Epidemic-hit retailers eyeing diverse strategies to attract more consumers

Shoppers buy electronic goods at a duty-free store in Haikou, Hainan province. The company decided to change tack as female professionals, its key target audience, started showing a preference for originality in designs and product promotions, said Shen Ruihua, the marketing and sales head for Rose Ling Ling's third-party channels. Consumption is set to steadily surge as people pursue a sense of certainty since going through the pandemic, wishing to "reorient themselves with a sense of certainty, regain control, and establish a new order," said Jin Liyin, a marketing professor at the School of Management at Fudan University in Shanghai. The introduction of FunFactory, which hosts live talk shows popular with the younger mass, is the latest addition of social elements to the iconic Xintiandi complex, said Chen Chun, commercial director overseeing several properties and also head of content innovation department at Xintiandi. To quench the growing thirst for immersive shopping experiences, Chen said the mall is incorporating elements like design, social activities and gourmet offerings, which serve to "reinvigorate the interplay among people, product and places".