Can Child Formats Save Shopping Centres From Homogenization?

Children's play is popular.

Since 2014, there has been little time to see Zheng exhibition in Beijing.

As the chief executive officer of Rong fusion Road (China), Zheng was occupied by developers in the first half of the year, and the latter frequently invited them to visit the shopping centers in different cities.

As a matter of fact, the 8 new stores planned for the new year this year have basically been finalized, but the invitations are still flying like snowflakes.

The "hospitality" enjoyed by Mr. Zheng is just a microcosm of the current child industry in China.

According to the survey by Rong Dao China, at present, apart from the rapid development of Tuo shop, the innovation rate of domestic children's formats is also very fast, from baby products and children. Clothes & Accessories Children's photography, children's playground, children's experience Museum, early childhood education institution, children's restaurant, children's bookstore and so on are divided into eight categories. Children's consumption industry listed companies have reached 31, showing an upward trend year by year.

In the channel, children's business has entered the shopping mall era from the street stores that used to be stragglers. Nowadays, the mainstream shopping centers in cities such as North, upper, broad and deep cities are becoming the main form of business after department stores, hypermarkets, cinemas, restaurants, etc. some shopping centers even open up more than 15%-25% of the business area for children's entertainment. This does not include children's retail stores such as baby products and children's clothing. In the past, the proportion of children in traditional shopping centers accounted for only about 5%.

　 　 Shopping Mall Why do we value children's business so seriously?

From the macro market perspective, Wang Jing, chairman of Jiuzhou prospective business management office, said that in the seventh China commercial real estate development summit held by search network, China only buys 30 yuan per person per year, and the figure in the United States is 3000 yuan. From the perspective of consumption potential, the market of children's formats should be a market with great potential for development in the future.

According to a survey conducted by China in 2007, the proportion of children aged 0-14 and 23% accounted for about 23% of the total household expenditure in the 123 cities of the country. By 2013, the proportion of children aged 0-14 to household expenditure increased to 33%.

The release of the "two child alone" policy has also brought huge benefits. Official data show that starting next year, China will add 8 million new babies on the original basis in three years.

From the point of view of shopping center management, children experience Museum, children's restaurant and other deep experience business type is exactly the "competition magic weapon" that the shopping center needs to respond to the impact of the electricity supplier. Facing the online shopping online shopping, the shopping center is in urgent need of children's format to bring huge popularity.

And in 2015, the domestic shopping center will gather more than 4000 white hot competition, the lack of domestic retail brands, homogenization of the current situation, how to make their shopping center "long" slightly different appearance to attract consumers, in the restaurant business area increased to 30% -40% proportion, the future potential of children's good format is regarded as the shopping center to save homogenization and passenger flow decline of the last "straw".

　 Making money is hard to make money.

There is no doubt that children's formats can bring great popularity to shopping centers, but for shopping center investors and operators, "popularity" can not be directly equated with "money".

According to an interview with the China Commercial Daily reporter, at present, many shopping centers in Beijing and Guangzhou have expanded the brand investment of children's formats in the past two years, and promoted the sale of children's shopping centers by upgrading and upgrading children's formats.

But for more Shopping Mall In terms of investors and operators, is it necessary to extend the format of children? How to extend? How big is it? Actually, it is a very headache problem.

Jia Tao, vice president of Shanghai Red Star Business Development Co., Ltd., also said in a forum that children's format brands enter the shopping center first, which requires long lease and large area, and the rent is too low. "At the same time, we were very confused because we were too low to cut meat." Jia Tao said.

Take the children's experience Museum in China for example, each child experience museum's investment is at least 60 million yuan, and the cost recovery period will take at least three and a half years. The longer the shop is, the longer the profit period will be. "Children's business project has a large amount of investment in the early stage, and the rental income is not enough to recover the cost," Zheng said.

To solve the problem of "making money" and "making money", the solution to the commercial real estate leader Wanda is to do it by itself. According to the disclosure of Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, Wanda will enter the chain of children's entertainment formats and be divided into two brands, one is the "Baby King" with an area of 5000 square meters, 11 projects will be opened this year, the first is the "children's paradise" with an area of twenty thousand square meters. Wanda has commissioned five famous companies worldwide to develop 86 kinds of children's experience amusement products and have bought out intellectual property rights.

Zheng exhibition is not optimistic about Wanda like this practice, he believes that children's format "play" is the feelings and experience, for new entrants, innovation is very important, if children do not pay attention to the final consumer groups, innovation will run away; "children experience formats are different in every store, unlike Department stores, theaters and so on can quickly gain advantage through scale expansion, the core of children's experience shop is professional team, not capital."

Wang Qinghua, vice president of joy world (Beijing) Sports Management Co., Ltd. also believes that the first problem to be solved in children's formats is parents' trust in brands, which requires support from hard and software.

In Zheng's view, the best way is to develop joint ventures between developers and brands. Developers can be divided into businesses, and brands can gain market share, enhance their needs and achieve win-win results. Zheng Zhan believes that there will be more and more projects for developers to participate in the development of children's experience in the future, and may become the mainstream trend to solve future earnings problems.

　　 "Children" is only an introduction to family consumption.

The consensus of the industry is that children's formats are not only for children but for children's entire families.

Wang Jing believes that the children's industry is part of "family entertainment". Shopping centres should not emphasize children unilaterally, but should be a process of family, parent child interaction, and the needs of infants, children, children and children should be divided into different market segments.

"Children are just an introduction. From the experience and management mode, they should focus more on families." Wang Qinghua also believes that many children's formats are meticulously concerned about children in business, but they often tend to ignore accompanying parents. "It is the parents who really decide how long the children spend and how much they spend," Wang Qinghua said.

At present, the practice of some children's format enterprises is to make up with other formats. For example, skating rink, children skating, parents can go to the movie theater next to free or preferential price to see movies, and use joint management to solve family consumption problems.

Wang Qinghua told the China Commercial Daily reporter that in the future, China's children's formats will show a trend of segmentation. At present, the enterprises of children's formats should not just stay in the integration and import of good projects abroad, but also take care of the children's "anti trend" demand characteristics after 2000. In addition, the responsibility of children's formats is to help families run after 80 and 90, to balance children's education and entertainment. Children's formats need to be integrated into education, business, consumption, parents' growth class, etc. This is a challenge and a great opportunity for the future.

Lu Xingtai, deputy director of the retail research center of Peking University, is concerned that there is a great potential in theory for children's catering, but at present, the domestic children's catering business is still in an empty state and the product can not keep up with the embarrassment of consumers. "How to make children's food and drink?"

According to Wang Jingqiang, children's format is not the ultimate solution to the homogenization of shopping centers. Shopping center projects need to suit the local conditions and find the interface and unique selling points of the project itself.