TX Huaihai Youth Energy Center is a concept mall in Shanghai designed to keep young affluent urban shoppers returning to its physical location again and again.
Unlike most traditional malls that are anchored by big brands signing long-term leases, TX is built around a pop-up style concept. TX Huaihai recruits the best-selling up-and-coming brands on Alibaba ecommerce site Taobao and offers them rent-free three month stints in the mall. TX Huaihai takes a cut of all of their sales and only invites them to extend their stay if they hit their sales targets.
This approach flips the paradigm of mall retail, using online communities to drive traffic in-store and really putting the pressure on each individual tenant to make their sales targets. It also creates a vibrant space that is constantly updating and changing as new even-more-popular online brands move into the physical retail spaces.
Another thing that differentiates TX Huaihai from the traditional mall is its layout. Rather than having fixed and uniform retail units, TX Huaihai is designed more like a labyrinth that visitors explore.
As with rent, brands are given free use of TX Huaihai’s exhibition spaces to hold their events, but they must guarantee that they will generate a set level of footfall and sales to qualify. While most of TX’s brands are up-and-coming digital first brands, the likes of Fendi, Nike and G-Shock, who have traditional flagships nearby, have made use of the exhibition space.
TX Huaihai uses sophisticated data collection tools, including cameras and AI visual recognition, to detect basic demographic information on consumers and analyse store traffic patterns. “TX Huaihai is operated like a giant website,” said Jiang Dan, COO of Shanghai QXTEC, a supplier for the mall’s digital ecosystem. “We are constantly running A/B testing models to look at ways we can improve performance.”
TX Huaihai is based in a six-storey building that previously housed two traditional retail big hitters: Japan’s Isetan department store and Germany’s Media Markt. In addition to the pop-up concept, the mall also has a unique nightclub on the top floor built in collaboration with projection mapping and digital technology experts teamlab.
Despite launching during the pandemic, TX Huaihai had more than 5 million visitors in 2020.
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