Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall Renovated and Opens to Business Soon

By Yin Jianhua

Recently, Hongkou unveiled the renovation plan for Quyang Business Center. In the future, the business center will be renovated into the Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall. According to Shanghai Bailian Group, the new shopping mall will open to business at the end of September 2019. It will become a commercial complex with a supermarket satisfying resident’s needs in routine life, venues for holding parent-child activities and restaurants that satisfy the needs of post-80s and post-90s consumers. Residents look forward to going shopping in the new shopping mall.

Hongkou government and residents showed concern for the renovation project for Quyang Business Center since the past year. Hongkou District Party Committee and Hongkou District Government attached great importance to the renovation project for Quyang Business Center. Government departments created good business environment for the construction project of Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall. Officials of Shanghai Bailian Group appreciated the participation, advanced efforts and service spirit of the district government.

Quyang Business Center was founded in the 1990s. It hosted the East China Fair and the science and technology festival. E-Mart, the first foreign-funded supermarket, and the first household appliance market in Shanghai, also opened to business here, making Quyang Business Center an unforgettable memory for many Shanghai citizens. In recent years, business of these shops is declining. On December 31, 2016, JSWB, E-Mart and the household appliance city concluded business. Quyang Business Center bid farewell to residents. Ms. Yu, a resident living in a community nearby, said that since E-Mart concluded business, it’s inconvenient for residents to go shopping. They have to go to faraway places for buying things. They showed great concern for the renovation project of Quyang Business Center, and look forward to seeing a new shopping mall.

Shanghai Bailian Group took over Quyang Business Center in 2014. As a large state-owned enterprise in Shanghai, Bailian Group has 19 large comprehensive shopping centers, e.g. the commercial center of the First Department Store, Bailian Nanfang Shopping Mall and Xijiao Bailian Shopping Mall. The company has laid a solid foundation in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta and has abundant resources and experiences in brand appeal and sinking of marketing channel.

To solve problems for residents, the district government and departments in charge of business discussed issues of positioning of commercial facilities with Bailian Group and investigated market demands, and finally, determined the positioning for the new shopping mall: an economic, classic mid-range and high-end commercial complex welcomed by the people. To ensure the shopping mall open to business as soon as possible, the government departments of Hongkou also actively explored approaches. On the weekend, staffs of the district construction and transport commission studied technical issues related to getting construction permits for the shopping mall, and issued construction permits in the afternoon when they received the application; the district market supervision authority gave instructions to the preparatory team of Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall on issues such as putting on record for the shopping mall and notes for applying business licenses for shops; the legal issues team under the district united front works department offered consultation service on law to Bailian Group; the government also organized staffs in banks to install POS terminals for small and medium-sized merchants and offer consultation service on financing issues.

Quyang Road Sub-district, where the project settled in, established “two mechanisms and one group” to assist the Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall. Qin Hongwei, deputy director of Quyang Road Sub-district Office, said that the “group mechanism” means to establish a team for staffs from organizations that the enterprise needs to contact with at the preparatory stage for the shopping mall, such as the Party construction office, the community management office, the community safety office and Yun’er neighborhood committee. The sub-district office also invited two designers to help the company solve detailed problems, such as development and planning of community and coordination of relations with residents. Quyang Road Sub-district established a “partnership mechanism” with the preparatory group of Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall. The sub-district office visits, communicates with the preparatory group every week and holds meeting with the preparatory group regularly to know what problems the enterprise has in road traffic and setting parking spaces and help the enterprise contact to government departments at the municipal and the district level; Quyang Road Sub-district established a WeChat group named “Office of Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall” to convey requirements, such as requirements for 5G and waste sorting, to Bailian Group on time. The sub-district office also sent netizen’s and resident’s suggestions on WeChat account, “Shanghai Hongkou” to the preparatory group for urging the shopping mall to develop towards a direction that satisfies the needs of residents and meets the orientation requested by the government.

Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall will become a “multi-dimensional shopping mall connecting people, venues and materials”. It follows the SCT business concept: “Social Connect Together” and emphasizes socializing, connection and sharing that can be seen everywhere. It inherits “noble, but affordable” elements of high quality life, takes diversified cultural life in the city as its starting point, explores the modes of “tradition + fashion” and “experience + knowledge”, breaks conventional ways of doing business, adds fashionable interactive experiences and becomes a pioneer of urban culture and commerce.

In the shopping mall after renovation, consumers will find indoor themed blocks and theatres renovated from containers, fashionable and artistic commodities, and the largest multifunctional, immersive interactive space for parents and kids in Hongkou District. In the whole shopping mall, about 30 percent of areas will be occupied by mid-range and high-end dining brands and time-honored brands of China, providing consumers with delicious traditional Chinese dishes. Other brands, e.g. Will’s, Duoduotao, Babemax, Kid’s Station, Education First, Innisfree, Dyson, Chow Tai Fook and Red Star Cinema, will also settle in the shopping mall to bring diversified digital and recreational experiences to residents.

Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall will also establish a “community manager team” to have more direct and intensive communication and interaction with consumers, explore new ways of doing retailing business, bring new shopping experiences to consumers and create a new symbol for the “shopping in Shanghai” brand.

Xu Qin, director of Hongkou District Business Commission, said that to adapt to new trends on the consumer market, Hongkou will stimulate innovative development of community commerce by building more commercial complexes in communities like Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall, construct a commercial service circle that benefits the people and satisfies the needs of residents and industrial parks for commercial facilities. Meanwhile, the district government will guide Shanghai Bailian Group to build Bailian Quyang Shopping Mall into a commercial center in the northern and central area of Hongkou, give full play to its role in surrounding business environment and enhance the standard of business in the northern part of Hongkou.