On the eve of the Spring Festival of the Year of the Tiger, Shanghai's "Wukang Road- Anfu Road" block was officially rated as a national-level tourism and leisure block. In this old neighborhood that combines architecture, humanities and history, there are many new consumer brands, which, together with the streetscape, constitute the hottest neighborhood tourism destination in Shanghai at present.
Wukang Building
These neighborhoods not only define the trend style in Shanghai to a certain extent, but also promote the rebirth of old neighborhoods. While causing noise on social media, this business model with an internet celebrity effect has also triggered discussions - when everyone is discussing the decline of offline retail, why can Shanghai's "Anfu Road" create a business scene of online and offline linkage?
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, the proportion of online retail will decline for the first time in 20 years, and at the same time, the "new retail" brand store opening fever in full swing will also appear in the "Hengfu Landscape Area".
Hengfu Historical and Cultural Landscape Zone is the abbreviation of Hengshan Road to Fuxing Road Historical and Cultural Landscape Area, which ranges from Huashan Road in the west to South Shaanxi Road in the east, Changle Road in the north, and Zhaojiabang Road in the south. The most famous of these "most poetic neighborhoods" is Anfu Road, a small road built in 1914 with no cafes or boutiques before the millennium, and fashion, art and urban life taking root in the magnetic field radiation circle of cultural landmarks after the opening of the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center in 2001.
Since 2017, after a number of sub-brands such as Klee Klee, in the PARK, and An Ko Rau under the Fauvist and Suran Group have been stationed here, even if they have not been to Shanghai, they must have seen the street scene in the sharing of The Little Red Book blogger.
in the PARK
After the outbreak of the new consumption wave in 2020, Anfu Road has successively ushered in HARMAY talk plum, more catch fish, three and a half tons, Cabana and other brands with an average "age" of less than five years old, as well as overseas brands with their own controversies and topics, many of which are the brand's offline first stores, "visiting stores", "punching cards", "posing resorts" have become the labels here, and the heat here can be glimpsed from the number of shared charging treasures at the door of the Brutalist.
HARMAY new store on Meanfu Road
Compared with the 1.0 version of "Chaoren Street" on Changle Road twenty years ago, the new brand stationed in Anfu Road has a stronger DTC logic, and for DTC brands that emphasize value attributes, offline store opening is a key step to improve the user experience. Taking HARMAY Mei as an example, the ace combination of industrial-style decoration and beauty shop + coffee + retail provides ready-made content and shooting materials for the "Little Red Book Girls", and then shares them online to achieve considerable commercial transformation.
It is not only Anfu Road that has become a "new retail" block, Huaihai Middle Road with a history of more than 120 years, but also ushered in the second spring of becoming a "trend source" in just one year after the TX Huaihai | Young Force Center "unboxed". Documents Wenxian, BOSIE, Niko and..., Solestage, Banana in Banana and other trendy lifestyle brands have opened physical stores in Huaihai Road, which will become a "training ground" for more new consumer brands in the future.
When we turn the stitch back to 2017, the "backstreet culture" that came to an abrupt end on Changle Road also received media attention: since 2012, this street known as "China's Liharajuku" has been withdrawn one after another. The reason for this is that the "big landlords" have successively closed stores and the thorny parking problem, the survival status quo of street brands is also in front of the managers - small shops originating from the streets have long relied on the cultural atmosphere and crowds of a certain neighborhood, and are not enough to support the rent of opening stores in shopping malls after withdrawal. And now in Anfu Road, Huaihai Middle Road "Settle Home" brand. The strength and pattern are far more than just "street shops".
Fumin Road
An Ko Rau, klee klee, in the PARK all belong to The ran, the company has a total of 13 brand physical stores, in addition to Anfu Road, also occupies BFC, Jiuguang Department Store, Henyep Taikoo Hui, Environmental Trade, Kerry Centre, etc.; Brutalist since its birth in 2011, from a flower shop to a full range of lifestyle benchmark brand, in 17 years to raise 100 million yuan; only three years after the establishment of the second-hand platform Duoyu has successfully raised three rounds, The last round of supporters is Tencent Group; in 2021, Bubble Mart spent tens of millions of yuan to invest in solestage, a tide brand store, with a valuation of nearly 200 million yuan; in the same year, Documents Wenxian announced that it had obtained tens of millions of yuan of angel round financing, which was funded by Zhonglin Capital.
Catch more fish shops
When these new domestic brands favored by capital open stores offline, they are also looking for scenes that can reflect the tonality of the brand. Compared with traditional shopping malls that emphasize the effect and functionality of the floor, the shops along the street emphasize personality sharing, which fills many needs that cannot be achieved online for Generation Z, who like to punch in and take photos. In fact, overseas, there is no shortage of "high-value" neighborhoods with new consumer brands and strong vitality. For example, SOHO in Manhattan, New York, has also stepped out of allbirds, Everlane, Warby Parker, Showfields, Lululemon, OAK NYC and other brands of growing size and strength. Nowadays, in Shanghai, with the Hengfu Style District as an important bearing area for Xuhui to launch the "Shanghai Shopping" brand and one of the demonstration areas of Shanghai International Consumer City, with the strong support of the state, Anfu Road or Huaihai Road, china's SOHO is bound to appear.
It is worth noting that whether it is Hengfu Landscape Area or Huaihai Middle Road, it is not a single commercial area, which also includes important residential areas. Falling sycamore leaves, small shops with a sense of age and old-fashioned buildings constitute Shanghai's unique cultural memory. How to balance between "fireworks" and "style" has also become a non-commercial test that must be passed by new retail brands as "new neighbors".
Anfu Road
The first offline store of Chinese designer brand Short Sentence is located in Anfu Road, adjacent to the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, hidden behind the tree shadow, combined with the surrounding artistic atmosphere, but also conveyed to consumers the brand's concept of life and art. The brand once set up an offline salon called "Short Sentence Project", with the theme of "living next to each other", inviting friends from anfu Road block to gather in the store to exchange and share. Hu Xiuzhi, architect of the Camo Architecture Project, Ruo Bing, project leader of Sandwich 555, and Lyla, planner of the short-sentence Anfu Community Project, represent the three perspectives of architectural design, neighborhood design and product design, respectively, telling the inextricable connection between the brand and Anfu Road.
Short Sentence's store on Anfu Road
Located in the golden area of Anfu Road, the buyer's shop In the PARK used to "do the east", selecting pet-friendly shops, restaurants, and coffee shops in the neighborhood to make a mobile map called "Walking", which includes Absolute Flower Shop, Fertile Island Art Store, RAC French Restaurant, etc. Fei Xiaotong once said that people compete for interests and cultivate a relationship of "counting the amount in person", but even in large cities full of liquidity and instantaneousness, there are places that do not only talk about "money is still exchanged".
Although Anfu Road is focused on the Drama Center and Yongle Joint Stock Park, it is largely composed of office buildings, residential quarters and creative studios, and the internationalization and education standards of the resident population ensure the high consumption capacity and creative output of Anfu Road. It is indeed a commercial street, but it is also a community with highly unified values; good content not only serves tourists, but also serves local residents; and the display of novel goods and shops is not only for bloggers to take pictures and absorb fans, but also for the aesthetic needs of a large number of urban youth.
The model of Shanghai's small roads can be copied, but the unique human touch of this area cannot be copied. The "street site selection" of new retail brands needs to be favorable at all times. WWD
Written by Di Huang
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