The first May 5 shopping festival achieved really outstanding results. Lasting for two days it showed the huge potential of using culture to stimulate and promote consumption. It also made people reconsider the relationship between culture and the economy.

First, culture provides energy for the economy. The so-called consumption upgrading is actually nothing more than consumers themselves being willing to pay more to buy products that are identified with their self-orientation, also known as added value. In other words, the demand for cultural consumption is added to the one for material consumption. Such additional value has been especially presented on the product's design. Aesthetic value is often a key element of a modern product’s success. That is why Apple beat Nokia on cellphones and Sony on e-players. During the shopping festival, the "quality life broadcasting week" promoted consumption of about 50 billion yuan, among which a significant part was fashionable stationary.

The brand story is also the additional value brought by culture. During this shopping festival we can see that Shanghai's traditional brands and products having their global launch here all chose to tell consumers thestories behind their products. For instance, YSL cosmetics did not rush to sell their new perfume (limited to 50 bottles globally), but to show their customers every detail on the bottle which expresses theircondensed craft skills and history via broadcasting.

Culture also provides energy for space.Consumers nowadays are no longer satisfied with material consumption, especially when e-commerce can satisfy those basic needs. If physical stores want to better attract customers, they should introduce more cultural elements to improve the shopping experience, therefore establishing a close emotional relationship between consumers and commercial space.

On the one hand improving the shopping experience needs to put effort into space aesthetics, on the other hand it is also presented in the cultural events of these commercial spaces. In recent years Shanghai has accumulated quite a lot of successful experience. For example, the campaigns to bring art into business areas have not only provided diversified scenes for culture to land there, but also allows culture to attract more visitors to these areas. When the campaign of “performing art in XinTianDi" first took place, visitor numbers increased by 26% and the consumption figure increased by 10% in this district.During this shopping festival, certified street artists reappeared in busy business areas and became an indispensable part inreviving the evening economy. The immersive performances held in business areas like Yu Garden and New World City on Dragon Boat Festival have also showed the impact of culture and the economy combining together.

Finally, culture provides energy for innovation. Any commercial item is a material carrier of culture. Behind the true success of business there is a certain kind of cultural value to support it. Statistics have shown that by constantly exploring the potential of traditional cultural symbols, only in the first month of this shopping festival, traditional brands of Shanghai have already launched nearly 40 new product launch events and promoted more than 300 new items. How to further explore various kinds of great cultural resources and better combine culture with brands in order to promote innovation and transformation of products is not only an enlightenment brought by the success of this shopping festival but a remaining task and long-term mission as well.

Of course, culture does not exist simply to promote economic development. However, understanding correctly culture's connection to economic development could help us solidify the achievements of this shopping event and absorb the experience so as to promote the consumption to keep developing in the right direction, which helps build a high quality life together with high quality development.