Tianjin strives to build consumption center city

TIANJIN  -- In a restaurant decorated with pink and white ornaments, children enjoy themselves in the play area of a two-story European-style "castle," making marshmallows and popcorn, painting ceramics and participating in a cosplay gala, while their parents enjoy delicious food in the dining area.

The high-end parent-child restaurant in a business district in North China's Tianjin always attracts many customers on weekends.

"It integrates catering and parent-child entertainment together, which is rather unique and novel," said a 26-year-old frequent visitor.

As one of Tianjin's featured international shopping areas and one of the most popular business districts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, this Italian-style business district next to the Wuqing high-speed railway station is helping to build a new form of regional consumption.

It includes Florentia Village, an outlet mall built with Italian architecture featuring international luxury brands at attractive prices; a mall themed on cultural and art education; and the eye-popping V1 Auto World, which has not only hosted major international events, but also become a hotspot for automobile fans.

"Innovative service modes and novel business forms are keeping the business district alive, becoming important channels for attracting customers and driving revenue growth," said Howard H. Li, chairman and CEO of Waitex Group, one of the main investors of the business district.

Li said the business district has now covered diversified industries including leisure shopping, sports, culture and education, and automobile service, attracting more than 500 well-known domestic and foreign brands, with the total investment exceeding 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion).

Riding the growing wave of e-commerce and livestreaming, many shops in the business district have extended multiple sales channels to embrace a broader consumer market. A clothing store named NT Collection registered a livestreaming account amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

"We do livestreaming every weekend, and our number of online subscribers has increased to more than 2,000," said Wang Kun, manager of the store. "Thanks to livestreaming, our clothes have been sold throughout the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and even in other provinces in China."

Today, Generation Z has become the main consumption force. Apart from valuing the shopping experience and quality of the products, young people are also attaching more importance to personalized services and individual designs.

A banquet center, though not yet officially in operation, has already become popular among engaged couples who come to consult and make appointments.

"Based on the needs of our customers, we provide personalized services for dresses, makeup, venues, catering and so forth, and these special services just cater to the needs of young people," said Yan Di, founder of the center.

Focusing on building international consumption centers, Tianjin has been constructing numerous landmark business districts and introducing fresh projects.

"Through continuously enriching consumption patterns and effectively exploring the potential of consumption, Tianjin will become more dynamic in the future," said Shen Lei, director of the Tianjin Commission of Commerce.