Build a distinctive "first store +" ecosystem

When a commercial brand chooses a city to open its first store, it is a "vote of confidence" to the city's business environment, and it must take the initiative to serve the first store economy with a world-class business environment. It is necessary to focus on the quality upgrading of the business district, take the first store as the core, and build a multi-level, multi-dimensional and distinctive "first store +" ecosystem.

On July 8, 2023, Galeries Lafayette opened its first store in South China in Shum Yip Upper Town, with a total area of approximately 4,500 square meters and more than 80 brands, including international brands and designer brands.

Consumption is a key link and an important engine for smoothing the domestic cycle, and this year's government work report pointed out that it is necessary to promote the steady growth of consumption. In recent years, the number and quality of Shenzhen's first stores have reached new highs, and the economy of first stores has shown a growth trend, injecting a "booster" into consumption upgrading and expanding domestic demand.

The first-store economy refers to an economic form in which a region uses its unique resource advantages to attract domestic and foreign brands to open stores for the first time in the region, so that the brand value and regional resources can achieve the optimal fit, and thus have a positive impact on the economic development of the region. In recent years, a number of first stores with sufficient gold content, high popularity and strong driving force, such as Galeries Lafayette, MAISON 21G and Costco, have come one after another, igniting a new spark in Shenzhen's consumer market and injecting new momentum into Shenzhen's consumption upgrading.

The first-store economy can help boost the city's ability to innovate. The reason why the first store economy has become the "traffic password" of the city is that the internal driving force for the development of the first store is product and service innovation. On the one hand, the first-store economy has given rise to consumption innovation. In order to extend the brand life cycle, most first stores need to continuously develop new products and launch new experiences, and continuously upgrade quality and service to keep their brand image "fresh" for a long time. On the other hand, the first-store economy drives industrial innovation. The diversity of demand and the upgrading of structure in the process of consumption upgrading put forward higher requirements for innovation and production, and also provided a new direction for optimization. Driven by consumption upgrading and high-end demand, enterprises have formed new competitive advantages through technological innovation and further promoted the evolution of industrial innovation to the middle and high-end. In addition, by promoting consumption upgrading, the first-store economy will guide the transfer of talents, capital, technology and other resources from low-end industries to strategic emerging industries.

The first-store economy can help strengthen the city's leading power. On the one hand, the first-store economy is the vane that leads the upgrading of urban consumption, and where the first store of the brand opens, it will become the forefront of fashion. As the first-store economy strives to cover new brands, new products, new technologies, new content, and new retail channels, it provides consumers in the city with more diversified products, more segmented services and consumption experiences, and continuously leads the upgrading of urban consumption. In recent years, as more and more brands have opened their first stores in Shenzhen, brands in other cities have followed suit and upgraded their own stores, leading a wider range of consumption upgrades. On the other hand, the first-store economy is the driving force that leads the economic development of the city. Consumption, investment, and exports are known as the "troika" that drives economic growth. From the perspective of the supply side, the first-store economy has increased the supply of more diversified, high-quality and full-category consumption for the city, which will help improve the quality and expansion of consumption and lead the economic growth of the city.

The first-store economy helps shape a city's competitiveness. The development of the first-store economy meets the increasingly personalized and diversified consumption needs of the public, which can further tap the consumption potential and enhance the commercial charm of the city. It is not difficult to see that the burgeoning first-store economy is of great significance for reshaping the city's business landscape and competitiveness. From the perspective of the city, the first-store economy is an important embodiment of consumption upgrading, which can also enrich the city's retail format and show new commercial vitality, which is a manifestation of the city's competitiveness. From a commercial point of view, the first store with scarcity and its own traffic can form a demonstration effect and radiation effect, and perform well in stimulating and creating demand and stimulating new consumption momentum, becoming a "sharp weapon" to create differentiated competition. From the perspective of consumers, on the basis of continuing the brand tone and elements, the first store has created a new perception for consumers in terms of external vision, display and experience, which has greatly improved the level of consumer goods in the city, and is of great significance for attracting high-end consumers at home and abroad.

To develop the first-store economy, Shenzhen should start from the following aspects:

The first is to focus on the world's first store investment and create a "new product launch demonstration site". Relying on the advantages of "Made in Shenzhen" and "Shenzhen Service", we will strive to attract a number of first stores with high value-added service-oriented formats such as low-altitude economy, fashion consumption and digital consumption to the world, and actively introduce premiere, first competition and first exhibition activities; rely on the advantages of major exhibition platforms to build a new product release platform system to promote more world-renowned enterprises and well-known brands to come to Shenzhen for the first time of global new products; and promote the "global new product launch demonstration area + first store landmark carrier + online new product launch platform" Give full play to the advantages of Shenzhen's cross-border e-commerce and financial technology, encourage cooperation with e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Global, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Vipshop, and help a number of "digital first stores" to explore the opening of offline physical first stores.

The second is to promote the innovation of local brands and enhance the endogenous driving force of the first store economy. To achieve the development of the first store economy, we must not only actively introduce internationally renowned high-end brands and fashion brands, but also work hard to promote the innovation and development of local brands. It is necessary to support the innovative development and development of new products and new stores of local traditional brands, advantageous brands and characteristic brands by means of preferential policies, professional guidance and financial support, and encourage century-old stores and regional time-honored brands with local characteristics to carry out service model innovation such as factory-store integration and immersive experience; The integration of multiple business formats such as stadiums will help local niche brands and emerging brands expand their development space, and a local brand and local first store development fund will be set up to focus on subdivisions and emerging business formats such as arts and humanities, sports, digital economy, environmental protection, and health, so as to create a "new consumption" brand incubation base and strengthen the cultivation of local high-level leading brands.

The third is to focus on optimizing the business environment and cultivating the soil for the economic development of the first store. When a commercial brand chooses a city to open its first store, it is a "vote of confidence" to the city's business environment, and it must take the initiative to serve the first store economy with a world-class business environment. It is necessary to continuously improve the "online + offline" comprehensive service system for the first store of the brand and the first launch of new products, do a good job in the "pre-service" of the first store access and new product launch through cloud guidance and centralized counseling, and do a good job in "docking services" by actively providing license agency and "one-to-one" guidance, so as to "debut, debut, and first exhibition" for the first store and new products It is necessary to actively implement the policy of promoting consumption and expanding domestic demand, seize the new business model and new concept of consumption brought about by the first store economy, and introduce attractive demand policies in a timely manner to help the first store economy expand the development space; expand the "green channel" of financial services, and inject financial vitality into the sustainable and healthy development of the first store by helping financial institutions to connect and cooperate with the first store; The distinctive "first store +" ecosystem vigorously creates an atmosphere of global new product launches, new drama debuts, and new exhibitions, creates traffic topics, and amplifies the "magnetic attraction" effect of the core business district on the first store and brand.

[This article is the interim result of the 2021 General Project (XYYB202110) of the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (Guangdong School of Administration) and the Guangzhou Social Science Planning Co-construction Project (2020GZGJ272)]

[The author is an associate professor of the Decision Consulting Department of the Party School of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (Guangdong School of Administration), deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Situation and Strategic Studies, and a researcher at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Research Institute]

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