Is the country's first offline "metaverse" themed commercial Xifanli telling a story or having real skills?
What kind of experience is it to play script killing for free in a 15,000-square-meter shopping mall?
BOM Xi Fanli, tell you!
In recent years, many traditional businesses such as department stores, shopping malls, and hypermarkets are constantly trying new formats and seeking transformation and upgrading. Among them, creating an immersive experience has become one of the important means.
From the creation of the "Urban Natural Community" in Chongqing Halo Shopping Center, to SKP-S's use of digital and art to describe the immersive shopping experience, to the in-depth integration of Wenheyou IP and regional culture, more and more "immersive" content is being used. applied to commercial projects.
What is the story of "immersion" in BOM's Xifan?
Through the combination of virtual reality and reality, we will create the first offline "metaverse" theme business, dissolve the boundaries between online and offline, combine traditional demand-based consumption with cultural consumption and experiential consumption, and provide young people with easy interaction. How effective is BOM’s move, can it create a small-scale “commercial miracle”?
Recently, the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter came to BOM Xifan, which is in the trial operation stage, for a field visit. Not only did he experience its script killing, but he also interviewed a number of merchants, consumers, and shopping mall staff, and also talked to BOM Xifan. Liang Yifan, the project leader here, deeply explored the origin, status quo, development potential and market prospects of this business model.
Come to BOM Xifan, enter "another world"?
Take Metro Line 15, get out of Liudaokou Station Exit B, turn around and you will see the striking three characters "Xifanli" inlaid on Block B of the original Jinma Building, which is a 1-minute walk away.
BOM Xifanli, known as the first large-scale immersive theme business in the country, is an offline social field tailored for the "Generation Z" group.
Among them, Xifanli is a homonym for "like you", and at the same time, "hee" means happiness, "fan" is a two-dimensional term - "fan drama", and "li" is a concept of a concrete place name, such as Shanghai, Chengdu "BOM" is an onomatopoeia, and it contains the expectations of the founding team. They hope that this project will be "very hot and explosive".
"Our goal is to make Xifanli a label. BOM Xifanli is only the first project in this series. We will have many projects in the future, such as ×× Xifanli or Xifanli ××." Liang Yifan, head of the BOM Xifanli project, told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter.
Walking into the BOM Xipanli shopping mall, the first thing that catches your eye is not the goods and shopping guides, but an NPC (non-player character) guide.
On the afternoon of February 13, a reporter from Shell Finance and Economics of the Beijing News came here to visit. He just looked around and was caught by the commentator. He enthusiastically stepped forward and invited the reporter to experience the script killing game of the shopping mall, and vividly introduced the game. story background.
As soon as they enter the door, consumers are given a "new identity". After choosing the corresponding game camp, they can experience different story lines. This is the beginning of the immersion in BOM Xifan.
At the same time, at certain times of the day, there will be immersive theatrical performances, corresponding to the development of the game plot, and consumers who have the desire to perform can conduct interactive "plays" on the spot.
In addition, at the door of different merchants, you can find their "nicknames" in the game world, so you can find relevant clues to solve the puzzle...
The reporter noticed that the current story line of the script only covers the first and second layers. Some of the puzzles on the story line can be found only through observation, while others require a little brain power to solve; , the reporter also followed the flow of the story to visit the mall by the way.
This form of game is more like adding surprises to consumers' daily needs. Whether it is eating a meal, buying a cup of milk tea, or shopping for consumption, it is possible to "encounter" NPCs in the mall, so that consumption, entertainment, interest and social interaction can be obtained. One-stop access, in the process of playing, shopping, dating, buying favorite things, enjoying delicious food... giving young consumers a sufficient "sense of participation".
The essence of the zero-threshold shopping mall script killing is that shopping malls use this to attract merchants. "The close combination of game story line settings and merchant participation further promotes consumption."
So, for this form, does the consumer pay?
Can the so-called immersive business win the favor of the "Gen Z" group?
In December last year, BOM Xifanli conducted an internal test for more than a week.
Liang Yifan told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter: During the internal testing period, their store opening rate was only 30%.
Since this internal test is mainly based on the test experience content, there is no large-scale publicity. As of the Lunar New Year, the internal test still attracted nearly 50,000 people. During the New Year's Day holiday, more than 3,000 people participated in the immersive game at the same time. experience.
"These results exceeded our expectations. And from the feedback questionnaire, we learned that the 'Generation Z' group (18-25 years old) who came to the scene accounted for more than 60% of the total consumer group, and the group under 30 accounted for Nearly 90% of all consumers, which reflects the accuracy of our project positioning." Liang Yifan said.
How to integrate multi-retail and immersive script killing?
The BOM Xifanli project has 4 floors, and it is still in the trial operation stage.
According to the current store opening situation, BOM Xipanli has diverse and rich business formats, and the consumer positioning of products is accurate and vertical to the "Generation Z" group.
For example, Play Art, Nong Coffee, Maofu Palace, RQ antique jewelry store, WZX fashion brand women's clothing store, Silva Solitaire, RELX Electronic Cigarettes, E-Sports between your fingers, Sing it, isn't it, Qiyue Nail Art, Kuafu Fried Skewers, The tea of the Palace, the tavern of the snail's house, etc., the business layout of the blurred boundary makes the diversified retail and immersive script killing organically blended.
Regarding this project, the BOM Xifanli team has many ideas that are gradually being implemented.
"We define this project as an 'offline metaverse mall'." Liang Yifan said: "This is by no means a concept, we are earnestly implementing it. First of all, our customer orientation is vertical to the post-95s. We believe that many 95s After they were born, they have been exposed to the Internet since birth, or in other words, compared with the post-80s and post-90s, they have been exposed to more of the outside world. The post-95s and post-00s, which is what we call the 'Z generation' group, They are actually natives of the Metaverse and our core customer base.”
"Secondly, in addition to user matching, what Metaverse wants to do is the combination of virtual and reality, and we are one of the best places for Metaverse in reality. From the moment a consumer enters the mall, as long as he joins In our story line, we will give him a character identity and worldview identity that is different from the current universe."
Based on the above logic, the BOM Xifanli team also set a lot of thresholds when introducing merchants, "First of all, these merchants must be very distinctive and have a distinct style, and their commodity consumer groups must match our target groups; secondly, They must be able to understand and accept our game mechanics, and are willing to cooperate with us to jointly create a new world view scene for consumers." Liang Yifan told the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter.
During the visit, the reporter found that currently in the story of "Mirror of Dreams", only two story lines have been opened, and the material settings on the moving line are not yet complete. During the puzzle process, the interaction between players and merchants is not high.
Liang Yifan explained: "This is mainly because we are still in the trial operation stage, and all businesses have not yet opened. In this regard, we are also continuously optimizing and improving. At the same time, according to our assumptions, the circulation will also cover the third and fourth floors. Floor."
So, what is the effect of shopping malls creating scripts to attract traffic to merchants?
The reporter interviewed a number of merchants in the mall at random, and they all expressed their optimism about this model, "This model may become a popular trend in the future, because through playing games, consumers can interact with merchants in the mall and attract traffic to us. "Our store is on the 3rd floor, so I don't feel much at the moment, but we can see that some consumers are rushing to the script to kill, and the drainage effect on the first and second floors is more obvious."
Consumers complain about the small size, how to increase the user's stay time?
BOM Xifanli is a brand-new offline "Metaverse" themed commercial project launched by Langyuan. It was renovated from the original Jinma Building B, and will be open for internal testing on December 24, 2021.
Through Liang Yifan's narration, the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter learned that the first Langyuan received this project in February 2020. At first, it planned to build a new business mainly based on e-sports, and slowly extended to e-sports + two-dimensional direction.
For a long time, the BOM Xifanli team has planned to build a commercial complex with young people as the main body. The BOM Xifanli team has a question: "Why is it more and more difficult for offline business to attract the 'Gen Z' crowd?"
After half a year of research and exploration, "round by round screening, step by step through narrow incisions, and user crowd portraits are gradually refined in the massive data".
Slowly, they figured out the answer, and they also knew the blueprint for the project's transformation.
"Many young people now put their consumption on the Internet and in the virtual world." Liang Yifan explained to reporters: "We started brainstorming to study the points of interest that attract them to shop online. We found that they are in the king's The underlying logic of buying skins in Glory is the same as the underlying logic of many post-80s and post-90s buying clothes in shopping malls, the difference is that the social field of 'Gen Z' is in the game world or other virtual worlds, not offline physical stores."
In Liang Yifan's view, the main stores of traditional business are often clothing department stores, supermarkets or movie theaters, "You want to buy clothes, buy household goods, watch movies... Come to a shopping mall and stop by this business district, these types of shopping malls can be To help the post-80s and post-90s meet their needs for dating, making friends, shopping, etc., but the social media of the post-95s are different from them. Many post-95s don’t like movies that much, and they are even more willing to go to station B to watch fan dramas and smash bullet screens. "
"We want to transfer the interests of the post-95s generation from online to offline, and we need to create a scene for them that can meet their social needs." This is the meaning of the birth of BOM Xifanli.
"Participation is the core password to please the 'Gen Z', and socializing is the fundamental need of the 'Gen Z'." The BOM Xifanli team believes.
"What we set up for the project is a large 'game field'. Its essence is still business, but on top of business, you can experience, play, and interact and socialize. This is the most important thing." Liang Yifan said.
During the visit, the Shell Finance reporter noticed that compared to many hypermarkets, there is not much space in the BOM, and the difficulty of script puzzles is relatively simple for old players, and even some consumers said, "Half a It can be done in an hour, which is a bit disappointing.”
"In our opinion, the shopping malls that users complain about are small. The underlying reason is that they did not play enough, and the shopping mall did not let them stay for as long as they expected." Liang Yifan told reporters that during the internal testing stage, they also received Similar feedback, "This is also one of the things we are currently adjusting, and we are doing the integration of gradients in this regard."
Liang Yifan introduced in detail: "As for the allocation of users' staying time in the mall, we are in the process of perfecting, and the content to be considered includes how long our script killing game can allow users to play, how long the interpretation of the characters in the script can last, and then the food and beverage. , milk tea, tide brand stores and other supporting facilities can occupy users for a long time, etc. The current idea is that if consumers come to the mall at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it will take about 1 hour and 10 minutes to play games, and it will take about two hours to play games together. For half an hour, and then we have immersive theatrical performances at certain times of the day, which can also attract players to stop and participate. In addition, we are also adding new gameplay to the mall, such as players from different camps can play against each other. In this way, by satisfying them The best gaming experience allows consumers to have a deeper and longer-term gaming stay in the mall.”
Is the future of immersive shopping malls promising?
The predecessor of BOM Xifanli is the Wudaokou clothing market with a history of nearly 30 years. It is located in Block B, Jinma Building, No. 38, Xueqing Road, Haidian District.
The gathering of colleges and universities means that there are many students, and these students are also the core user group of BOM Xifanli. In Liang Yifan's words, "we create an offline 'metaverse' in the 'cosmos center'".
But is "Gen Z" really a reliable "grip"?
Will winning them capture the future of business?
Some market voices questioned, "Can the consumption power of the post-00s support a business district?" "Can innovative models that only attract young people have long-term vitality?"
According to the "Generation Z Skincare and Beauty Consumer Insight Report" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, it shows that "Generation Z lives a prosperous life, with a per capita disposable income of up to 4,193 yuan/month." According to the survey, over 70% of the respondents to Generation Z have monthly disposable income The income is more than 3,000 yuan, and their main source of income is their own rather than family assistance."
In the face of doubts about the positioning of the business model, Liang Yifan believes: "The bigger the heart, the narrower the road."
"If you want to serve everyone in the whole category, this company may have a problem with its positioning. Our positioning is that in the future, Xifanli will serve this group of 18 to 28-year-olds. We can put this group of people. Good service is already very good. Our goal is not to find a needle in the sea, but to catch big fish in a small pond." Liang Yifan said.
As far as the current situation is concerned, BOM Xipanli is still in the trial operation stage, and it is planned to officially open in late March.
At present, the project still has many deficiencies, and the team is actively adjusting and improving it according to customer feedback.
Liang Yifan said frankly: "In fact, we are also under great pressure. After all, the cost of this project is not low. The cost mainly includes two aspects, one is rent and property, and the other is operating cost."
However, judging from the current internal testing situation in BOM Xifanli, Liang Yifan is very optimistic about the prospect of immersive business themes.
During the trial operation from December 24, 2021 to January 10, 2022, more than 20,000 customers were present in BOM Xifanli.
According to statistics, even if the basic facilities such as catering are still in the renovation period, 90% of customers still have secondary consumption, and 56.8% of customers think that the shopping mall experience is already very good, and 39.5% think it is not bad.
"Our shopping malls are small in size and have a highly reproducible business model. We didn't plan to do just one project from the beginning. We have to do a lot of projects, and now many old shopping malls are in urgent need of transformation and upgrading. We can cooperate with them. Help them attract young people and activate them." Liang Yifan said.
"We don't want to be short-lived, what we're doing is a long-term thing."
Written by version B06-B07/The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Yan Xia