If there’s a theme to our favourite new stores in Shanghai, it’s one of evolution. Brands from all sorts of sectors are using physical retail to reposition their business in some way.

We also found one of our favourite new indie retail spaces, which understands community perfectly.

Zara

This new flagship space is a great example of how Zara is constantly exploring new concepts for its stores.

Rather than a clearly one-off concept, the store feels like a testbed for ideas that you could see translated to other Zara stores. Notable additions are the dedicated fragrance zone, presenting Zara as more of a lifestyle brand, and a private shopping Salon for one-to-one consultations.

It’s another way that Zara is premiumising its customer experience and differentiating itself from other fast fashion names.

Image credit – Birkenstock

Birkenstock 

We’ve talked before about how community has become a buzzword for brands opening new stores but – depending on your definition of community – the resulting spaces don’t always feel like they live up to the term.

This is Birkenstock’s first Community Experience store and our take is that it’s more of a service-led and wellness-led concept. But it does build on the brand’s heritage and expertise in a new way.

Birkenstock sells its products through wellness and foot health benefits. A few years ago it introduced a foot care product range and this space takes that a step further by offering foot care treatments. The store also actively communicates the benefits of its philosophy of natural walking with in-store displays and workshops.

As retail becomes more crowded, brands are using their history and experience to stand out. Wellness is also a massive growth area so Birkenstock’s centering of this makes it more than a footwear brand in consumers’ eyes.

Warrior 1927

Warrior is a heritage Chinese footwear business that is about to hit its 100 year birthday. This new flagship space is dedicated to the three-year-old Warrior 1927 sub-brand, celebrating both Warrior’s long heritage and its modern evolution.

The design is one of the best combinations of futuristic and historic elements we’ve seen for a long time. Tying the three floor space together is a consistent dragon motif, but each floor has its own artistic expression of this representing the past, present, and the future.

Heritage brands always run the risk of leaning too heavily on nostalgia  in flagship stores, making them feel outdated. Warrior 1927 is a great example of incorporating forward momentum that tells younger consumers that this is also their brand. 

Image credit – Miniso

Miniso Gallery

Miniso is one of those retailers that is exploding globally, opening tons of stores selling various licensed character lifestyle goods.

But this new concept is the first step in the evolution of the brand. While stocking popular character products drives footfall, Miniso has realised that there’s even more value in owning the IPs on sale. Think Pop Mart and its Labubu and Hirono characters.

This art gallery concept is designed to help build new IPs by signing emerging artists. It gives customers a way to discover and become familiar with new characters before they see them on the shelves – which increases their connection to them. The first exhibition is by Indonesian artist Ryo Laksamana (or RYOL) who Miniso have struck a deal with. 

We’ve seen this trend playing out in other ways in other sectors, such as beauty where online marketplaces dedicated to K-Beauty and other popular niches take all their customer data and develop their own brand ranges.

The Sound Library

We love a unique retail concept and this new space from The Sound Library is fantastic.

Following on from three other spaces in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, this store is an independent music retailer with a difference. Yes, it sells records, including many from Chinese indie record labels, and stereo equipment and vinyl players. But it also sells field recordings from nature.

Specifically, these field recordings come from natural places across China, such as mountains and rivers. They give visitors a way to take home a piece of nature that they never normally could, while tapping into the wellness benefits of being out in nature.

And while the store isn’t promoted with lots of references to community, it’s a genuine community space. Music is one of the tentpole topics that communities get built around and The Sound Library supports this through listening stations where management choose the records and guests can write down their thoughts. 

The best thing retailers can do for communities is to create a place that facilitates behaviour that would happen without them and The Sound Library does this brilliantly.