72 online flagship stores register in Shanghai

The "first store economy" in Shanghai and the rapid development of the digital economy under epidemic conditions are accelerating the emergence of "digital first stores".

In less than three months this year, 72 online flagship stores of famous brands from more than 20 countries and regions have been registered in Shanghai and opened through the Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall, local media have reported.

Of the 72 brands, 11 come from the United States, 11 from Japan, six from the United Kingdom, six from South Korea, four from France and four from Germany. Among them are the world's leading home furnishing retailer, Ikea, US designer brand Alexander Wang, Japanese fashion clothing brand Bape and French dental care brand Regenerate.

Offline stores are interacting with online stores in Shanghai. Costco, the largest US warehouse retailer, opened its first store on the Chinese mainland in Shanghai in 2019, while ALDI, a century-old German supermarket chain, opened its first two physical stores in Asia in Shanghai's Minhang and Jing'an districts last June. In fact, Costco and ALDI opened overseas flagship stores on Tmall International platform respectively in 2014 and 2017.

Zhang Sihan, Costco's president for Asia, said that based on Tmall's operating data from the past five years, the company found that its main consumer group was in East China, and the online sales performance was in line with expectations. Therefore, the company decided to go offline and take the lead in Shanghai "first-store economy".