Chongqing- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is building itself into an international consumption center by injecting global, green, intelligent, and people-oriented development resources. For example, the Liangjiang New Area strives to leverage relevant resources to upgrade business centers at different levels.

Rising of business centers

"Hanging out in the park while shopping is quite a new experience," said Mr. Zhao, who lives in Jiangbei District and takes his family to visit The Ring on April 23.

The Ring is a shopping mall located in Liangjiang New Area. It has presented a series of activities to emphasize the harmonious coexistence between people, nature, and the city, including the largest Lupine flower sea among urban shopping malls, Monet's garden oil paintings display, and tent bazaar and trunk bazaar. Now, it has become a landmark featuring fashion and consumption in Chongqing.

There is a growing number of "visitors" like Mr. Zhao. In 2021, The Ring opened eight months ago and has already achieved a revenue of over 1.4 billion yuan, about 210 million U.S. dollars, and welcomed more than 15 million people.

In Chongqing, Cuntan International New Town is developing its Cruise Home Port Area, Bonded Economic Area, and Fashion Consumption Area as the key parts of building an international consumption center city to cultivate new world-class business districts. Attention switching to the Lijia Business Center, Lijia Paradise Walk combines a waterfront park and a commercial park. Chongqing's first high-end membership warehouse store, Sam's Club, is offering new lifestyle experiences.

At the foot of Zhaomu Mountain sits Zhaomushan Business Center consisting of Chongqing Fortune Mall, Xinghui Liangjiang Art Business Center, and other venues to develop new business formats combining nature, culture, art, and other elements. Auto Exposition Business Center strives to build a hub for auto cultural communication.

First stores driving consumption

Brands must utilize the first store's influence in driving consumption to develop differentiated consumption scenarios and unique cultures.

Kidzplorer opened its first Chongqing store in The Ring and received visits of tens of thousands of families in the summer holiday of 2021. Tsingtao Brewery also located its first Chongqing store in The Ring. When summer arrives, drinking Tsingtao beer while enjoying grilled seafood at night is trendy among young people, boosting the development of its night-time economy.

Furthermore, Chongqing's first experience store of the Tank brand is also situated in The Ring. "We chose here because of its rapid economic growth, consumption environment, and geographical location," said the experience store manager.

The store of secoo.com in Chongqing's Palm Springs Mall provides an excellent example of online-to-offline commerce. It is the first flagship store in Southwest China. It sells discounted products from various luxury brands such as Hermes, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton. Besides, it also offers maintenance, identification, recovery, and resale services for second-hand luxury products.

Transformation and upgrading

"It is necessary for an international consumption center city to go premium and local. This means to build a group of high-end consumption scenarios districts, at the same time, to commercialize the surrounding communities in a refined way," said Xu Youting, senior assistant director of Savills Chongqing Strategy Advisory Department.

A tiered business district pattern enjoying diverse business formats has taken shape in Liangjiang New Area. Economic effects have been released gradually. In the first quarter of 2022, the total retail sales of social consumer goods grew by 6.3% year on year, 2.1 percentage points higher than the municipal level and three percentage points higher than the national level.

A host of new business centers, new consumption landmarks, and contemporary urban cultural IP will appear in Chongqing, helping Chongqing become an international consumption center city.