Shopping malls' summer peak season: after competing for first-store openings, they now compete for "vibrant human touch", and the more outrageous the practices are, the more explosive popularity they will gain.
The summer consumption boom and consumption-boosting policies empower each other, making shopping malls extremely popular.
In the *July 2026 Popular Shopping Mall Ranking* released by Winshang Co., Ltd., 490 projects from 32 cities across the country are listed, with the average daily passenger flow per venue in the month reaching around 60,400 people, an 8% month-on-month increase.
461 projects remain on the list consecutively. 10 top seats across all cities and all area segments have changed, all of which are internal rotations among the TOP 3 of the previous period. New faces on the list for the first time include the newly opened PRISMA New Jia Center Shanghai and Shangjieli MALL Ronghuicheng Qingdao. The former is the second largest shopping mall in Shanghai, while the latter is a youth exploration center transformed from stock assets in the city's core business district; Longfor Zijing Tianjie Hangzhou benefits from the passenger flow explosion brought by the opening of Xiaoxiang Supermarket.
"Unconventional" is becoming the most unexpected traffic code for shopping malls. Stealing watermelons, slipper-throwing, screw-tightening... All kinds of nonsensical competitions are held across the country, and low-cost creativity drives high popularity. Nanjing Jingfeng Center even held a "century wedding" for two meme IPs, with single-day passenger flow exceeding 150,000 person-times and 4-day sales exceeding 160 million yuan. Turning shopping malls into "emotional playgrounds" for young people, the sense of real life is the real popularity engine.
Scarce brands and super stores are still the most direct lever to drive passenger flow. POP MART, with the combined strategy of immersive flagship stores and themed IP exhibitions, has jumped to become a new ace for attracting traffic in popular shopping malls; Bujie Mixc Shenzhen quickly stands out relying on the dual-core drive of "Jinlimen South China's first store + Chayanyuese East Shenzhen's first store"; Yuanyang Dechen Loti Port Fuzhou introduces Pupu's first offline store across the country, and becomes popular with the composite format of "supermarket + seafood hot pot".
Local culture is becoming a new direction for shopping malls to build emotional connections. The "Yunnan Neowa Cat" at Shuncheng Shopping Mall Kunming and "Lili An" at The Mixc Xi'an turn local culture into experiential and communicable urban symbols; The Mixc World Suzhou uses the lotus water market and summer night concert to implant the relaxed vibe of Jiangnan water towns into the consumption space.
In the 2026 "summer season" popularity PK of shopping malls, the head pattern is stable, and growth opportunities always belong to shopping malls that are good at content innovation, deeply cultivate experience upgrading, and tap differentiated value.
01.
Shanghai
Affected by the summer tourist tide, the ranking of Shanghai's list in July changed significantly. Multiple projects in the Little Lujiazui-Zhangyang Road business district and Nanjing East Road business district have risen in ranking, for example, Shanghai IFC rose 4 places, Shanghai New World NEW ONE rose 8 places, and Shanghai Hongyi International Plaza rose 2 places. But the TOP 1 in each area range remains unchanged.
The biggest variable comes from the newly opened PRISMA New Jia Center Shanghai in June, which detonated passenger flow on the first day of opening and directly ranked TOP4 among super-large projects.
Positioned as "Shanghai's all-region life flagship", the project has a commercial space of 360,000 square meters, becoming the largest shopping mall in Pudong and the second largest in Shanghai, filling the long-term gap of flagship-level commerce in northern Pudong. With an opening rate of 90%, nearly 78% of which are first stores and special store types, covering three levels of first stores in Shanghai, Pudong, and northern Pudong, it has quickly become the regional traffic leader.
Another regional leader is Shanghai Nanxiang Incity Mega, which ranks 8th in the July super-large project list. From January to July this year, the total sales of the project are nearly 3 billion yuan, and the total passenger flow exceeds 20 million person-times. The sales of retail, catering and service brands all increased, for example, Salomon increased by 49% and Victoria's Secret increased by 22%.
Since the beginning of this year, the project has introduced popular catering brands such as Sushiro and Si Daocai, launched 4 "One-Day Store Manager" activities, recently held the 6th anniversary celebration, introduced ZO&FRIENDS East China's first exhibition created by G-Dragon in cooperation with LINE FRIENDS, and Yonghui Supermarket launched the upgrading and transformation of East China's first full-health scenario store. Based on Jiading, radiating Shanghai and the Jiading-Kunshan-Taicang area, Nanxiang Incity Mega is gradually growing into a metropolitan-level consumption destination.
Shanghai IFC rose 4 places to TOP2 in the large-scale project list in July. The project is located in the core of Lujiazui, directly accessible from Lujiazui Station of Metro Line 2/14, gathering surrounding white-collar workers, business district consumers and tourists coming to Shanghai.
The "The Little Prince Romantic Garden" themed exhibition launched at the end of June accurately caters to consumers' emotional needs. The rose planet under the dreamy lights at night has become the most gentle check-in spot on the Bank of Huangpu River this summer. On the brand side, new stores such as JEMPER, Heytea Shanghai's first shaved ice lab have settled in, and Laomiao Gold, GOYARD boutique have been newly renovated and opened, continuously widening its competitive moat.
"Two-dimensional culture" is the traffic code of Shanghai Jing'an Joy City. The project steadily ranks among the top three large-scale projects, with passenger flow reaching 9.6 million person-times and sales reaching 1 billion yuan in the first half of the year, both increasing by 8% year-on-year. In July, it brought the first stop of the national "Hunter × Hunter REUNION limited themed pop-up", which refreshed the single-day sales record of the mall's IP pop-up on the first day of launch. The project also cooperated with Shanghai's double-decker sightseeing bus to launch a summer exclusive "itasha", and built a subway "itastation" in the hall of People's Square Metro Station.
Shanghai New World NEW ONE rose 8 places to TOP8 of large-scale projects. Since the beginning of this year, the project has introduced a large number of new stores: for example, the beauty zone has been expanded, introducing Prada Beauty, Kans, RITUALS, WOW COLOUR; in terms of apparel, new stores such as MUSINSA, MAXIAONA, LACOSTE have opened; there are also catering brands such as Baoyue Lou, Abji Taiwan Gold Canteen, Puxia Longjiu, Mr. Wild Man, Tamkoko Thai Tea Garden, which fit the thematic positioning of "modern fun, enjoy life".
02.
Beijing / Shenzhen / Guangzhou / Chengdu
120 projects from Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu are on the list in July, of which 114 have remained on the list consecutively.
Beijing Chaoyang Hopson One firmly holds the top throne of super-large projects in Beijing, and is in full swing in July. The TOP BANANA MARKET banana food market created by Urban Bazaar has settled on the B2 floor of the project. The nearly 3,000-square-meter space introduces 19 first catering stores, including exclusive first stores such as A Yuan is Coming, Hangzhou Toona Noodles, Jingmei Su-style Noodle House · Jiangnan Snacks, subverting the dull stereotype of the traditional mall food floor, and creating a relaxed leisure consumption space exclusive to young people.
Another sensational event is that POP MART's largest store in Beijing opened for trial operation. This nearly 500-square-meter two-story flagship store had consumers queuing up as early as 5 a.m. on the opening day. The store is themed with Star Men to create an immersive trendy toy park, and giant Star Man installations are also created on the outer wall and square of the project, becoming a new popular check-in spot.
Chengdu IFS opened POP MART's first flagship store in Southwest China. With a super large space of 700 ㎡, it detonated the check-in craze of trendy toy lovers across the city. The store takes Chengdu bamboo culture as the main design line, the LABUBU peeking out of the window and the outdoor bamboo-style check-in column create a full atmospheric vibe. Coinciding with the 8th anniversary of SKULLPANDA, the mall simultaneously launched a giant themed installation. Earlier at the beginning of the year, POP MART's jewelry brand popop also settled in IFS as the first store in Southwest China.
POP MART is becoming a "new ace" for shopping malls to attract traffic. By creating immersive flagship stores, holding large-scale IP themed exhibitions, and laying out diverse formats, it has become an urban trend cultural landmark, bringing considerable passenger flow increment and strong young passenger flow attraction to the project.
Bujie Mixc Shenzhen quickly became famous relying on two "queue kings" — on July 8, Jinlimen South China's first store opened. The 400-square-meter space gathers nearly 200 kinds of snacks, focusing on fresh short-shelf life and high cost-performance, and became popular immediately after opening; two days later, Chayanyuese East Shenzhen's first store opened one after another, attracting a large number of cross-district consumers to pour in, and related topics continued to top the charts.
In July, Upper Hills Shenzhen launched new stores such as Calvin Klein Lifestyle image store, TOMMY HILFIGER Shenzhen city image store, AVIAR CAFE's first European-style casual TAPAS, chuchulab short cakes, strengthening the light luxury apparel lineup and enriching catering options.
Coupled with the previously opened Heytea HeyLato Lab+ Store, Starter's first national creativity center, 3CE STYLENANDA trendy makeup space themed flagship store, the project shows diverse consumption vitality in the trend field. In addition, the project also gathered 36 top domestic and foreign craft beer and catering brands to create the "City Roam · Beer Club", unlocking the slightly drunk summer moment.
Taking the 30th anniversary as an opportunity, Tianhe City joined hands with Sanrio Family to create the first South China exhibition of "Sunbathing Island Party" officially landed in Guangzhou Tianhe City and Guangzhou Panyu Tianhe City. Combining the location endowments of the two projects, they interpret the two vacation rhythms of "Coastal Drift" and "Island Residence Slow Life" respectively. All eight family stars gathered to create the topical Sanrio "tanning series" scene, and many limited peripherals in Guangzhou were sold out immediately after launch.
Taikoo Hui Guangzhou took a different approach, launching the summer interactive exhibition "INFINITE POOL", cooperating with the Spanish architecture team Meii_Estudio and Mexican visual artist José Cohen, using digital images and art installations to create a cool field that eliminates the competitive tension. Instead of chasing traffic, it pursues style, Taikoo Hui has accurately locked high-net-worth customers through artistic narration.
Tianhuan ParcCentral Guangzhou successively brought the first exhibition of HEFANG Inspiration Cake House in Guangzhou, the "Summer Energy Field" football-themed carnival, matcha market, butter and cheese market. The high-frequency activity rhythm locks in exquisite white-collar workers, sports enthusiasts, and check-in youth.
03.
Wuhan / Chongqing / Nanjing / Hangzhou / Suzhou / Xi'an
120 projects from 6 cities of Wuhan, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Xi'an are on the list, of which 102 have remained on the list consecutively. Among the "newly listed" projects, Longfor Zijing Tianjie Hangzhou is on the list for the first time.
Wuhan Tiandi has a series of intensive moves: M·A·C Water Glow Mirror limited concept store, SATUR Wuhan's first store have settled in; Wangbao Planet has been upgraded to Wuhan's first tennis sports pet social place; Fantasy Forest Wuhan's first exhibition also debuted at the same time. In the same period, the "High Temperature Subsidy Plan" was launched, cooperating with 35 brand stores such as Bawang Chaji and Molinainai, giving away 10,000 ice cups and 20,000 drinks.
Chongqing The Ring Shopping Park stably demonstrates its ability to create interesting content. The "Chongqing Forest 2.0" aquarium exhibition area has been newly renovated, 5000 fish of 4 species including butterfly koi, angelfish, black-tailed tetra, and angelfish swim into the "dream core fish tank house", and the regular performance "Forest Roaming of Clouds and Butterflies" will be staged regularly, creating a healing urban secret realm.
More than 20 new stores of The Mixc Chongqing opened intensively, including Baroque art jewelry Amber Lollipop's first national store, MAXRIENY city image store, Meow + city high-end flagship store, MARYKKI Chongqing's first store, TKY TIMELESS first national store, etc.
Nanjing Jingfeng Center held the first national exhibition of "Unconventional Wedding Scene" for two meme IPs — the groom is Xiuzhen the rabbit from the "Siam Lipu" family, and the bride is the playful, slightly "crazy" pink rabbit. The 400-square-meter outdoor wedding scene, the over 10-meter-high wedding official announcement "itapixel", and the 200-square-meter pop-up store gather more than 200 types of peripherals, of which more than 100 types are first released nationwide.
On the "wedding" day, more than 10 IPs at home and abroad were invited to attend the ceremony. Consumers wore formal clothes to "attend the wedding banquet", and buying peripherals was packaged as "giving wedding gifts". This "century wedding" topped the national Douyin hot list, driving the mall's single-day passenger flow to exceed 150,000 person-times, and 4-day sales exceeding 160 million yuan.
This is not the first time Jingfeng Center has proved itself in an "unconventional" way. Previously, activities such as "Women's Living Room" book exchange, bird watching community, sewing class were all fully booked. Jingfeng Center uses "not focusing on business" to transform itself from a "place to sell goods" into a "place where interests happen".
The highlight of Hangzhou's commerce in July lies in the "heavy landing of first stores