Wanda Plaza's opening receives a warm welcome

2010 was a fruitful year for Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, where Wanda opened 15 Wanda Plazas nationwide at "Wanda speed". The most noteworthy part of this is, Wanda opened 15 new Wanda Plazas, and visitor volumes increased greatly compared to last year.  Whether it's in 3rd tier cities like Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, Baotou, Shaoxing, and Yichang, visitor volumes on the opening days of the Wanda Plazas exceeded 300,000, especially in Baiyun (Guangzhou), Lingjiaohu (Wuhan), Financial Street (Fuzhou), Baohe (Hefei), where its popularity persisted within a week of the launch, with daily average visitor volume exceeding 300,000. As to how Wanda Plaza generated a crush of visitors rather than having to resort to a gradual growth period, Yongping Wang, Secretary General of China Commercial Real Estate Association, proposes the following reasons based on his long term observation of Wanda's success.

1)  Wanda has a more complete suite of commercial offerings

Wanda Plaza does not only offer department stores and supermarkets, indoor and outdoor pedestrian walkways, and other retail outlets. It also includes cinemas, video game arcades, KTV, gourmet plazas, and other entertainment outlets, which represent more than 50% of its non-retail outlets . These are the most popular outlets in every plaza, which managed to attract large crowds through an effective combination of commercial activities.

2) Wanda brings in the bigger brands

Wanda has more business connections, with currently more than 5000 business partners. Many international and domestic top brands have been with Wanda for many years, so Dalian Wanda is actually in the position to "choose brands". Zara alone has opened 7 outlets with Wanda. Many more luxury brands are also beginning to enter Wanda's Plazas. 

3) Continuous improvement of business management

Dalian Wanda has been building up its business management team, which is currently a nearly 10,000 strong team. "Safety, service, quality" has replaced "efficiency assessment indicators". "Help the business earn more through quality service" mentality has shortened the standard 'incubation period' to the point where sometimes there is no incubation period. All of Wanda Plaza's stores are opening to eager crowds, and business is booming.

4) Continuous improvement of planning and design

Wanda has their very own planning and design institute, which guarantees the continuous improvement of Wanda Plaza's design and construction, and gives rise to a higher degree of 'personalization'. For example, for the Baiyun Wanda Plaza in Guangzhou, the construction cost for the facade design for two high-definition TV screens was close to RMB 100 million, and the plaza has Asia's biggest IMAX theatre. The interior and exterior decorations of Wanda Plaza in the Baohe district of Hefei city, and the night view layout were the greatest masterpieces in Hefei's history. It is precisely because they dare to innovate, and have a desire to challenge their own limits, combined with their tremendous learning ability, every Wanda Plaza built is able to surpass its predecessors in terms of public appeal, and become the ultimate place of leisure and shopping for the city residents.