Zara shows Shanghai’s cool kids how a pop up store is done

You would be hard pressed to find a group that personifies Shanghai’s creative, affluent, modern, trendy and internationally-minded urbanistas than the Anfu Lu crowd - the folk who frequent the boutique shops and cafes around the leafy street in the former French Concession. If Xiaohongshu/RED was a street, it could well be Anfu Lu.

Anfu Lu is less than a kilometre long and isn’t crammed end-to-end with storefronts, but among the historic buildings are stores that bat above their average in attracting the cool kids and social shares. European-style cafes, tea houses and wine bars nestle among indie fashion stores and perfumeries. There is the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre and Bank gallery acting as a magnet for the creative types. And the multinationals are taking notice too, with Adidas recently opening a Taekwondo store there.

The most recent addition to the street – whilst only temporary – is creating a stir with Shanghai’s fashionistas on Xiaohongshu. Zara has set up a 500 square metre pop-up, spread across two floors. Unlike many pop-up stores in China which look the same throughout their short life, Zara’s Anfu Lu pop-up appeals to China’s new & novel-seekers. Over two months, it is reinventing itself every week with new fashion releases and complete redesigns of the pop-up’s interior, personifying Zara’s famed reputation for rapidly releasing new styles. To quote Zara's Greater China MD, Eugenio Bregolat, “Retail evolves very quickly in China and brands need to adapt to new consumption patterns and behaviours.”

In addition to the constant evolution, the pop-up plays to Chinese consumers’ need to feel like they are getting special treatment. The pop-up will feature the debut of several Zara global collaboration collections in the Chinese market. Staying true to the need to localise to Chinese tastes and unique fashion preferences, a special collection tailored for the China market, co-created by Zara’s local team, will also debut.

Last week, the pop-up made its first transformation into a circus Big Top theme to launch the collection from British fashion icon Harry Lambert. Harry himself was at the pop-up. In true China-fashion, Harry hosted a livestream, which was broadcast simultaneously on various social platforms. The livestream was such a success, it was rolled out across Zara’s platforms outside of China such as Instagram – following an increasing trend where brands take their China-lessons to other markets. Later this week, Zara will broadcast its first global streaming with Cindy Crawford and Kaia Gerber – one of the first large western brands to adapt its Chinese livestreaming to western markets.

The pop-up’s digital integration spans far wider than the obligatory livestreams. Inside the pop-up is an immersive video wall. The pop-up and its collections also feature front and centre on Zara’s mini program, further building its D2C offering. Zara is among the best in class for western fashion brands reducing its reliance on costly third party platforms, with DTC accounting for over a quarter of its online sales.

Despite a typhoon and oppressively hot Shanghai weather, the pop-up’s reception on social media has been positive. Within three days, there were more than 350 posts on RED, generating over 430,000 views. Sales performance has been strong despite the store being a quarter of the size of a typical Zara store, with the average selling price being significantly above average.

Most importantly, the pop-up is attracting the type of customer that most traditional shopping malls have been losing - young fashion consumers and sophisticated mature customers. This has seen the average selling price in the pop-up higher than any other Zara store in the Mainland, and will likely have a halo effect amongst the hard-to-reach cohorts.

If you’re in the neighbourhood, it is worth taking a look at Zara’s pop-up. In addition to the fashion and home collections, the unique “Flower Shop” and outdoor chilling terrace, it is worth seeing how pop-ups can be done effectively to help shape brand perception among some of China’s cool crowd.