Nest bottom up, still few un-broken eggs survive.

2017-6-21

Nowadays, for the impact of the Internet on the real retail economy, Shanghai, as an international metropolis, can feel the convenience of the Internet first. There is no doubt that mobile payment, shared bikes and shopping online are very convenient to people’s life. We don’t need to take too much cash out with mobile payment, we can ride shared bikes everywhere, we can buy the nice clothes or the delicious food you want to eat at home and those goods will be delivery today or the next day. But do we ever think the side-effects after these conveniences?

It’s easy to find that in recent years, shops began to adjust the brands in many shopping malls. Even the shops that have been open for many years are closed overnight. In the evening, walk along the Huaihai commercial street in Shanghai you will find that the original brilliantly would be non-existent. Just leaving the dark and the only highlight: street lights.

I’ve made a marketing research on east Nanjing Road in April 25, 2017. The objects of the inspection include HongYi Plaza, Mosaic-mall, Shanghai World Trade International Plaza, Shanghai NO.1 Department Store, New World Department Store and Henderson Metropolitan these 6 shopping malls. Without exception, the mall vacancy rates are serious in these 6 malls. (The vacancy rates hover at 80%. (You can see this in figure 1). Although these malls located in the downtown, the business was not thriving. Except Mosaic-mall was adjusted, decorated or not, the vacancy rates of the rest these 6 malls are 10%. A store has been operating for more than 5 years and located in the most affluent street, East Nanjing Road still with 10% vacancy rate is not common.)

( Figure 1 was a map of the 4^th level in Mosaic-mall. There’s only 1 fast fashion brand H&M in it. The photo was took at 10:24 in the morning in April 25,2017. )

Though the above can be found, the impact of the overall economic form, or the impact of the Internet on the retail are all not optimistic. But there’s a retail store that located in the Zhonghua Road, Huangpu District is unaffected. They still did excellent business under the Internet era.

Louis discovered this place by accident, and had a quick glance with me in June 21, 2017. The market is divided into 2 layers. The first floor mainly sells hardware and small appliances (Figure 2), beside first floor is farmers market. They are separated only by a wall (Figure 3). The second flood mainly sells second-hand electrical appliances and clothing and shoes (Figure 4). There is no empty shop in the market. Customer groups are mainly middle-aged and the elderly.

( Figure 2 shows the market view inside. )

( Figure 3 was the farmers market next to the first floor. )

( Figure 4 was the shoes market in the second floor. )

The whole shopping environment can’t be equated with the shopping malls’. Old decoration (Figure 5), the ground is dirty and messy and the products are messy too. Tradesmen just played their mobile phone aside casually.

( Figure 5 was the old stairs. It’s can’t be compared with the vertical elevators and the escalators in shopping malls. )

I think there are 4 reasons that can be existed:

1. Different consumer groups

Compared with the middle-high level shopping malls, more than 90% of the consumers in this market are the middle-aged and the elderly. They have more time and money than the young people.

2. Different consumer attitudes

As consumers for the elderly, regardless of vision, computer skills, and all the current mainstream internet concepts, they are “neglected and eliminated” crowd. They don’t used to shop online, they incline to shop in the market and shop comparison shop.

3. Different goods

Although the products in this market are low-cost, such as cheap hardware, clothes and shoes, the consumer groups are the middle-aged and the elderly, they would not pay for the high price products, they prefer to the affordable one.

4. Historical reasons

After the rapid rise of China’s economy, a large number of middle-high shopping malls have sprung up. But before this situation, the retail stores in China are dirty and messy, full of bargain voices. The consumer groups are used to be this, and as times go on, their consumption habits, consumption concepts haven’t been changed.

In today's rapid Internet economic development of China, how to minimize the retail owners' loss not felled by the Internet. I think this problem is not only a retail owner need to think, as a mainstream company of all kinds of Internet, new technologies or the pushers, have you ever realized that one water live one people? Have you realized that the most difficult thing for people to change is habit? Have you paid attention to the impact of world's changing on the elderly's old life form, they haven't caught up your steps. (Because it's difficult for them to overtake your steps. You are too fast, and sometimes even I, the generation after 90s, don't understand the "high-tech").  Instead, they have chosen the simplest form of trade since the formation of human society: seeing is believing, paying by hand and delivering by hand. China is stepping into the aging society, although this huge consumer groups can't get attracted to some online shops, but when you invest in various kinds of "big medical treatment, big healthy" project, you can stand in the elderly's shoes and give them the specific service for the society. I think this is the correct way to take care of the elderly rather than building 1,000 nursing homes. (Louis revised this text for me from beginning to the end (including this note), including the partial pictures, error correction, photoshop, typesetting, punctuation and phraseology, etc. Because in addition to all kinds of small mistakes, failures and carelessness, low efficiency, my article at the end of thesis is: we should protect our personal privacy. This do not correspond with the above investigation completely. 

Thanks for Louis’s dressing.

 

Journalist / Translator: Sara