當購物中心變成了圖書館、花園和博物館

Shhh. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of wind whistling through the abandoned malls of America as the Cassandras of contemporary retail cry their doom through corridors lined by fronds of lonely greenery: the end of a way of shopping, and all that.

噓。聽到了嗎?這是呼嘯的風穿過廢棄的美國購物中心的聲音，當代零售業(yè)的末日預言家們，在一排排陳列孤獨綠植的過道里宣告它們的末日：一種購物方式終結(jié)了，所有這一切都終結(jié)了。

But train your ears toward another direction. In Asia, an entirely different story is being sung: one full of glimmer and potential; one that is not limited to luxury products but treats all customers as if they were buying luxury; one in which consumers are drawn like magnets to the physical reality of a — what to call it? Not a bazaar, really, or an arcade, or a plaza. An immersive aesthetic experience with shopping as a byproduct, perhaps.

但是把你的耳朵轉(zhuǎn)向另一個方向。在亞洲，一個完全不同的故事正在上演：這是一個充滿希望和潛力的故事;它不局限于奢侈品，而是把所有顧客都當作奢侈品買家一樣對待;這樣一個實體地點像磁鐵一樣吸引著消費者——該怎么稱呼它呢?不是集市、不是商場、也不是購物中心。也許，這是一種沉浸式審美體驗，購物只是它的副產(chǎn)品。

In Shanghai, the Shanghai Village, an outlet shopping complex created by Value Retail (founder of Bicester Village in Oxford, England) in a Disney resort area, stretches for 473,612 square feet across the waterfront, its gleaming Art Deco promenades lined by 200 trees and featuring bathroom lounges covered in swirling mosaics in the styles of different artists and so eye-popping they are actually booked for local events on their own.

In Seoul, the 30,140-square-foot library in the COEX Mall includes approximately 50,000 books and magazines to browse, and offers couches and reading tables for passers-by as well as serving as a venue for cultural events.

上海的奕歐來上海購物村(Shanghai Village)是一個零售購物中心，由維泰集團(Value Retail，英國牛津的比斯特購物村[Bicester Village]的創(chuàng)建者)在迪士尼景區(qū)興建，它占據(jù)了473612平方英尺(約合4.4萬平米)的濱水地帶，閃亮的裝飾藝術(shù)風格步行道兩旁列著200棵樹，它的衛(wèi)生間休息室內(nèi)鑲嵌著各種藝術(shù)家風格的旋動馬賽克圖案，驚人到本身也成為舉辦本地一些活動的場所。在首爾，COEX商場(COEX Mall)內(nèi)有一座30140平方英尺(約合2800平米)的圖書館，大約有5萬冊圖書和雜志可供瀏覽，還為路人提供沙發(fā)和閱讀桌，并舉辦文化活動。

To name a few.

這只是其中的幾個例子。

Together, these projects embody a new way of thinking about the physical space where stores congregate, one that borrows from the online playbook: prioritizing the idea of content over contents, and further demonstrating the way in which the real and virtual worlds increasingly intertwine. Not because they offer video screens or iPads for ordering (though they are on hand) but because of a more fundamental conceptual connectivity.

這些項目都體現(xiàn)了一種對商店聚集的實體空間的全新思考方式，它借鑒了網(wǎng)絡(luò)經(jīng)營的方式：優(yōu)先考慮內(nèi)容的概念，而不是內(nèi)容本身，進一步展示真實世界和虛擬世界如何日益交織在一起。這不是因為它們提供了視頻屏幕或iPad(雖然它們就在手頭)，而是因為它們提供更基本的概念性連接。

“It’s a core reality shift,” said Scott Malkin, the founder and chairman of Value Retail. “The war is over. Alibaba won. That means physical retail is no longer about the distribution of goods but building brand equity.”

“這是一個核心現(xiàn)實的轉(zhuǎn)變，”維泰集團創(chuàng)始人兼董事長斯科特·馬爾金(Scott Malkin)說。“戰(zhàn)爭結(jié)束了。阿里巴巴贏了。這意味著實體零售不再是分銷商品，而是建立品牌資產(chǎn)。

And brand equity is created via the subliminal communication of ephemeral values: service and touch — what Mr. Malkin calls “the software” that surrounds the “hardware” of bricks and mortar (and marble and sandstone) reality. Which then becomes the place, he said, “where the interface behavior occurs.”

品牌價值是通過無形價值的下意識交流創(chuàng)造出來的：服務(wù)和格調(diào)——馬爾金稱之為“軟件”，它們依附于磚塊和灰泥(以及大理石和砂巖)所創(chuàng)造的現(xiàn)實“硬件”。他說，這就形成了“相互作用的行為發(fā)生的地方”。

“The context for stores is more and more important,” said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods research at Exane BNP Paribas, “because you have to make people want to get out of their homes and away from their screens.

“商店的環(huán)境越來越重要，”法國巴黎銀行(Exane BNP Paribas)奢侈品研究主管盧卡·索爾卡(Luca Solca)說。“因為你得讓人們想要走出家門，遠離屏幕。”

“It’s not just about the store itself,” he added. “It’s retail counter-standardization.”

“這不只是商店本身的問題，”他補充道。“這是零售反標準化。”

If the old model — the merch emporium — gave way during the turn of the millennium to the flagship model, which saw stores become echoing and somewhat austere temples where consumers worshiped the handbag on the plinth, we are now entering a new stage. One embodied more by Apple or Starbucks than any previous fashion retail space.

如果說老式的大百貨商場在世紀之交讓位于旗艦店模式，店鋪變成了寬敞的、有些峻冷的殿堂，供消費者膜拜放在基座上的手袋，那么現(xiàn)在我們正進入一個新階段。蘋果(Apple)或星巴克(Starbucks)比以往任何的時尚零售空間都更能體現(xiàn)這一點。

One that takes the rising principles of the experience economy and the growing belief that millennial consumers — who hate anything smacking of marketing or overt product pushing — are increasingly choosing to spend their money on the unique event rather than on the aspirational product, and applies them to shopping.

這個模式采用體驗經(jīng)濟的新興原則和越來越強大的信念，即千禧一代消費者厭惡任何帶有營銷或強行推銷意味的舉動，正越來越多地選擇把錢花在獨特的事件而不是夢寐以求的產(chǎn)品上，進而把它們應(yīng)用于購物。

One that says investing in a value system that surrounds the shopping experience will pay off in consumption. Because instead of taking home a postcard or a T-shirt to remember the visit, you take home a Prada shoe, or a Dior dress.

一種說法是，投資于圍繞購物體驗的價值體系，將在消費中獲得回報。因為你帶回家的不是一張明信片或者一件T恤，而是普拉達(Prada)的鞋子或迪奧(Dior)的裙子。

Mr. Cheng first began exploring these principles in 2009 in his K-11 Art Mall developments in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which originally combined art and shopping elements — a mix of high and consumer culture previously seen as heretical — and then expanded from there. The Shanghai Art Mall, for example, includes an urban farm where visitors can grow herbs that they eventually take home for their dinner. It’s not an obvious sales driver but, Mr. Cheng said on stage at The New York Times International Luxury conference in Hong Kong last week, foot traffic went up dramatically after it was opened.

2009年，鄭志剛在香港、上海和廣州的K-11購物藝術(shù)中心開發(fā)項目中首次探索這些原則。該項目最初是將藝術(shù)和購物元素結(jié)合在一起，它進行了高雅文化和消費文化的融合，這在以前被視為一種異端的想法——然后在此基礎(chǔ)上進行擴張。例如，上海的K11購物藝術(shù)中心有一個城市農(nóng)場，游人可以在那里種植各種香草，最后帶回家用于烹制晚飯。鄭志剛上周在香港舉行的《紐約時報》國際奢侈品大會(New York Times International Luxury conference)上說，這并非一個顯而易見的銷售推動力，但開業(yè)后客流量大幅上升。

Not that the point was “about traffic,” Mr. Cheng said. “It’s about building a community. About grooming the audience and having access to their behavior, which then continues online.” The farm is the bait, in a sense.

這不是“客流量問題”，鄭志剛說。“這是關(guān)于建立一個社區(qū)，關(guān)于如何培養(yǎng)觀眾，以及了解他們的行為，然后在線上繼續(xù)。從某種意義上說，那個農(nóng)場就是個誘餌。

Just whatever you do, don’t call it a “shopping center.”

無論你做什么，不要稱它為“購物中心”就是了。