How did Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung's "first move" go| Shanghai Vitality Mall ⑨, Faced with "Big Mac" Neighbor Consumption | Brand | First mover Chess

"I'm in Henglong, Xujiahui." "This is Ganghui Henglong, and Shanghai people are used to calling it 'Ganghui'." At the end of 1999, Ganghui Square, with a commercial area of 120000 square meters, opened in Xujiahui. As Henglong Real Estate's first commercial real estate project to open in mainland China, the media described the opening of Ganghui Square as "a commercial giant in the southwest corner of Shanghai".

Today, nearly 24 years later, this commercial complex, which has been renamed as Ganghui Henglong Plaza, has witnessed the changes in the commercial development of Xujiahui and even Shanghai. The neighboring Pacific Department Store is about to close at the end of August this year; The Sixth Department Store will undergo demolition and renovation according to the plan; Dongfang Shopping Mall has undergone multiple rounds of renovation; Meiluo City has become a "anime" resort

Meanwhile, Ganghui Henglong, which occupies a crucial corner of the "big circle" of Xujiahui commercial district, Hongqiao Road and Huashan Road, has taken the lead in carrying the banner of luxury and become the guarantee and benchmark of the quality of the entire commercial district. However, at the same time, facing the challenge of the upcoming entry of the neighboring Sun Hung Kai Shanghai ITC project, Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung made a bold decision in 2017: to complete the overall leap of mall space and brand in three years.

Last Christmas, Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung Plaza launched the "Pixar Fur Carnival".

Focus on the economy of the first store

On the eve of "Qixi" Valentine's Day, Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung Plaza successively welcomed the opening of its first stores, including the first store in China of Korean fashion brand Mardi Mercredi, and the first store in Shanghai of Italian perfume brand Santa Maria Novella. All of them "scouted" to seize this important consumption node of Qixi and opened new offline stores.

On August 18th, the reporter visited the Mardi Mercredi store located on the basement level of Ganghui Henglong and found that there were not only flower installations that corresponded to the brand logo's daisy pattern, but also two new product lines, including the sports series and pet series, which were newly launched for China's first store. Li Xinyu, the head of the Brand Market Center, introduced that this first store in China, located in Ganghui, has an area of nearly 220 square meters and sells 180-200 SKUs, almost covering the most popular products of the brand among consumers at home and abroad.

The setting of Mardi Mercredi's first store in China

Li Xinyu said that as an emerging fashion brand from overseas, choosing Shanghai, especially Ganghui Henglong, as the location of China's first store, is not only because the brand's main target audience is female white-collar workers aged 25-35 in first tier cities, but also because although Ganghui is a luxury shopping mall, it has both a heavy luxury customer flow and a large number of young customers, which can help the brand expand its consumer circle and open up the Chinese market.

Prior to this, in the first half of this year, another well-known Korean fashion brand, We11done, had already opened its first official flagship store in Shanghai on the first floor of Ganghui Henglong. On both sides are the themed pop-up collection stores of the Australian skincare brand Aesop, which just opened in early June, and the fashion buyer brand DOE, which is currently undergoing renovation. These new stores have opened one after another, which embodies an important strategy for investment and operation of Ganghui Henglong Plaza in recent years: youthfulness.

The four locations of Aesop's stores currently opened in Shanghai include Dongping Road, Xintiandi, Ganghui Henglong and Kerry Center. There are both popular business districts and "wutong District". It can be said that being selected by brands is also a two-way recognition of shopping malls and business districts. As a fashion brand priced directly towards luxury, We11done, after testing the waters on online platforms such as Tmall, will undoubtedly increase the concentration of "trendy consumers" in the Xujiahui business district and attract new similar brands to settle in by landing the first batch of offline stores in Hong Kong.

"By constantly increasing the size of the first store economy, we can attract young people, and at the same time, let new consumers, new brands and the original brands of the mall integrate with each other, so that the mall can continue to bring consumers cutting-edge shopping trends and life inspiration." Hu Huiya, deputy director of Hang Lung Real Estate, was interviewed by reporters. In recent years, Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung has introduced not only young "online red" brands, including milk tea brand grandma's works, baking brand Truffe Boulangerie, Korean China-Chic brand WE11DONE, and Swiss boutique chocolate Laderach Ledra. This year, we will continue to increase the size of the first store economy and update and adjustment of luxury brands.

Adhering to the pursuit of innovation and change, and walking on the two legs of quality and trend, is also intuitively reflected in financial reports. The recently released mid year 2023 performance of Hang Lung Property shows that as of June this year, the rental rate of Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung Plaza reached 98%, and sales in the first half of this year increased by 68% year-on-year, ranking first among the sales growth of major shopping malls in mainland China.

Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung launched an exclusive promotional campaign in May this year in collaboration with the Chinese version of the musical "Phantom of the Theater".

Grasp market preferences accurately

"Hong Kong Hui also has LV." Louis Vuitton opened a pop-up store in the atrium of the shopping mall after the demolition of the iconic 39 steps at Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung Plaza. With the opening of the Sun Hung Kai ONE ITC shopping mall at the end of 2019, the adjustment of Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung's luxury brand has also been basically completed. It seems like one night, two Louis Vuitton, two GUCCI, and two Celine brands appeared simultaneously in Xujiahui - all of which simultaneously laid out the two heavyweight commercial properties of Ganghui Henglong and Sun Hung Kai ITC.

When people see that the newly unveiled "left and right protectors" on both sides of the entrance of Ganghui Henglong Plaza are Louis Vuitton and GUCCI, the two major brands, it can be basically confirmed that this commercial complex, which has dominated the Xujiahui business district for 20 years, has become a new "must compete" place for LVMH and Kaiyun, two luxury goods groups in Shanghai.

Now, upon entering the first floor of Ganghui Henglong, there are numerous ready to wear, watch, and jewelry brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, VanCleef&Arpels, BottegaVeneta, Fendi, Cartier, and others distributed around the atrium, with many international brands waiting in line to settle in. At present, GUCCI stores are undergoing intensive renovation, and the stores that originally only had one floor will be upgraded to two floors. LV has already expanded its stores from the first floor of the shopping mall to the second floor, further absorbing purchasing power in the Xujiahui commercial district.

The live broadcast of the "May 5th Shopping Festival" in Xuhui District entered Ganghui Henglong.

"Fashion luxury goods, watches and jewelry, beauty and skincare, and trendy sports, the brands that have settled in Hong Kong Hui Henglong have diverse and diversified characteristics, covering the entire population from children, young people to family customers, and can meet the shopping needs of consumers at different levels." When talking about the reasons that have kept Hong Kong Hui Henglong popular for over 20 years, Hu Huiya said.

Improving and deepening the fine track is also a significant feature of the business format adjustment of Hong Kong Hui Henglong in recent years. Miss Wu, who works in Xuhui Binjiang, has been visiting Hong Kong since she was a student. She remembers that there were escalators on both sides of the atrium of the mall before, and when she went downstairs, she was often handed a test card by the salesmen at the perfume counter. Just last year, Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung introduced two new perfume brands into the Chinese market, including Pan Hailigan and Attichem, but they have long been well-known among "fragrance lovers", which made Miss Wu feel that "the mall is really adjusting the brand matrix carefully".

In contrast, the perfume brand SMN, which opened on August 19, is more niche. Previously, there were only stores in Haikou International Duty Free City and Shenzhen MIXC. The Shanghai first store located in Ganghui Henglong adopts the brand's latest image, and currently only stores in New York have the same design worldwide. Eternal Brand Director Chen Wenshi, who is responsible for operating the brand, noticed that SMN happens to be located in the same area of the mall as "friends" such as Pan Hailigen and Atticon. But compared to similar competition, he is more optimistic that this clustering effect will bring new opportunities to the emerging consumer category of niche fragrances. "The development of a new consumer category is not solely achieved by a single brand, it requires everyone's participation."

In fact, Ganghui Henglong is also consciously adjusting and guiding the brand layout of each floor, constantly enhancing the freshness of consumers. For example, the area near the entrance and exit of Line 9 of the rail transit on the underground level used to be mostly catering brands. This year, the mall has introduced trendy 3C digital accessory brands Casetify and Japanese trendy accessory brands Star Jewelry, providing more consumer choices for the young customers attracted by the rail transit stations.

Integrating into "Daxujiahui"

Passing through Huashan Road, there is ONE ITC, also known as a luxury shopping mall; Crossing Gongcheng Road, you will find the Xujiahui Center with a total construction area of 900000 square meters; Even standing on the west side of the shopping mall, one can intuitively feel the "oppressive feeling" of the Twin Towers in Xujiahui Center. Therefore, the launch of asset upgrades at Hong Kong Hui Hang Lung Plaza has always been seen by the industry as a proactive move to seek innovation and change, and to break through the challenges posed by its "giant" neighbors.

In the late 1990s, the upcoming Ganghui Square was also a "giant" for other commercial entities in the Xujiahui commercial district at that time. The super large construction area of 120000 square meters, up to 94 elevators, and an underground parking lot with over 1400 parking spaces have epoch-making leading significance for Shanghai, which was in the early stages of developing large shopping centers at that time.

In the late 1990s, the under construction Ganghui Henglong Plaza.

"When I was in high school, the first floor of Ganghui was still a fast fashion brand like Miss Six, and there was also Xinhua Bookstore on the fifth floor. Now the whole place has changed a lot, looking at the mall gradually upgrading to the current high-end and fashionable appearance." Miss Wu said.

But even if it turns into a luxury shopping mall, Hong Kong Hui Henglong has always actively integrated into the renewal process of the Xujiahui commercial district. Last January, the second phase of Xujiahui Overpass Corridor was opened. Xuhui District overcame multiple construction challenges and erected an aerial corridor spanning Hongqiao Road between Ganghui Henglong and Dongfang Shopping Mall, providing a three-dimensional crossing system from underground, ground, and air to major shopping malls. During a previous interview with the Xuhui District Construction and Management Committee, the reporter learned that when the first phase of Xujiahui Corridor construction was launched in 2017, Ganghui Henglong voluntarily proposed to reserve alternative locations for the corridor interface and cooperate with the corridor construction.

Xujiahui Overpass Corridor Phase II leading to Ganghui Henglong Plaza

Now, stepping onto the Hongqiao section of the Xujiahui Overpass Corridor not only provides a new perspective on the Xujiahui commercial district's "Big Circle", but also overlooks the art square with a more transparent view after the removal of the "Big Steps" in Ganghui. During Christmas, when a Christmas tree installation is erected at the entrance of the shopping mall, the overpass and corridor also become excellent check-in points, attracting people to stop in the commercial district.

With the update of spatial structure and brand matrix, Ganghui Henglong has actively promoted various themed activities and joint flash mobs in recent years. The Pixar Maomao Carnival in December last year and the exclusive promotional event linked to the Chinese version of the musical "Phantom of the Theater" in May this year have both received high attention both online and offline. Whether it's the plush cartoon characters scattered throughout the shopping mall or the immersive musical performance space that turns the mall into an immersive space, it constantly brings new attention to this old brand mall born in the millennium era, making it a representative of Hong Kong funded commercial real estate leading and integrating consumer markets and trends.