The 12th floor of IMIX+ overlooks the skyline in central Chongqing. (Photo/China Daily)

Chongqing - Where storage bays once stood, shoppers now step into boutiques staged like immersive sets. A transformed lane has become a testing ground for experience-driven retail, offering a timely glimpse into how physical stores are being reinvented.

In 2025, IMIX+, a wholesale-plus-retail professional clothing market in Chongqing, opened a boutique street on its 12th-floor rooftop. It covers more than 3,500 square meters, and more than ten fashion labels opened their first stores there. IMIX+ wants the street to become the region's top fashion destination.

IMIX+ sits between Jiefangbei, the commercial heart of Chongqing, and Chaotianmen, the riverside quarter that built the city's clothing trade. At its peak in the 1990s, Chaotianmen hosted more than 20 wholesale markets and over 13,000 vendors, making it the center of garment wholesaling in the southwest. Online commerce after 2000 eroded that model. The small, scattered stalls no longer offered what people wanted.

To overhaul the old models, IMIX+ opened in 2018 as the first clothing market in Chongqing and the wider southwest to combine wholesale and retail under one roof. Each floor had a clear categorical delineation of spaces and purpose, a sharp break from the old bazaars. That format drew in veteran wholesalers in Chaotianmen, who wanted to build brands of their own. They used the rooftop as a storage place until 2025.

From its panoramic terrace, shoppers look out over the layered hillside towers of downtown Chongqing. More than ten independent labels have moved in since the lane opened. During holiday peaks, the lane helps lift the whole mall to around 100,000 visitors a day.

Shops already occupy the 12th floor of IMIX+ in central Chongqing. (Photo/China Daily)

Among the brand owners daring to take up the new rooftop space is Zhang Lingchuan, who has been at IMIX+ for more than six years. Zhang has chosen to place the latest expansion on top of the mall as the brand's first retail experience store.

Zhang has personally watched the changing tides of this trade. On the wholesale side, shop owners now order through supply chain platforms and rarely visit markets in person. "A trip costs time and travel money," he said. "More importantly, a single store doesn't have enough purchasing power to secure bulk-order prices."

Retail habits changed as well. Young shoppers want an outing that is both photogenic and enjoyable, so the setting now matters as much as the clothes. 

The rooftop street was built for that shift. Unlike the wholesale stalls downstairs, the lane resembles a small urban complex that mixes shopping and leisure. One of the resident labels runs a coffee corner with a view of Raffles City Chongqing. Retro and Korean-style props dot the lane, and visitors stop to take photos.

"We sell clothes, and we also sell style and narrative," said Huang Yuedong, marketing director of IMIX+. The mall runs a livestreaming team that films street walkthroughs to draw audiences up to the roof.

The roof doubles as a runway. More than 20 launches and debut shows for clothing brands have been staged there since the lane opened. The spring and summer debut held in March 2026 drew close to one million online views.

The marketing team has to tackle the problem of getting shoppers to climb 12 floors. Huang decides to utilize the skyline as a ready backdrop. For recruiting models, the mall turned to the brand owners, since they know their target customers and what is best to present. At the opening show in late 2025, models walked in nearly 100 fall and winter outfits, and the street reached a wide audience for the first time.

What about the days when there are no fashion shows? According to Zhang, foot traffic on the roof holds up against a ground-floor store. Six months after opening, the monthly revenue reached about 200,000 yuan (about 28,000 U.S. dollars).

IMIX+ is also combining shows with promotions. Runway events happen four times a year, and vouchers are available during each show so shoppers can buy the looks they just saw. Huang said that a spring new-season show sold more than 300,000 yuan of vouchers. "The energy of the runway turned straight into spending," Huang said.

Next, the street plans to take its debut shows and original labels to international markets while nurturing local designers and homegrown brands, in line with Chongqing's broader campaign to become an international consumption hub.