Why can this Shanghai market become popular on the internet and differentiate between Jiangfeng and pets | Market | Pets
In summer evenings, various markets make their debut.
Up to now, the market has become a standard feature of Shanghai's commercial community, and whenever there is some open space at the entrance, a market will appear.
However, how can markets avoid homogenization and store differentiation, becoming the "external display" and "extension" of commercial spaces?
How to maintain freshness and truly stimulate the vitality and fireworks of the city's night economy?
Let's take the recently popular Huangpu Expo Riverside Market, which attracts tourists from other places to Shanghai for check-in, as an example to see what good markets have done right.
Market heat
Blowing the river breeze, drinking coffee, strolling cute pets, listening to music... In the humid summer air, the Expo Song Garden by the Huangpu River is already lively before sunset.
This is the first "Expo Songyuan Weekend Park" market launched by Bansongyuan Road Street. "Big" is the first impression of many tourists.
The market covers a total area of 18000 square meters and has over 100 stalls, making it the largest market in Huangpu District at present. Located by the riverside, with a gentle river breeze and a broad view, there is an atmosphere of setting up stalls by the seaside, which is different from the atmosphere of shopping malls or street markets.
Due to its large area, it can accommodate enough elements. Catering and shopping each account for 35%, trendy outdoor sports account for 20%, and pets account for 10%.
Miaojiang Road crosses the market and divides it in two. To the north is the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, mainly serving as a dining area, with dining cars arranged in a theatrical arc.
Buying two cones from an ice cream truck, a netizen jokingly said, "Sitting cross legged, unloading troubles." As night fell, the candle shadows swayed on the wooden table in front of the cocktail truck, and young people in groups of three or two lazily leaned and chatted happily. Passing tourists almost always hold oily lamb skewers, experiencing the urban fireworks on summer nights.
The food district is actually a common standard feature in many markets, not the biggest feature. The wider area south of Miaojiang Road is the soul of this market and the charm that attracts a group of tourists to rush to Shanghai to check in.
Pets are a major feature of Songyuan Market. As a "pet friendly" market, it welcomes visitors to bring pets inside, and there is also a batch of pet related stalls.
Some stalls have their own "hairy child" store managers, such as Pet Inn Here, which brings the West Highland variety of small dogs called "gaogao", attracting many children and adults to touch and check in.
On the market, the hairless cat Momo is also very popular. Hairless cats, often jokingly referred to as "extraterrestrial creatures," are a bit unfamiliar to many people. Yin Qing shared her experience on social media: "I didn't expect Momo to have a soft touch, like a baby's skin, so soft and healing."
Yinqing is not only a participant in the event, but also the vendor of this market. As a visually impaired girl, she brought her guide dog Gaia to set up a stall here and hold a unique public welfare experience event.
Wearing an eye mask, being in the darkness, and using a guide cane, can one walk in the right direction? An experienced person said, "Even if I looked at the route in advance, I still couldn't help but feel anxious." The second route was guided by a guide dog, "Trust the dog, it's actually much easier.".
Although the experience was not long, the experiencer expressed a deep sense of the difficulty faced by visually impaired individuals and the value of trust between humans and guide dogs in the darkness. Some even shed tears on the spot, deeply moved.
"I didn't expect to have such a public welfare experience in a casual market, which is impressive," said a tourist. "Taking pets to the market" once sparked a topic online. Some pet lovers, upon learning about it, are willing to travel across most of Shanghai just to bring their own "furry kids" to check in.
"Sports" is also a major feature here. Along the Huangpu Riverside, a plastic runway runs from Nanpu Bridge to Lupu Bridge. From time to time, young people wearing professional sportswear and riding cool mountain bikes can be seen speeding past. This area already has a natural athletic attribute.
During the event, the market holds a themed outdoor exercise every day, such as frisbee, sunset yoga, and fat burning fighting exercises.
A white-collar woman who participated in yoga training said that she rarely sees such a large sports field in the market. As someone who doesn't like sports, she is rarely infected by the atmosphere and has experienced the joy of exercise.
The Difficulty of Space
Upon careful observation, the tourists of Songyuan Market can be roughly divided into two groups. During the day, most young trendsetters come to check in and take photos.
The nearby Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art and Shanghai Children's Art Theater participated in the market, adding a touch of artistic style to it.
"If you shoot anything, it's very impressive," sighed a girl wearing trendy clothes. "I've been here for the second time, it feels like I'm going to an outdoor art exhibition.".
The store designs here have their own styles, and the names and decorations of the storefronts are not uniform. They are eye-catching and stand out, but together they exude a youthful vitality.
Fun slogans such as "No inner competition, just meat rolls", "Five elements lacking carbon and water, coffee in one's life", and "Don't want to pack anymore" on site showcase the unique lifestyle of Shanghai, where inspiration and beauty intersect.
As night fell, the surrounding residents began to join in. More pets appear in every corner of the market. Among them, there are many men and women wearing slippers and home clothes, appearing casual. During the weekends when the market opened, this place became a good place for residents to walk their dogs and stroll after meals. This adds the homely atmosphere and fireworks that are only present in the neighborhood space of the community, rather than just commodity trading.
Behind these two groups of people lies the unique features of the market, which is actually the difficulty and challenge.
The name "Expo Song Garden" can bring people's thoughts back to the 2010 World Expo. Located at the southern end of Huangpu District, it was once part of the World Expo Best Practice Area. However, this open space has always been difficult to make good use of.
"A resident once exclaimed to me, 'This place has been quiet for too long,'" Xia Lingxia, the director of Bansongyuan Road Street, couldn't help but feel a bit sad when she recalled.
Expo Song Garden is more than 1 km away from the nearest subway station, Xizang South Road Station. Apart from nearby residents and white-collar workers, few people make special visits. Although it is backed by the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art and has art exhibitions, it does not have a sustained customer flow stickiness.
For nearby residents, the supporting living and commercial facilities are quite scarce. From Zhongshan South Road to the Huangpu River, there is no vegetable market or shopping center. Even there are only a few scattered restaurants, and every noon, there is a long queue at the entrance. The nearest comprehensive shopping mall, Bohui Square, is nearly 2 kilometers away from here, and it takes more than 20 minutes by public transportation.
How to activate this space has always been a challenge due to its awkward geographical location and limited living facilities. The idea of running a market has been around for a long time, and the street has invited various commercial entities and professionals to come and see the venue. Almost everyone shook their heads and said, "It's difficult.".
Throughout many popular markets in Shanghai, such as the Bund BFC, University Road Market, Anyi Night Lane, etc., there is a common characteristic - there is already a basic passenger flow. They are either backed by commercial districts, adjacent to university towns, or located above subway stations, attracting passersby to stop and stroll along the way. In this way, the fundamentals of the market's population are at least guaranteed.
However, the Expo Song Garden does not possess the aforementioned innate conditions. In the scorching summer, where is it not easy to stroll? Why do people insist on going out specially and coming from other places, just for a market? This places extremely high demands on the content quality, distinctive features, and attractiveness of the market.
Two months ago, the Expo Song Garden did not even have the conditions to land. Commercial electricity is the fundamental guarantee. But there is no basic electrical equipment around the site, and the underground space is an energy storage area, which greatly limits the ground load capacity. Many commercial companies quickly wave their hands upon arrival: the cost of coordinating resources in the future is too high, and there is a lack of fundamental customer flow, leaving them feeling uncertain.
Various factors have made the streets realize that it is impossible to rely on market people to "open up land". In the end, as the organizer and investor of the market, the street showed the courage to explore the way and "came to build a model house.". Because for this area, the market is not only a vibrant project and comprehensive supporting facilities, but also opens up the possibility of further activating the Huangpu Riverside public space.
How to solve the power problem? Contacting nearby businesses on one side of the street to borrow electricity; At the same time, coordinate with the local power company to bring in a separate power supply and expand the electricity consumption.
However, subsequent investment attraction remains difficult. Some market companies are full of concerns and unwilling to take risks. Some may be interested, but the design plan cannot be implemented. For example, some plans have designed a series of stage beauty lighting and special effects music, but due to power limitations and venue load-bearing, they have to be abandoned; Some plans have proposed trendy concepts and attempted to focus on the popular camping trend among young people, but the cement floor makes camping camping difficult to get started.
After multiple adjustments, the street chose the "Youwei" brand to be responsible for content investment. "Actually, until the opening, we were very nervous." A staff member admitted that the concept and plan of "Youwei" were in sync with the street, but "Youwei" had not operated a market in Shanghai before, and there was almost no precedent to follow.
It has been proven that, without precedent, it has instead created new ideas and highlights that are different from commercial streets.
Distinctive features
"It's difficult." The staff of "Youwei" recalled the team's first experience of seeing the venue. This venue has no traffic.
According to team analysis, the markets in Shanghai can be roughly divided into two categories. One is the commercial district and public space market. They become supporting facilities for comprehensive shopping malls and public spaces, already popular, and can be stacked with multiple fun forms without caring about content differentiation.
This is also why after the comprehensive opening of the Shanghai market, many people feel that it is becoming less and less fun - homogenized, shop oriented, and not new after seeing too much. In addition to similar food, there are similar jewelry, clothes, art bags, perfume, and even different business districts. The same group of stall owners are met.
Another type is a market centered around the community, positioned as a lifestyle and artistic trend, which already has a strong fan base.
The Songyuan Riverside market, which lacks innate traffic, cannot sustain both types of markets and must find its own differentiation and attraction.
How is differentiation reflected? Firstly, Binjiang is already a hub for running and cycling. At night, besides residents, there is also a sports community. The space is large, and more sports can be spread out.
Secondly, there are several art institutions with cultural and artistic attributes nearby that can create more cultural and creative content with distinctive artistic features.
Thirdly, as a street led market, it reflects more public and public welfare, bringing unique experiences.
The true trick actually comes from a concept. "We didn't treat it as a market, but rather as a festival or garden party," said the team leader. "The focus of curation was on content, community, and differences." We are not a market company, we used to do trendy sports festivals and urban creation festivals, and our ability to grasp the scene is different from some market companies. ".
Due to the emphasis on experience, the introduction of guide dogs has become a captivating highlight. When online transactions become accessible, in turn, offline experiences become invaluable. Emotional connection is actually more attractive than the product itself.
Because of the emphasis on experience, I came up with the idea of "pet friendly". Previously, pets were not allowed to enter the Huangpu Riverside. In order to create a market, after multiple efforts and coordination, the "furry children" were able to play happily on the riverbank.
Because of the emphasis on experience, the market provides vendors with greater freedom to play. For example, in the fitness area stage, there are no specific requirements for the content, and it is entirely organized and registered by the merchants themselves, bringing their own community and approved programs. As a result, relevant businesses seized the opportunity to showcase, some partnered with sports brands, and some collaborated with nearby children's art theaters, with content exceeding expectations.
However, when attracting investment, Youwei has its own strict screening criteria. More than 300 merchants registered and ultimately screened out over 100. What are the standards?
For example, food. Market cuisine is nothing more than that, it's difficult to come up with a variety. There were also lamb skewers and roasted potatoes, but one of the merchants had freshly cut and fresh meat, so they chose it. As a result, this skewer restaurant became popular in the market, and with enthusiastic recommendations from food bloggers, almost every tourist had a skewer.
For example, the sales champion of the cultural and creative district, "Morning and Dusk Day and Night," rarely participated in commercial street markets before. Fruits made of plush fabric are almost an art installation, attracting many people to check in.
In addition, whether the store is beautiful and eye-catching is very important. The vendor must possess strong design skills. Some street vendors who frequently appear but lack design skills will be screened out.
The curator team hopes that different vendors have their own originality, innovation, unique design styles, and personalized expressions. Therefore, the market only provides a framework, and the specific store recruitment and storefront construction are done by the vendors themselves.
For example, setting up a stall in the hardware uniformly laid out by the organizer, where grilled meat is just grilled meat, can easily cause a sense of similarity and fatigue. But the barbecue restaurant in Songyuan Market can have its own design style, logo, slogan, and personalized decoration. Tourists can feel the highlights and experience an atmosphere at a glance before eating.
So for this market, the name suffix is specifically "Weekend Park", and everything is not centered around products, but an attempt to create a festive scene for a carnival.
Experience is better than buying and selling
Jiang Junqi, born in the 1990s, is the founder of the brand "Morning, Dusk, Day and Night", and her storefront is also the sales champion of the market cultural and creative area.
Jiang Junqi's main business is operating an art studio in Hangzhou, and most of his friends come from art academies across the country, all of whom are literary and artistic youths. The studio not only offers drawing classes, but also introduces handicraft experience projects, including the popular Tufting.
Jiang Junqi himself is an illustrator who likes brightly colored things. Once, he had an idea and used Tufting to create a three-dimensional installation: proportionally proportioned fruits. Unexpectedly, at various art exhibitions, the fruit stalls made by Tufting are mixed with fake ones, giving people fun and surprises, and are loved by many literary and artistic figures. Therefore, she established related cultural and creative brands day and night.
Although one-to-one fruits are realistic, their practicality is not strong. Jiang Junqi constantly improves and not only develops fruit pendants with reduced proportions, but also makes various small ornaments, which are very interesting.
"We need to find a matching customer base," she admitted. Someone once questioned why fake fruits are much more expensive than real fruits? This made her realize that not all customers can understand the work from the perspective of handicrafts. At art festivals, book exhibitions, trendsetter markets, or online platforms, product value is more easily sought after when there is a matching customer base.
"We dared not take the initiative to go to the mass market before, unless invited by the other party," said Jiang Junqi. The commercial street caters to a wider audience, with some people coming nearby for consumption, dining, and strolling around the market. They may not necessarily think that handicrafts and original designs are valuable. Seeking a path to break through the circle is also a challenge she must face now.
This time, the staff of Songyuan Market invited her in person to the studio in Hangzhou. Feeling sincere, "especially being liked is a very happy thing." Looking at other invited merchants, the tone was generally more interesting, and Jiang Junqi agreed on the spot.
What left a deep impression on her was that the Songyuan Market not only provided a satisfactory exhibition space, but also respected her unique needs, such as making decorations on trees or imitating the shelves of a fruit stall.
The organizer also planned a series of treasure hunting and stamping activities, where tourists can find several locations to stamp and receive free gifts from different merchants. In this way, it can not only increase the exposure of some merchants, but also provide free product promotion, and the game itself also attracts young people.
She roughly calculated that there is an average of over two thousand yuan of flowing water every day, which is considered one of the best-selling in various markets. She also bought many original, niche, and fresh things from other vendors herself, such as a pair of Vietnamese rubber shoes that are particularly comfortable to wear, accessories designed by an illustrator, and some original pet brand toys.
An online guide summarizes that it takes two to three hours to "scan" all the interesting things at the Songyuan Market. There are many shops and fun interactions, so you won't get bored just browsing for a few minutes.
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