China News Service, Shanghai, October 2 (Gao Zhimiao) Walking into Tianan Qianshu, Putuo District, Shanghai, the domestic full-link card culture space CARDLAB store gathered many customers choosing and viewing cards. "This is our first offline physical store in the country. The core consideration in choosing the location of Tian'an Qianshu is that it gathers art, trends, traffic from young circles at home and abroad all year round, as well as the growing group of foreign tourists." Ms. Liu, head of CARDLAB's marketing department, said in a recent interview with China News Service.
On September 30, CARDLAB, a domestic full-link card culture space, settled in Tianan Qianshu, Putuo District, Shanghai. Photo by Gao Zhimiao
Filling the market gaps with scarce business formats, from "early adopters" to "long-lasting", the first store effect in multiple districts in Shanghai activates consumption in multiple scenarios. In fact, the size of Shanghai’s first store economy cannot be underestimated. In 2018, Shanghai proposed to build a "global launch site for new products". As of the end of March 2026, the city had introduced a total of 8,472 first stores. There will be 1,093 new first stores in 2025, with high-energy first stores such as global and Asian first stores accounting for 16.8%, ranking first in the country in terms of quantity and quality. Behind these numbers, the first store is evolving from a "retail terminal" to a "source of consumption scenarios."
Ms. Liu introduced that CARDLAB breaks the service barriers of traditional card stores and provides one-stop services in the card industry such as genuine cards, PSA and CCIC grading agents, card consignment and recycling, collection restoration and maintenance, scarce card transactions, and collectible gift boxes. At present, the popularity of Simplified and Chinese version of Pokémon cards continues to rise in the global collection circle, and is sought after by a large number of overseas collectors. The store relies on Tianan Qianshu's international customer flow advantages to create an external display window for Simplified and Chinese cards, and gathers a matrix of genuine card collections at home and abroad to form an industry-leading card culture flagship store that covers the entire life cycle of card collection needs.
Customers experience the robot rental platform "Ji Shi Ren" in the country's first offline experience store. Photo provided by interviewee
During the National Day holiday in 2026, the country's first offline experience store of the robot rental platform "Ji Shi Ren" located in the Xujiahui business district also ushered in a peak customer flow. Various robots in the store dance and interact with customers. Customers only need to place orders through the mini program to experience real-life scenarios where technological services are integrated into daily life.
According to reports, in the first half of 2026, the machine rental platform will occupy a leading position in the robot rental industry through the one-stop RaaS model of "hardware + platform operation + scene customization + localization services". The purpose of opening offline physical stores is to benefit the public and accelerate the entry of robots into thousands of households. A few months after its launch, Jishi Rental has already cooperated with many merchants and cultural, business and tourism projects in Xujiahui, and the first store effect has begun to spill over to surrounding businesses.
The value of the first store does not lie in the "first" label itself, but in whether it can become the starting point for continued operations. CARDLAB plans to hold PSA high-scoring collection salons, player exchange meetings and card science sharing sessions on a regular basis. From "checking in once" to "frequently coming", the first store effect is shifting from traffic dividend to ecological dividend.
