The above photo was taken when the Shanjing Outlet Plaza in the Jishigang Town attracted a steady stream of customers in the evening of September 13. (Photo/ Zhang Qi and Sha Yishan)

The total passenger flow exceeded 400,000 persons; the total sales volume added up to 140 million yuan; the sales volume of 29 brand stores reached over 1 million yuan, including the total sales volume of the Nike Store in the Plaza exceeded 10 million yuan, and that of the Adidas Store over 8 million yuan…The 5-day anniversary sale activity of the Shanjing Outlet Plaza came to an end on September 13. Over the past 5 days, the constantly increasing figures reflected the high consumption enthusiasm of consumers and the new kinetic energy of the consumption development in the Haishu District.

Recently, major business centers in our district have been boasting numerous customers. Though under the impact of the outbreak of the COVID-19 at the beginning of this year, the commerce and trade industry in our district now is gratifying. Behind the picture of “only the scenery here is good”, we can see many beneficial attempts made by our district for the construction of a district for the demonstration of international consumption, in addition to the promotion and upgrading measures taken by the majority of merchants. Where will Haishu go for further building the district for the demonstration of international consumption? What kind of experience will consumers have? Recently, reporters visited a few business centers in the Haishu District to have a glimpse.

All major business centers back to vitality

It’s learned in the interview that passenger flows and sales volume of major business centers have been recovering strongly recently. Taking the Tianyi Business Center located in the center of the city as an example, it is commercial “flagship” in the Haishu District and even the whole city and now boasts consumption boom. “The average daily passenger flow of the Tianyi Square now reaches 140,000 persons in recent years, while the average daily passenger flow during the Ningbo Shopping Festival continues to stay above 200,000.” A representative of the Tianyi Square said. A series of activities, such as the “dream market” and auto show held at the weekend, effectively gathered consumers and made the turnover of the whole business center keep climbing. The D·G Line near the Tianyi Square now witnesses rising passenger flows and its sales volume has recovered to about 70% of that of the same period last year.

And in the Heyi Avenue Shopping Center, which is famous for being the “Champs Elysees in Ningbo”, the consumption is even more prosperous than those in previous years. Every weekend, consumers have to queue up in front of luxury stores of various brands in the Center, and it would even taken more than 10 minutes to enter some of them. As is learnt, since April and May this year, with the stability of the situation of epidemic prevention and control, the passenger flow in the Heyi Avenue has recovered rapidly, and even slightly increased compared with the average of last year. In this April alone, the overall sales volume of the Heyi Avenue exceeded 150 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 133.1%. Since August, the consumption heat of the Heyi Avenue has been still rising. The passenger flow has increased by 60% year-on-year, and the overall sales volume 120%, which is the highest record till now. On the day of the Chinese Valentine’s day, the overall sales volume set a single-day record, and many brand stores also witnessed their highest single-day sales records.

Consumption upgrade “detonates” passenger flows

This year, in the face of the special situation, major business centers have adopted measures such as adjusting brand structure and enriching business forms to accelerate consumption upgrading, so as to “detonate” passenger flows for sales recovery and even leaps forward.

The Tianyi Business Center is playing the “first store” brand this year. As is introduced, in the first half of this year, 51 brands were introduced into the Tianyi Business Center, 36 of which landed in the Tianyi Square and 11 in the Moon Lake Garden. 8 stores out of the 51 are first-opening stores of their own brands in Ningbo, such as the Polestar, Piaget, ORRDT, On Hair Fashion Hairdressing, ELEKTA brand collection store, and Furla, etc.. In addition, 4 flagship stores such as the Li Ning 8C1 flagship store and the Perfect Diary, 6 Ningbo exclusive stores such as the Xianhezhuang Hotpot, WOW Color Fashion Cosmetics, CHEERHER, and 2 top-level stores of Jordan’s L1 and Converse Top-level Store have settled down. The arrival of these “first stores” has greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of young consumers and achieved remarkable results.

In addition, major business centers have also played the “integration” card. By enriching business forms of business centers, integrating various business forms such as culture, commerce and tourism, the pace of consumption upgrading has been accelerated.

Last month, a 5-day Subway Music Festival in the Gulou Subway Station attracted many citizens to stop, watching and taking photos. Performances of Guzheng (a Chinese zither with 25 strings and one of the oldest folk musical instruments in China), piano, Ningbo Opera, Pingtan (storytelling and ballad singing in Suzhou dialect) and dances were staged in turn, bringing high popularity to the D·G Line. “Culture is a good way to retain consumers.” A representative of the D·G Line said. Culture and Commerce complement each other, making the D·G Line no longer of no unique characteristics as compared with other business centers, enhancing the interactions with consumers, creating a “subway + commerce + cultural leisure" mode, and ultimately promoting the transformation of passenger flow into purchasing and consumption power.

At the same time, the Heyi Avenue Shopping Center boasts rich and colorful activities, including the “Bulgari Serpenti” Lighting Art Exhibition, the night life festival, and the moonlight film season and so on. And a symphony concert is ready to go this month…All kinds of activities show the delicacy and elegance of urban life, improve the taste of business centers, and attract a large number of consumers to come, enjoying these activities and shopping. Gulouyan Pedestrian Street attracts consumers with its characteristics of being “antique”. “Taking the characteristics of the Gulouyan Block into consideration, we choose to carry out stage performances, art exhibitions and so on to enrich the cultural atmosphere of the block and attract consumers.” The representative of the Gulouyan Pedestrian Street said. For the next step, they will continue to excavate, integrate and develop rich historical and cultural resources of Gulou, and continue to plan and hold a series of “culture, business and tourism” themed activities relying on the cultural connotation and characteristics.

Focus on “Five Major Projects” for consumption

As is learnt, in April this year, the Haishu District issued relevant schemes, focusing on five major projects, namely, the improvement of consumption supply, the shaping of consumption scenes, the building of consumption brands, the cultivation of consumption highlights, and the construction of consumption platforms, so as to enhance Haishu’s ability of gathering, leading and innovating domestic and foreign consumption, and create the brand of “Haishu Consumption”, so as to build the Haishu District into an area for the demonstration of international consumption in Ningbo.

“In the early stage, with the theme of ‘Go! Haishu’ as the theme, through more than 80 theme activities in 7 major sectors, the district has cultivated consumption highlights, stimulated commercial and consumption vitality, and accelerated the transformation and upgrading of consumption.” A representative of the Haishu District Bureau of Commerce introduced. For the next step, the Haishu District will promote the innovation and upgrading of commercial retail, enrich the supply of international consumer goods, expand the consumption supply with characteristic services, and realize the improvement of quality consumption supply by strengthening organizational leadership, policy guarantee, talent support and a favorable atmosphere and so on; A multi-level characteristic business block and a commercial district with urban characteristics will be established to create a landmark consumption scene; the gathering of high-end brands at home and abroad will be strengthened, time-honored brands revitalized and Haishu original brands incubated, so as to promote diversified construction of consumer brands; new energy of consumption at night will be tapped, leading consumption highlights cultivated, and an import and export service platform for consumer goods consumption and a promotion platform will be created.

“Accelerating the transformation and upgrading of consumption will help our district to build a district for the demonstration of international consumption in Ningbo.” A representative of the Haishu District Bureau of Commerce said. Through the promotion and implementation of relevant schemes and programs, it’s planned to achieve the goal of breaking through 85 billion yuan in total retail sales of consumer goods in the district by 2021, cultivate and develop a 20-billion level commercial landmark with domestic influence, create 2 provincial high-quality commercial pedestrian streets, and develop a number of municipal and provincial special commercial blocks, night economic business circles (life circles) and 15-minute convenient business service circles.