In a blink of an eye, nearly three-quarters of 2020 has passed. Looking back at the first nine months, the epidemic at the beginning of the year and consumption measures in the middle of the year all changed trends in the commercial real estate industry.

After the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of shopping malls across the country increased, passenger traffic plummeted, and the vacancy rate rose, and the wave of brand downsizing and store closures became a common phenomenon. According to the professional report of Yingshang Big Data · Zhongcheng Research Institute — “China Shopping Mall Annual Development Report and Post-epidemic Business Development Trend Research”, in the first half of 2020, the opening of stores in the entire market was almost sporadic. The overall ratio of opening and closing stores fell to 0.71 from 0.98 to 0.71, and most of them were in a state of contraction or stagnation.

Thankfully, in the context of the improvement of the epidemic and economic recovery, measures such as consumer vouchers, shopping festivals, and night economy introduced by local governments have stimulated commercial vitality and consumption potential, and passenger flow for many commercial projects has recovered and even caught up with the same period in previous years. According to data, during the 818 period, Suning Plaza across the country held popular events such as various themed music festivals and IP art exhibitions, etc., and the passenger flow recovery rate reached 153% compared to last year.

In terms of increments,SuningIt has also maintained a strong momentum of development.

On September 30 this year, three Suning Tesco plazas in Chengdu, Jinhu in Huai'an, and Sujiatun in Shenyang will open at the same time. Then, until the beginning of next year, shopping centers such as Zhuzhou Suning Plaza, Fuzhou Suning Plaza C and A, Taiyuan Suning Plaza, Shaoxing Suning Plaza, Hefei Suning Plaza, Shenyang Suning Plaza, Suzhou Suning Plaza, and Fushun Suning Tesco Plaza will open one after another.

Now that the most difficult stage of preventing and controlling the epidemic has passed, how can we further stimulate consumer market popularity and promote the full restoration of business order? In response to this, in addition to launching the Consumer Promotion Month campaign, Suning Plaza also launched the “Lighthouse Project” in due course to build a benchmark brand through joint in-store merchants and launch a series of brand support programs to continue to meet diversified and personalized needs.With consumption promotion, the “Lighthouse Plan” was launched for the first time

With the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, the shopping atmosphere in shopping malls continues to rise.

In early September, the Ministry of Commerce released the 2020 National Consumption Promotion Month Plan to further unleash consumption potential and jointly promote consumption growth. As a landmark shopping center in the city, Suning Plaza naturally participated actively in it, and launched a “Enjoy Consumption, Better Life” consumption promotion month campaign.

As a result, Fuzhou, Wuxi, Xuzhou, Baotou, Chuzhou and other key cities announced that the 2020 National “Consumption Promotion Month” launch ceremony was held at Suning Plaza, such as: “Happy Shopping in Pengcheng” Consumption Promotion Month launch ceremony, “All Fujian Tesco and Eight Fujian Food Carnival Taijiang District Launch Ceremony”, and “Wuxi Suning Beautiful Life HUI Fun Card Launch Ceremony”.

In addition to activities related to the launch of the Consumer Promotion Month, Suning Plaza launched the “Clean Up the Light - Suning Plaza Enjoying Life Season” series of activities in September-October, launching online vouchers, beautiful life wedding events, enjoying invitations, bargaining, additional membership purchases, and celebrity meetings for the hit variety show “Sister Who Rides the Wave”Wang Zhe RongyaoThe official city competition, this is street dance, Guochao Catwalk, Guofeng Street Dance, and Guochao Shiguang Market, etc., fully stimulate consumer enthusiasm.

It is worth noting that while boosting consumer confidence, Suning Plaza also pays great attention to joint brand merchants to create brand marketing events, and has formulated a “lighthouse plan” from this to achieve win-win cooperation.

A lighthouse, as the name suggests, indicates a beacon that indicates direction in the dark. The lighthouse in Suning Plaza refers to brand merchants with excellent products, experiences, and environments, but they may not be well known. The lighthouse plan is for Suning Plaza to give these brands a series of activities and exposure support.

The lighthouse plan mainly consists of two parts. On the one hand, it is based on the selection of merchants, and the lighthouse merchant certification is carried out for high-quality selection of merchants in the venue; on the other hand, it is a conceptual construction of good things that shine brightly.

Specifically, Suning Plaza will select Suning Plaza's most classic and representative products and brand merchants through internal selection, strict selection by general managers, etc., and award them “Suning Plaza Glowing Goods” and “Suning Plaza Lighthouse Brand” certification certificates, and receive Suning Plaza's online and offline omni-channel brand exposure support; launch a superbrand day event for exclusive member marketing support on Member Day; and in the general manager's live broadcast room, carry out special subsidies and special brand live streaming events.

Among them, the “Suning Plaza Lighthouse Brand” certification favors merchants with a high degree of compatibility, good product quality, and high consumer recognition, and merchants with excellent product quality, but unpopular and isolated brands or locations also require supportive certification; the conceptual construction of “Suning Plaza Glows Good Things” is biased towards the promotion level, and will be promoted through live broadcasts by the general manager, online broadcasts at the venue, Shiguang Market, etc.

“The lighthouse plans to also create an offline consumption list for every consumer arriving at the square, providing a consumer guide as a vision.”

This year, “Project Lighthouse” will debut. After that, Suning will also regard it as a long-term brand support plan and continue to carry it out.

Multi-brand visits to build a deep cooperation model

While supporting small and micro brands through the “Lighthouse Project,” Suning Plaza also welcomed visits and strategic contracts from well-known domestic and foreign chain brands.

According to reports, since late July this year, the Suning headquarters has welcomed one after anotherStarbucks,Baosheng International,Wei LoeAutomobiles, Evry Group, Tsutaya Bookstore,SkechersChina,Anton,Li NingSenior corporate brands such as Xinyu Group, and Jiudingxuan visited. The two sides had strategic communication on diversified industrial resources, further expansion of the scale of cooperation, and marketing cooperation strategies, and Suning Plaza reached a strategic agreement with NIO Auto.

According to the strategic cooperation agreement signed between Suning and NIO, the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation in various fields to jointly bring consumers a new experience of a better life. The main expression is that Suning Plaza's national projects will comprehensively promote the construction of NIO House and NIO Space showrooms, and reach entry points for cooperation in intelligent manufacturing, Suning Hotels, and Suning Tesco Cloud.

(Suning and NIO sign a strategic cooperation agreement)

During the talks with Starbucks, the two sides had proactive communication on Starbucks flagship stores, baking workshops, selection stores, and regular stores, and customized cooperation with high-end boutique Suning Plaza, fashion trendy Suning Plaza, and Suning Tesco Plaza to enhance the consumer experience. In 2020, there are a total of 8 planned Starbucks positions in Suning Plaza's planned opening projects.

(Suning Plaza and Starbucks deepen strategic cooperation)

On August 28, Tsutaya Investment and his entourage visited the Suning headquarters and had in-depth communication on the Suning Real Estate Group's national layout, product line, and digital management platform, and the two sides reached a consensus to promote customized cultural and artistic spaces for offline scenarios such as Suning Plaza, focusing on the value realization of physical bookstores in smart commercial complexes.

(Suning Plaza and Tsutaya Investment discuss cooperation)

Since September 15, Skechers China, Anta Group, and Li Ning have visited Suning headquarters and reached a consensus with Suning on cooperation matters, which indicates that Suning Plaza will pay more attention to the expansion of sports categories and promote a greener and healthier consumer lifestyle. According to the cooperation agreement, Skechers will further expand online and offline strategic cooperation with Suning to build the Skechers Super Store flagship store, and achieve a transaction scale exceeding 500 million within three years; Anta Group will work with Suning Department Store,CarrefourCombining various offline scenarios, and by 2023, the two sides will reach a cooperation plan for 32 projects, deploy 100+ stores in total, and achieve a sales scale exceeding 500 million yuan. In the next two years, Li Ning and Suning will cooperate deeply with Li Ning flagship stores, benchmark stores, and fashion fashion stores such as Li Ning and Li Ning and Young in China.

Through strategic cooperation agreements or agreements between Suning and these brands, it is easy to see that Suning Plaza has always maintained a good cooperation model with partner merchants to achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation.

Become a “retail service provider” and focus on good service

2020 is Suning's “year of independence”. Exploring the development history of Suning Plaza, service has always been its foundation.

At the 818 press conference this year, Suning defined the next ten years as “ten years of scenario retail service”, fully upgrading from a “retailer” to a “retail service provider”, focusing on good service. Implemented in practice, Suning will strengthen the opening up of basic retail capabilities, help more small and medium-sized retailers succeed, and allow users to get services closer and more conveniently.

Regarding “focus on good service,” Suning Chairman Zhang Dongdong's interpretation is: we should adhere to “altruism” and let users “take advantage.” Taking the Suning Tesco 818 shopping feast as an example, you can not only enjoy “J-10%” covering twice the number of popular products, but you can also enjoy super tight price discounts such as a 10% reduction in the purchase price of popular products on the Youshang platform, and the “Expensive Claim, Delayed Claim, and Rapid Refund” Suning's three service benchmark products. At the same time, in order to better serve “young people,” Suning Tesco has also launched live broadcasts from a large number of celebrity superbuyers to reach young people efficiently.

Recently, Suning Plaza is also continuously optimizing its service content. Whether Suning Plaza is launching a monthly consumer promotion campaign, launching the “Lighthouse Plan”, or signing a win-win cooperation strategy with domestic and foreign brands, it is implementing the concept of “focus on good service”.

In fact, Suning has done far more than that. In order to optimize scenario services, Suning will open up online and offline digitalization, help retailers upgrade scenario capabilities, and collaborate with brands to reach users more efficiently. The most intuitive manifestation is the new revision of the Suning Plaza app.

According to information, the upcoming Suning Plaza App 5.0 will present a new visual and interactive experience. It can grasp discount information on various projects across the country with one hand, and has a professional shopping guide page, with more detailed and comprehensive services. At that time, Suning Plaza's “Lighthouse Brands” and “Good Things That Shine” lists will also be launched simultaneously. In addition to free shipping nationwide at brand counters and online and offline discounts, consumers can experience the products and services of Suning Plaza across the country anytime, anywhere.

It can be said that in the next ten years, Suning Plaza's “focus on good service” path has only just begun.