Customers return to Yuyuan Road stores

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 easing of the novel 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 most of shops’ business volume has gradually rebounded.

Zhao Guangyu, general manager of Yuyuan Department Co, a street shop combining 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 (19052003) 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 begun going out, they were still reluctant to enter a street store.

The situation has greatly improved in May, mainly boosted by the Labor Day holiday and the Double Five Shopping Festival launched by the Shanghai Commerce Commission, Zhao said.

Shop owners like Huang and Zhao were encouraged to develop new strategies, such as opening online stores, delivery services and hosting live webcast to promote products. These efforts have paid off with customers returning.

An 130-square meter rape flower field has become an online sensation and a popular site for selfies on the road.

Near the field, a flower shop named Le Glamor has managed to make ends meet after operating at a loss during the 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 100square-meter store 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, Mu said.

To help store owners like Mu, two nonprofit 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 opening 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 owners to open live webcasts to guide viewers around the road.

Based on these suggestions, a WeChat application was 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 live 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 noted.

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 over 80 percent of its products are sold through its online stores now.

An ongoing facelift campaign has further improved the historical ambiance of the road. Historical neighborhoods, such as the Qishan Village, where missile and space scientist Qian Xuesen (1911-2009) once lived, and Yuguang Village, have been refurbished.

The city government has listed Yuyuan Road as one of 64 historic streets that can never be widened to preserve their historic appearance. The road is also one of 12 protected historic and cultural zones in downtown.

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 Zealandborn writer Rewi Alley (1897-1987), who came to Shanghai in 1927 and was later involved in China’s revolution and reconstruction.

There are more than 100 stores along the road now after low-end and unlicensed businesses were shut down during the facelift campaign.