by introducing more foreign art- the centerpiece of the puzzle,” inside China, ists’ works in China and incubating Zhang said. compared with some domestic artists to interna- While the concept of ESG — envi- tional markets,” Chun said. She ronmental, social and governance cross-border trade.” added that the regimen can play — is fast becoming the new darling Jin Keyu, a professor of out as the company has noticed a for both businesses and investors, economics at the London talent reflow from first-tier cities its definition and application may School of Economics like Beijing and Shanghai to differ in various industries. Zhang Wuhan, a certain proportion of said sustainability encompasses which even hold overseas degrees. everything from the very design of An increasing number of com- “Blending art and culture into the architecture and the layout of mercial developers are optimistic daily life would be a magnet for shopping complexes to the type of on the overall situation. In April, customers, providing new formats tenants it attracts. high-end lifestyle brand operator for people to discover and explore,” “For instance, if some buildings K11 Group opened K11 Art Mall in she said. are designed in a way to merely sat- Central China’s Wuhan as part of a The industry can have a robust isfy the trending aesthetics of the network of 40 sites planned across future provided it evolves and suc- day and grab the eyeballs of con- the country over the next five years. cessfully harnesses three change sumers, they are destined not to be A new K11 Select Mall also opened drivers: the human element; tech- long-lasting, because perhaps five in Tianjin in late May. nology and commercial considera- years from now, they may fall out of The Wuhan mall, which carries tions, according to consultancy A.T. fashion and favor,” he said. Chinese patrons and foreigners enjoy themselves at an outdoor dining area in Shanghai Xintiandi in nearly 30 international luxury Kearney’s report on the Future of XTD is also encouraging tenants March. Nontraditional attractions such as outdoor dining areas are being added to popular shopping labels, targets young and potential- Shopping Centers. to adopt sustainable approaches. areas in cities like Shanghai. WANG GANG / ASIA NEWS PHOTO ly freer-spending Chinese consum- “Where last century’s mall and In the case of catering merchants, ers through an “immersive shopping center tenants used tech- Zhang and his team are mobilizing cultural-retail” experience, said nology in purely logistical and more restaurants to include plant- XTD’s pledge to build several city transportation that can be bur- a solution to addressing imbalances Adrian Cheng, founder of K11 transactional ways, this century’s based menus as a way to bolster commercial communities, rather densome in major cities like in regional development, said Jin Group. entrepreneurs will leverage tech- green and circular lifestyles. than one gargantuan shopping Shanghai. Keyu, a professor of economics at “Wuhan K11 Art Mall marks nologies allowing them to interface The green recipe is music to the center, also fits into China’s master “The new era of retail real estate the London School of Economics. another milestone in the group’s and communicate with consumers ears of China’s growing Generation plan of crafting city clusters to will prosper by catering to a cus- “Based on extensive research, we efforts in establishing cultural-re- armed with their own shopping Z population, which brokerage achieve better socioeconomic syn- tomer base proud of its diversity, see much more room for growth in tail destinations across Greater technologies,” said Michael Brown, Guotai Junan Securities defines as ergies. less interested in owning things intraregional trade inside China, China, which is also … a business a partner at the consultancy. those born between 1995 and 2009. Zhang said nontraditional than having experiences and code- compared with cross-border trade. model that seamlessly integrates “When the retail mix is different, This consumer demographic attractions such as healthcare facil- veloping goods and services that Trimming transactional costs art and culture,” said Cheng in a people will have a reason to go to regards themselves as pioneers in ities and coworking spaces are they buy regularly,” Zhang added. between different cities and prov- news release. different places,” said XTD’s Zhang. environmental protection, and are being built into shopping spheres Such a philosophy, in a broader inces in China could quadruple One highlight of the mall is to “When each mall can be an ecosys- willing to pay a premium for adjacent to residential compounds, sense, fits into the lofty goal of the trade in terms of efficiency and feature the “debut store economy”, tem in itself, there would be less brands upholding similar ideals. thus eliminating the need for intra- dual-circulation pattern that can be growth,” Jin said. a term coined by Chinese to repetitive competition.” Freshippo using novel means to thrive in China

By HE WEI in Shanghai “Today’s China is seeing the tre- which is a summertime favorite nary experiences is driving sales of mendous rise of domestic fast-mov- among Chinese diners. imported food and snacks, accord- Freshippo, the omnichannel ing consumer goods, and we are “We really want to bring old- ing to Lu Xiao, Freshippo general supermarket chain of Alibaba working hard to ride this wave,” time memories to local diners, as merchandise deputy general man- Group Holding Ltd, is planning to Hou said. they get a bite of innovative dish- ager. This has propelled the intro- incubate 100 new food and beverage Freshippo said it will focus on es,” said Chen Meijun, Freshippo duction and co-creation of brands this year through an initia- innovation collaboration with four Shanghai’s manager for catering innovative products like Russian tive called “Freshippo Xccelerator”. types of brands: its existing key and “3R”, which stands for the com- biscuits and chili sauce from Leveraging the company’s propri- account brands, highflying con- pany’s pledge to offer “Ready to Rwanda. etary customer insights derived sumer brands with a critical mass cook, Ready to heat and Ready to Between 2020 and 2025, total from consumption big data as shop- of avid online followers, catering eat” products. spending on supermarket prod- pers purchase from its mobile app enterprises and time-honored Teaming up with local brewery ucts in China is projected to grow and 300 physical stores nationwide, local brands. Shanghai Jinfeng Wine, Freshippo to 12 trillion yuan ($1.88 trillion) the company aims to help mer- Hou said it aims to incubate 100 is also using rice liquor as an ingre- from 9 trillion yuan, said IDG chants create and customize offer- such brands per year, and “cooper- dient to produce chocolate cakes, Capital. ings that have a high propensity to ation on the capital front is also honey cakes and a traditional Chi- Among these supermarkets, “go viral”, according to Hou Yi, presi- likely”, though he did not elabo- nese pastry. e-commerce penetration is likely Consumers shop at a Freshippo outlet in Putuo district, Shanghai, dent of Freshippo. rate. Other successful cases include to surge from 17 percent in 2020 to on March 13. FAN JIANLEI / FOR CHINA DAILY It is utilizing zero kickoff capital Freshippo is adept at coining the blend of a traditional sticky around 50 percent in five years, and no fee collaboration, and offers crossover collaboration and mak- rice pastry with internet celebrity giving an extra edge for those offer- free marketing resources to pro- ing novel offerings a splash in the milk tea brand Heytea, which ing seamless online-to-offline tiated, experience-driven products, contrary, those with homogenized mote emerging brands, Hou said at digital sphere. Just last month, the quickly became a sought-after item experiences, said Sun Yuhan, man- and with clear target audience pro- product portfolios occupying mas- a news conference in Shanghai in company came up with an iced, since it debuted. aging director of IDG Capital. files in their minds, will gain a sive spaces are likely to lose their late May. yellow rice wine-flavored crawfish, Customers’ desire for novel culi- “Marketplaces offering differen- strong foothold,” Sun said. “On the allure.”