Reporter | Deng Yiyun, Xu Tao
Edit | Chen Rui
Photography / Liang Yingfei, Xiong San
In Christmas 2023, a small road that does not belong to Shanghai's core bustling business district and does not have big-name stores is becoming popular, appearing on almost every "Shanghai holiday must-visit list". The recommended section of "Yuyuan Road" is less than 1,000 meters long, but there is a Christmas check-in point every few steps, and every ten meters you can meet a Santa Claus who is climbing the wall or climbing the window. According to follow-up statistics, the flow of people on Yuyuan Road reached 300,000 on Christmas Day. YU QING, THE MANAGER OF THE FRENCH COFFEE ROASTERY CHATTERIE LOCATED IN LANE 1341 OF YUYUAN ROAD, RECALLED THAT THE CROWD QUEUING UP TO CONSUME MADE TWO CIRCLES OUTSIDE THE STORE THAT DAY.
This kind of excitement seems to give Yuyuan Road a happy ending to 2023. Over the past year, the street has been increasingly featured in discussions on social networks, with hipsters shopping, brands doing events, and travelers checking in...... In Shanghai, in addition to the Jufu Long Block and Anfu Road-Wukang Road, which have been popular for many years, Yuyuan Road has gradually gained a sense of existence.
With a history of more than 100 years, Yuyuan Road runs through the two administrative districts of Jing'an and Changning in the center of the city, starting from Jing'an Temple in the east and Zhongshan Park in the west, with a total length of 2,775 meters, and is one of the 64 roads that will never be widened by Shanghai officials in 2007. Yuyuan Road, which has now become an Internet celebrity block, usually refers to a section of about 834 meters long between Jiangsu Road and Dingxi Road within the jurisdiction of Changning District. Since 2015, the Changning District Government has introduced the private enterprise Chuangyi Industrial Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chuangyi") to start the urban renewal of Yuyuan Road in the form of government guidance, state-owned participation and enterprise operation, and gradually shaped this section of the road into a commercial block with dense distribution of young businesses such as cafes, bakeries, jewelry stores, and buyers, with frequent commercial and cultural activities and gradual gathering of popularity.
After the new crown epidemic, offline physical commerce did not usher in the expected explosive recovery. Despite the increase in foot traffic, people's spending power offline is still limited. At the same time, box-type shopping malls, which are becoming more and more homogeneous in terms of formats and settled brands, are becoming less and less attractive to people.
With the change of consumption habits, shopping is no longer the primary appeal of people to go offline shopping. According to the monitoring data of RET China Business Research Center, only 21.6% of consumers will go to shopping malls in 2023 to buy clothing, a decrease of 45.4% compared to 10 years ago. Nowadays, social interaction and leisure entertainment have become the main purpose for people to reach offline business, and neighborhood business is more suitable for this kind of experience scene and undertake related business formats. RET China Business Research Center predicts that block commerce will become the dominant force in the era of non-standard commerce, replacing the commercial form of box shopping malls. This trend has been further reinforced by the public's proximity to open natural spaces after the pandemic, and in the summer of 2023, young people will return to the neighborhood and citywalk will become a popular way of life, and Yuyuan Road, which has been brewing for nearly 10 years, has caught up with this trend.
Going back to the past, nine years ago, the Changning District Government decided to renew Yuyuan Road out of consideration for the upgrading of existing space. Nowadays, the new space that can be developed in the city center is more limited, and the transformation and upgrading of the existing space has become the main component of new commercial projects in the city.
Brewing
Unlike other popular neighborhoods in Shanghai, such as the Anfu Road-Wukang Road neighborhood, Yuyuan Road is one of the few neighborhoods that is developed and operated by a private company. In 2015, the Changning District Government formulated an urban renewal plan for the historical district of Yuyuan Road and invited public bidding, and Chuangyi won the bid, and then established a joint venture with Jiuhua Group, a state-owned enterprise in Changning District, Yuyuan Cultural and Creative Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yuyuan Company") to jointly develop Yuyuan Road, with the two parties holding 80% and 20% of the shares of the joint venture company respectively.
Due to various historical factors, the property rights of the shops on Yuyuan Road are complex, and they belong to different entities such as state-owned enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises, and individuals. Therefore, in the process of renewing Yuyuan Road, Jiuhua Group is mainly responsible for recovering the property management rights of the shops on Yuyuan Road, and Yuyuan Company completes the specific investment promotion and operation, in which CREATER is equivalent to the leading operator of the commercial content of Yuyuan Road. In addition, the Changning District Hongqiao and Zhongshan Park Area Functional Development Office (hereinafter referred to as the "Hongqiao Office"), a permanent deliberative and coordinating body of the Changning District Government, coordinates and promotes matters that are difficult for enterprises to complete.
In fact, Yuyuan Road itself has unique commercial advantages. The entire Yuyuan Road connects the three central stations of Jing'an Temple, Jiangsu Road and Zhongshan Park of Shanghai Metro Line 2, and is surrounded by a variety of building types such as residential and commercial office buildings, which provides the basis for the flow of people by residents and companies, which also creates the characteristics of many shops on the street and complete types of business types. Xu Jinjiang, dean and researcher at the Institute of Urban Culture Innovation of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out to Yicai magazine that Yuyuan Road has historically had the characteristics of neighborhood commerce, and unlike central business districts such as Nanjing Road and Huaihai Middle Road, the business on Yuyuan Road "includes almost all links of clothing, food, housing, transportation, birth, old age, sickness and death". However, with the development of the city, the demographic structure attracted here has changed, and it is difficult for the old neighborhood business to match the location advantages, and the renewal of the neighborhood is inevitable.
Since the beginning of the update, CREATER has set the content theme of art and life for Yuyuan Road, emphasizing "art life, life art", and the target customer group is young people who have a certain consumption power and the pursuit of quality of life. In 2017, Huan Xuan, co-founder of accessories brand HUGO & JIRO, saw the slogan on the investment fence on Yuyuan Road as "Life Aesthetics Block".
After completing the renovation of public spaces such as the Children's Library in Changning District, the Workers' Cultural Palace, and the lawn of SPACE|Hongji, the second phase of construction of Yuyuan Road was started in 2017, and the renewal of commercial content became the focus. Yuan Xiangqing, who was the director of the Hongqiao Office and led the urban renewal project of Yuyuan Road, told Yicai magazine that Jiuhua Group had recovered the property management rights of 30 shops in the first batch, and in order to alleviate operational pressure and attract merchants to settle in the early stage, Jiuhua Group also gave Yuyuan Company three years of preferential rent conditions - 7% in the first year, 8% in the second year, and 9% in the third year.
In 2018, the Yuyuan Department Store, located in Lane 1018 of Yuyuan Road, opened, and its coffee shop combined with a boutique was quite novel at the time, and quickly became a major landmark on Yuyuan Road. According to Qiu Qiu, co-founder of the coffee shop "Gregorius Track", when it opened in the summer of 2018, there were only a handful of shops with outstanding styles on the entire Yuyuan Road. After the opening of Yuyuan Department Store, there were more people who came to check in.
Gregorius咖啡馆。
However, according to Qiuqiu's observation, most of the people who came to Yuyuan Road in those two years were purposeful customers, rather than people who came to Yuyuan Road to shop. Gregorius is a coffee shop featuring an American retro style, with a large collection of tables, chairs, lamps, utensils and other antiques.
The real increase in the flow of people on Yuyuan Road was after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020. According to Huan Xuan's observation, in 2019, the main customers of HUGO & JIRO were still the surrounding residents, and in 2020, more young people will obviously come to Yuyuan Road. At that time, affected by the epidemic, open natural spaces were more favored by people, and outdoor activities represented by camping became the most popular activities of the year. Qiuqiu noticed that many coffee shops began to replace the chairs placed outside the store with camping chairs, and the use value of several lawns on Yuyuan Road began to be explored.
The public space of Yuyuan Road has a strong youthful atmosphere.
In the summer of 2020, the lifestyle platform "One Ledger Camplus" cooperated with the Mandrill Bar on Yuyuan Road to launch the "Tailstock City Camp", which set up an urban camp on the lawn in front of No. 1258 Yuyuan Road, and recruited a number of outdoor equipment brands, lifestyle brands, and jewelry brands to participate, attracting many consumers to experience and check in. Fu Jia, brand director of CREATER, told YiMagazine that since the opening of the lawn on Yuyuan Road in 2019, the flow of people on Yuyuan Road has skyrocketed. Since then, due to the epidemic, brands have been restricted from holding activities in shopping malls, and Yuyuan Road, as an open venue, has more advantages.
In 2023, Yuyuan Road, which has been silent for a winter, will come back to life. Just after the Spring Festival, the weather became warmer, and the flow of people on Yuyuan Road increased rapidly. Also at the beginning of 2023, the "Yuyuan Art and Life Block" was selected as the second batch of national tourism and leisure blocks, becoming the third national tourism and leisure block in Shanghai. In the context of consumption recovery and official endorsement, further strengthening the landmark characteristics of art and life and attracting more people to promote consumption on Yuyuan Road have become the key goals of CREATER in 2023.
Dots with noodles
If Yuyuan Road is regarded as an open shopping mall, CREATER is equivalent to a shopping mall operator. However, unlike shopping malls that have standard space and can be operated and managed as a whole, Yuyuan Road is an open block, and CREATER only holds the property management rights of about 35% of the shops, and these shops are scattered. Therefore, it is difficult for CREATER to make an overall plan for the block, and can only create a block atmosphere by controlling the investment attraction of these 35% of the shops and their connection with the public space.
In order to maintain the uniqueness of Yuyuan Road, CREATER prefers original brands and brand offline first stores when attracting investment. The investment promotion team will evaluate the brand's content concept, brand planning, decoration plan, etc., and select brands that meet the characteristics of Yuyuan Road. Li Yongjie, chairman of CREATEP, told YiMagazine that CREATER prefers brands that are not Internet celebrities, but have the potential to be Internet celebrities. Even a leading brand that has already opened a store elsewhere must open an innovative store that is different from other stores if they want to open a store on Yuyuan Road. "It can be the same owner, but it can't be the same business. According to a number of people familiar with the matter told the "First Finance" magazine, the coffee brand Sandunban will settle in Yuyuan Road, but the store form will also be innovative compared with the first store on Anfu Road, and the roasting line will be increased.
In 2023, the lease of the shop at No. 1208 Yuyuan Road expires, and when it is re-leased, there are two choices: a Western food chain brand and a coffee home experience space "Smthin'else has other strange things", the former gives a higher daily rent than Smthin'else Another strange thing, but CREATER finally chose the latter.
Gao Jun, who originally worked in the home furnishing industry, co-founded a new brand and business model of SMTHIN'else, which combines lifestyle boutiques, cafes, curatorial and other elements. In addition to coffee and other beverages, the store displays furniture, lamps, tableware, and other design brands from around the world that can be sold.
In 2023, after the Yuyuan Road Art and Life Block was selected as a national tourism and leisure block, artistry has also become an important guide for Yuyuan Road to attract investment. In addition to smthin'else, in 2023, Yuyuan Road will also introduce designer accessories brand BLACKHEAD, as well as fragrance brand Wenxian DOCUMENTS to launch Yuyuan Library. Unlike other retail outlets, Yuyuan Bookstore is a free reading space with a dedicated reading area, and hundreds of books in the library are in a permanent collection, including art, design, photography, literature and other categories.
The reason why brand merchants choose Yuyuan Road is that the atmosphere and flow of people in Yuyuan Road are first valued. The atmosphere of Yuyuan Road is similar to that of Hengfu District, and many of the brands that end up in the area have considered areas such as Anfu Road, Wuyuan Road, and Jufuchang when looking for stores, but in comparison, Yuyuan Road has a stronger sense of place and cheaper rent. Huan Xuan revealed that in 2017, the rent of Anfu Road, Wuyuan Road and other areas was two or three times that of Yuyuan Road.
For some original brands that have opened stores for the first time, CREATER's support is also more conducive to store operation. Huan Xuan said that original brands such as HUGO & JIRO cannot be compared with standard chain stores in terms of the professionalism of store operation, and if they enter shopping malls, it is usually difficult to adapt to the strict requirements of shopping malls in terms of business hours, fire protection, sanitation, etc., while ordinary street stores will not have unified operator management. CREATER acts as a buffer zone, which can help merchants coordinate many issues.
Although it cannot control the commercial format of the entire street, CREATER can dynamically adjust the part of the property it holds according to the state of the block, and constantly upgrade and balance the commercial format of the block. In 2021, the lease of the first batch of brand shops introduced by CREATER in 2016 expired, and in the new round of shop adjustment, coffee shops are no longer the favored format of CREATER.
At the beginning of 2022, Room 107-2 in the Yuyuan Public Market in Lane 1088 Yuyuan Road was opened for investment, and the lifestyle brand collection store "Fanji Café & Select Shop" settled in, and officially opened in September, serving as coffee blending and retail. Si Panya, the co-founder of Fanji, revealed to YiMagazine that CREATER did not want to introduce catering brands when attracting investment, and preferred retail brands. At that time, there were already many restaurants in the Yuyuan Public Market, such as the burger restaurant "Grinder Meat Grinder Burger", the Thai food "Thai Drunken Zester", and the Western food "Kitano Onita", but there was a lack of retail formats.
As of February 2024, CREATER holds a total of 75 shops in the Changning section of Yuyuan Road, of which 36 are catering merchants, accounting for nearly half, in addition, retail merchants account for about 1/3, and life service merchants account for about 1/5.
The adjustment and upgrading of the shops holding properties by CREATER has set the tone for the overall atmosphere of Yuyuan Road, and has also led to changes in other shops on Yuyuan Road. In October 2022, Xinlianfang approached investors from CHATTERIE, hoping to open a more refined, unique store that meets the preferences of young people. Prior to this, the store was an imported department store operated by Xinlianfang, and its benefits were not ideal, and it did not match the current atmosphere of Yuyuan Road.
CHATTERIE夏特喜烘焙店。
Shao Yunyun, who lives around Yuyuan Road, will obviously feel that more and more new shops will be opened on Yuyuan Road in 2023, and all kinds of creative small shops will become more and more dense, and there will be many things on the whole street that she has not seen before, and she is more willing to take a walk on this road, "Yuyuan Road has become a street for eating, drinking and playing, which can meet various entertainment needs."
Make a topic
Unlike the Anfu Road-Wukang Road neighborhood, which is home to many designer brands and new consumer brands, Yuyuan Road's brand merchants are relatively "close to the people", and the unit price of consumers on this road is usually low, and store operations are more dependent on the increase in consumption frequency, which also means that Yuyuan Road must ensure sufficient foot traffic to support long-term operations.
In order to attract more people, in 2023, the marketing department of CREATER will plan a series of life-like, interesting and topical activities on Yuyuan Road. CREATER activities are usually held in several public lawns operated by CREATER such as CREATER SPACE|Hongji, No. 1107 Yuyuan Road, "Yujian" in Lane 1088 or "Yuxiang" at No. 1381, etc., and the marketing department will plan according to the season and festival nodes, and unique installations or scenes suitable for taking photos are essential elements. In March 2023, CREATEP arranged 6,666 tulips in the lawn of Yuxiang for tourists to take photos and check in. In addition, CREATER will also cooperate with KOCs on platforms such as Xiaohongshu, WeChat official account, and Weibo to lay out the warm-up and promotion of communication content.
During the Dragon Boat Festival in June 2023, CREATEP, together with Fiu Gallery and Dulux, co-created the "Serious Paradise" on Yuyuan Road, setting up large-scale colorful art installations and check-in points on the above three lawns, and adding game experience links to create a Memphis-style art park. According to the statistics of the marketing department of CREATER, the total number of people participating in the event was about 1.1 million, the total number of views and broadcasts of the cooperative content exceeded 30 million, and the total number of interactions exceeded 100,000.
In 2023, more brands will choose to carry out brand flash mob activities on Yuyuan Road. CREATER usually cooperates with these brands in the form of venue rental, and does not participate in the implementation of the event, and the marketing department will evaluate and screen the content of the event, select lifestyle and interesting activities that match the atmosphere of the neighborhood, and avoid overly commercial product marketing activities.
The "Yuyuan Nature Market" planned by the lifestyle brand "Jisu" on Yuyuan Road has set up a number of different types of activities such as flower and bird exhibitions, pet adoptions, and fun markets, linking multiple areas of the entire block to form garden activities. Various consumer brands such as skincare brands Kiehl's and Elizabeth Arden, and daily necessities brand Shujie have also launched pop-up activities on Yuyuan Road, and due to their own brand communication effects, these activities have brought considerable foot traffic, such as the "Super Chill Moisturizing Block" pop-up event planned by Kiehl's, which has attracted more than 4 million participants.
Merchants on Yuyuan Road will also spontaneously plan activities to enrich the content of their stores and attract customers. During the Christmas season in 2023, most of the holiday-related content such as Santa Claus and Christmas trees arranged by merchants on Yuyuan Road inside and outside the store will be planned by the merchants themselves. Before the Spring Festival in the Year of the Dragon, Fanji cooperated with Taipei's tattoo and graphic design studio Sun Dragon Palace to launch a joint flash mob event, with new mugs, sweatshirts and other co-branded products in the store, and the corresponding decorations were also changed outside the store. During Halloween, Fanji teamed up with Grirder Meat Grinder Burger, Frank Steakhouse Ribone and many other merchants to plan the "Trick or Treat" event.
In Qiuqiu's impression, people usually come to Yuyuan Road to drink a cup of coffee, buy something and leave, and the stay time is short, but since the activities of Yuyuan Road are frequent, there are more and more people on the road, and people's stay time is longer. According to Shao Yunyun's observation, there are different themed activities on Yuyuan Road almost every week, and some shops will also regularly adjust the content and decoration of the stores, so that every time you go, you have a different experience, "You can feel that the neighborhood of Yuyuan Road is alive, it is not dead."
Joys and sorrows
Urban renewal has brought more young people to this road, and it is common to see outsiders visiting Shanghai with their suitcases in tow. There is a growing trend for this neighborhood to become a tourist destination.
Many original brands started on Yuyuan Road and expanded to other parts of Shanghai. Gregorius's store is not owned by CREATER and has never participated in CREATEP's activities, but Qiuqiu admits that CREATER's renovation of Yuyuan Road has brought dividends to her store. In March 2022, Gregorius opened a new store on Anfu Road, and according to Qiuqiu's observations, the customer flow of the Yuyuan Road store is more stable than that of the Anfu Road store, and the operating pressure is also less. Huan Xuan also opened two new stores on Fuxing Middle Road and Julu Road one after another, and Yuyuan Road had the highest foot traffic among the three stores.
There are more brand merchants who take the initiative to open stores on Yuyuan Road, and now, entering Yuyuan Road is equivalent to labeling themselves as young, fashionable and trendy. Men's barber shop Homie settled in Lane 1088 of Yuyuan Road in 2021, and its founder Dai Yun considered opening a store on Yuyuan Road in 2018, he told Yicai magazine that in 2018, many merchants were still more cautious about opening stores on Yuyuan Road, and in 2023, there are obviously more brands willing to open stores. Li Yongjie revealed that in the current investment process of CREATE, 2/3 of the brand is actively contacted.
Men's Barber Shop Homie.
However, the over-reliance on the topicality of various activities leads to a nodal effect on the passenger flow of Yuyuan Road, resulting in an unstable daily passenger flow, and the impact of seasonal and weather conditions on the open block further amplifies this problem. Yu Qing, the store manager of Xia Texi, said that after the opening in May 2023, Xia Texi ushered in the first wave of customer flow in the summer, including many primary and secondary school students who came to travel. But after the most popular Christmas, the flow of people on Yuyuan Road decreased rapidly before the Spring Festival, and "there was no one in an instant". Spanya also revealed that Fanji's performance is usually relatively better in spring, October, November and December, and in the off-season, it has to plan some activities to attract people.
On the other hand, the upgrading of the commercial format of Yuyuan Road not only brings about the increase in the flow of people, but also easily causes problems that plague residents, such as traffic congestion and noise. Clashes broke out between residents and merchants, with residents in the alley deliberately vandalizing installations set up by merchants during Halloween to express their dissatisfaction. In order to coordinate the conflict, CREATER has to hold an "alley meeting" with the residents' representatives every quarter. Neighborhood committees, CREATER, businesses along the street and residents' representatives will participate in the discussion to discuss solutions to problems such as road congestion and noise, so as to maintain the living environment of residents as much as possible.
Yuan Xiangqing, who has retired in 2023, believes that the renewal and development of Yuyuan Road is basically in line with the initial expectations of the Changning District Government, realizing the integration of production, life, ecology and culture. Xu Jinjiang also recognized the transformation effect of Yuyuan Road, compared with the urban renewal model of "large-scale demolition and construction", Yuyuan Road has been upgraded and transformed while retaining the historical genes and local residents, which not only retains the life service functions needed by residents, but also introduces various "trendy shops" to attract young people, becoming a "breathing and living block".
At present, the Wuyi Road Historical District, not far from Yuyuan Road, is also promoting urban renewal. The available land along Wuyi Road is more limited and scattered, and the renewal project relies on 5 plots of land including INESA Group, the former site of Feilo Audio Factory, and the former site of the Dermatology Hospital, and has been transformed into 5 projects of Wuyi MIX320, Wuyi Road 333 Park, Feiyueli, New Quadrant Wuyi and Xinxiuhui. Different from Yuyuan Road, in addition to commercial development, the Wuyi Road Urban Renewal Project emphasizes the introduction and aggregation of industries, and the five projects will undertake different functions such as community commerce, cultural and creative industry clusters, and artificial intelligence industry clusters, and will be led by several different enterprise entities such as New Changning Group and Hong Kong K. Wah International. This just proves that the development experience of Yuyuan Road can be referred to but cannot be replicated, and different spaces have different conditions and endowments, and they need to find their own way of innovation.
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