Do we still need offline consumption? How to "seek change" in physical commercial spaces?, Digital consumption continues to be active
In the era of digital economy, emerging technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and big models are reshaping consumer scenarios and experiences. Consumer shopping methods and attitudes have undergone profound changes. How can commercial spaces "adapt" and "seek change"? Recently, the fifth high-level seminar on "Big Data and Business Environment" in 2023 and the "Urban Revitalization Observation" series salon of the Urban Revitalization Research Institute were held at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, where experts, scholars, and business representatives discussed the updating of commercial space in the digital consumption era.
Generation Z is willing to pay for "appearance" and "attention"
How can urban commercial spaces be updated under new consumption patterns, formats, and concepts? Shen Kaiyan, Director of the Institute of Economics at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that this question should be considered and answered in the context of Shanghai's construction as an international consumer center city. Building Shanghai as an international consumer center city is a national strategic requirement and a major goal of Shanghai's 14th Five Year Plan. The construction of the consumer ecosystem mainly depends on the optimization of the consumption environment. world-class commercial district planning guidelines can be formulated, and the functional positioning of the core commercial district can be comprehensively considered. Multiple departments can collaborate to build world-class iconic commercial districts. We should inherit the concept of digitalization, integrate business, tourism, and culture, combine software and hardware, innovate diverse and colorful consumption models, create a consumption environment that is close to and far away, build a well-known consumer business district, form a consumer supply network with tens of thousands of merchants, and ultimately form an international consumption ecosystem that leads fashion and defines trends.
Recently, hot topics such as Zibo barbecue and Luoyang Hanfu have gone viral, driving a cultural and tourism boom in their respective cities. Zhan Yubo, Director of the Innovation Economy Research Center at the Institute of Economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the essence of these successful cases is that cities strive to highlight their unique characteristics by combining their own cultural traditions, and combining them with cultural tourism and creative industries to drive consumption and develop urban economy. In the context of digital transformation, major cities are exploring development paths that are in line with their own characteristics. In the future, more attention should be paid to content mining, strengthening digital empowerment and policy support.
"The emergence of large models will lead to more and more marginal costs being transformed into fixed costs in the future, which contain new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship." Shan Dongming, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Promotion Department of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, pointed out that our business, consumption, and retail should learn to accelerate the embrace of an era empowered by large models, and the core is to solve identity issues, new connectivity issues, and value closed-loop issues. Nowadays, Generation Z consumers have stepped onto the stage of history, and the changes in consumer entities have brought about a shift in consumer logic. They are willing to pay for their appearance and attention, while actively embracing digital assets. In the future, business innovation should establish parallel thinking and laboratory thinking to better understand the consumer psychology of Generation Z.
Li Genguo, Secretary General of Shanghai Big Data Alliance and Director of Shanghai Supercomputing Center, pointed out that digitalization must be combined with economic and social production in order to truly promote development. The large model itself may be difficult to form a commercial closed loop, but applying this technology to the actual production and consumption process will have a strong promoting effect on consumption.
Offline physical space should pay more attention to emotional and experiential consumption
Does the continued active online consumption mean that offline consumption is no longer needed? In the view of Xu Jingquan, founder of the Urban Revitalization Research Institute and vice chairman of the Shanghai Big Data Alliance, the answer is negative because the experiential value of offline consumption cannot be completely replaced. With the bidirectional integration of virtual space and physical space, the traditional offline consumption model in the past urgently needs to be updated and replaced. Functional consumption and traditional physical consumption should gradually shift towards experiential consumption and emotional consumption.
So, what kind of offline space can better attract and stimulate consumer demand? Cui Yiyi, Senior Director of Chongbang Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., shared her experience with "Jinchao 8 Lane". The project uses the opportunity of Shanghai style culture and China-Chic to try to open up a new business scene. Through the way of decorating historical buildings with culture and art, it will simultaneously drive the humanistic experience, drama performance, avant-garde clothing, popular catering and night entertainment.
Fan Wenbing, a dual professor from the School of Design at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the China Institute of Urban Governance, believes that commercial physical building spaces play an intermediary role in the process of consumer consumption. In the context of digital transformation, physical space needs to compete fiercely with virtual space, and through spatial transformation and upgrading, the "physical presence rate" of consumers in offline physical space needs to be improved.
This event is jointly organized by the Institute of Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, the Shanghai Big Data Alliance, and the Urban Revitalization Research Institute. It is also co organized by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and organized by the Big Data and Digital Economy Research Center of the Institute of Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Shanghai Jiadao Information Technology Co., Ltd. Tang Yiwen, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, presided over the meeting.
