From Track to Trend | Shanghai's Role as China's Sports Retail Hub

With awareness around health and wellness continuing to rise, participation in sport and other forms of exercise is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday life in China. Sporting goods and athleisure retailers are capitalising on this trend by shifting focus from customer acquisition to building long-term customer value. This phenomenon is spurring the evolution of physical retail stores into platforms for brand building and community engagement.

Landlords are responding to this trend by shifting sports retailers from a supporting retail category to a core driver of foot traffic and a key growth engine. Now firmly established as a leading international consumption hub and strategic market for global sports brands, Shanghai can provide important insights, experience and lessons learned for the sector's development. 

Based on a survey of more than 650 sports stores across Shanghai, this CBRE report provides valuable insights for retailers, landlords and developers by analyzing the emergence of new sporting goods segments; assessing the effectiveness of community-led retail strategies; identifying retailers’ locational preferences in prime retail districts; and profiling innovative and evolving store formats.