The box store concept
You’ve probably heard of the “pop up store” concept, a trend of opening short-term sales spaces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop-up_retail)
Well, in China, another popular store concept is “box stores” (i’m not so sure about the term, if you do know, please let me know 
The concept is pretty simple : an average size shop, pretty well located in a mall (usually at the entrance on in front of the escalators), with one or two stories. The space is divided into multiple cabinets with 6 shelves each. Walls are covered by shelves too.
They have a couple of staff people, some to cash the client’s payments, some other with a little cart to “help client to shop”.
Your own shop for 208 RMB / month
You probably guessed it, it’s all about renting one shelf or more.
The price depends on :
- The location of the shelf (the middle part is more expensive, because it’s most likely where customers will look at)
- The number of shelves you’re renting.
Contracts start from 1 month to 6 monts, then you have to free the space for a while. Here is an idea of the price :
- 258 RMB / month for the upper shelf
- 500-600 RMB / month for the middle shelf
- 208 RMB / month for the lowest one
How does it work?
- Good news : you don’t need any legal procedures to get your products on these shelves. At least not in China. You can rent it as an individual.
- You pay the rent at the end of the month, and they pay you back the money you earned from the sales. I don’t think I’ve seen anything regarding sales commissions.
- You have to fill the shelves yourself, which means that there’s no stock, and that when it’s empty, you have to come back with more products and resupply your shelf .
Some numbers & thoughts
As soon as I entered this place, I had to run some “equations”, here is what I thought about or the information I found :
- There are about 78 full size shelves in the shop
- The rental price of a full shelf (if fully rent) is 2.388 RMB
- That makes 186.264 RMB to the owner of that place, per month
- I would say around 95% of the shelves were used
- I stayed there for 20 minutes, at 8PM on Tuesday night. A constant number of 20 customers were looking at products.
- They have 4 staff, who I g uess get payed around 1800 RMB a month, let’s make it 2500 RMB after taxes
- However, I don’t know how much they rent the whole place. I see two options : fixed price per month, or purcentage on the income + income targets to reach every month.
- I guess the owner of the place is making money, since they opened 38 locations just in Shanghai
I also thought about how to make some money from renting one of these shelves and selling products on it, but that’s gonna be in another article, since I have to take of for a live music session @ Beedees !
Cheers!
10 Responses to “Open your shop in Shanghai : starting from 208 RMB (20 EUR)/ month”
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Hi,
Interesting article. Thanks for sharing that information!
Could you tell please where you have seen such a concept in Shanghai?
I have looked for it around but have not found yet.
I thank you in advance!
Hello, thanks for your comment
You can find one in the mall just by the metro exit number 4, West Nanjing Road station (line 2).
Just take the escalator to exit the metro and turn left, you’ll enter a mall, and the shop is just at the entrance on your left. It’s the mall facing a gadget shop, as well as a “Yoshinowa” orange fast food restaurant.
Once you get in the shop, you should get one of their presentation flyers, all the locations are written on the back of it.
Let me know if you start selling something !
Hi, thanks a lot for the tip!
Are you selling something in this shop?
I let you know without fail if I launch myself into this business.
Thanks again!
I really wanna start something, selling some sweets. I am a foreigner but i want to start from small then go vast and huge. hehe. but really. that could be a good option to check the market. if u already had opened something pls let me know on mnd86@live.com. thank you
Hey Nyurgun, I didn’t start anything yet, and I just saw your comment. What about your project ? ^^
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Hi! I loved the article. If I possible, I would really like to get your opinion on this concept in China as my client (currently running a pop-up in central London) would like to open would in Shanghai. I hope to hear from you soon! Thanks, Hannah
Hi Hannah, thanks for your comment! This Shanghai “box store” is quite entry level, and most of the stuff you can find there is pretty cheap (such as cosmetics or small gadgets). I’ll write something about pop-up stores in Shanghai soon, since I went to a couple of them over the last few months. There’s a lot available here, when you speak chinese…
I’d be glad to discuss with you about what you do, you can reach me on Skype. You’ll find my contact info there : http://www.china-entrepreneurship.com/about-alexis-huille/
dear sir,
i have small fast food ,i am from middle east.
can i use such places for my small business?
Hi,
These places currently sell goods only, and no food. I don’t think it’s possible to sell food there since it requires a specific business licence which is quite hard to get.
The best for you would be to start renting a corner in a mall I believe. Are you in Shanghai right now?
Is your project more like a fast food or classic restaurant?