Yuyuan Road stores welcome returning customers
Huang Yongjie, a cafe owner on the city's historic Yuyuan Road, was happy to see a rapid rebound in the number of customers over the weekend thanks to the waning of the coronavirus epidemic and the city's ongoing shopping festival.
He developed many new dishes and ways of serving chocolate when business was slow. His cafe, featuring a "Slowww melt" chocolate workshop, has become even more popular among both old and new customers.
"The pandemic also offered an opportunity for me to make improvements and adjustments," Huang said.
Residents and tourists have reappeared on the more than century-old downtown street which is flanked by historical villas and shops.
All the more than 100 shops along the road have restored operations since early March, and business volume has returned to the normal standard on year since May.
Zhao Guangyu, general manager with the Yuyuan Department Co., a street shop combining a cafe, fashion and art exhibition, said customer volume in May has recovered to the same level as that of 2019.
The vintage-style store at 1018 Yuyuan Road was renovated from a nearly century-old post office. The famous writer, translator and scholar Shi Zhecun (1905-2003) once lived upstairs. The inner structure has been preserved along with original pillars, wooden stairs and arched doors.
After the initial reopening in March, the store only received 10 percent of the average number of customers. Though citizens had began going out, they were still reluctant to enter a street store.
The situation has greatly improved from May, mainly boosted by the Labor Day holiday and the shopping festival, Zhao said.
Shop owners like Huang and Zhao were encouraged to develop new strategies, such opening online stores, delivery services and hosting livestream webcast to promote products. These efforts have paid off with customers returning.
A rape flower field covering 130 square meters has become an internet sensation and popular site for selfie photos on Yuyuan Road.
Near the field, a flower shop named Le Glamor has managed to make ends meet after operating at a loss during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The store owner, Mu Zi, promotes her products through a WeChat account.
By shifting her business online, she can attract about three customers every time she posts a product.
She also sells handmade coffee on site for customers attracted by the rape flower field.
"I learnt coffee making and latte art skills when I was alone in the store during the pandemic," Mu said.
She graduated from a UK university with a finance major and rented the store covering 100 square meters on Yuyuan Road after working for a local financial institute for four years. After gaining popularity among local customers, the epidemic broke out and dragged the business to the bottom, she said.
To help store owners like Mu Zi and Huang, two non-profit organizations — Shequgengxin and Kai fun — launched the "Safeguard Yuyuan Road" campaign in February.
Inspirational messages were passed between shop owners and residents, while online meetings among store owners were organized to look for cooperation and new strategies to jointly get through the difficult period.
During a video conference, the owner of a dancing studio proposed to open online classes to retain customers. The boss of a Western food restaurant named Pinkpig said she was willing to cooperate with other eateries. A Dutch lantern store owner asked the owners to open livestream webcasts to guide viewers around the road.
Based on these suggestions, a WeChat application has been developed with videos and maps introducing both the stores and historical buildings on the road.
Inspired by the initiative, Li Zhezi, operating manager with retail store Heyshop opened its first livestream webcast in February. More than 2,000 viewers watched the program.
"The online promotion activities are not easy for us brick and mortar stores, but the pandemic forced us to make adjustments," Li said.
His neighbor, a fashion store for the domestic brand Randomevent, has managed to shift the majority of its business to the Internet.
The store owner said more than 80 percent of its products are sold through its online stores now.
The store mainly serves as an exhibition site, where coffee and snacks are sold to serve the large number of visitors returning to the road, the owner said.
An ongoing facelift campaign is also being conducted to further improve the historical ambiance of the road, as well as to help attract more customers.
Historical neighborhoods, such as the Qishan Village, where missile and space scientist Qian Xuesen (1911-2009) once lived, and Yuguang Village have been refurbished.
Shanghai's government has listed Yuyuan Road as one of 64 historic streets that can never be widened, so as to preserve the historic appearances. Yuyuan Road is also one of 12 protected historic and cultural zones in the downtown area.
Yuyuan Road, which runs through Changning and Jing’an districts, dates back to 1911. It features well-preserved historical villas once home to big names such as Qian, Shi and New Zealand-born writer Rewi Alley (1897-1987), who came to Shanghai in 1927 and was later involved in China’s revolution and reconstruction.
There are more than100 stores along the road after low-end and unlicensed businesses were shut down during a facelift campaign in recent years.