Under Liang Qingfan’s guidance, the group arrived at the first-floor entrance of Jinsheng Plaza, which was at the indented corner of the square and directly below the main section of Tenda’s new experience store.

The mall had four floors in total, with each floor’s height visually estimated at about 5.5 meters, making the entire mall’s height just under 24 meters.

According to building regulations, structures exceeding 24 meters would be classified as high-rise buildings, requiring corresponding upgrades in fire safety facilities and other aspects, thereby significantly increasing the mall’s construction costs—not economically efficient.

Maximizing floor height while reducing the number of floors was intended to minimize customers having to frequently climb stairs, providing a better shopping experience.

Lower ceiling heights tended to give people a feeling of oppression, while higher ceilings made the entire space feel more open, improving customers’ mood and thereby stimulating consumption.

Frequent stair-climbing depleted customers’ patience—most customers would rather walk a few more steps on the same floor than climb to the fifth or sixth floor.

As a relatively new plaza, Jinsheng Plaza had clearly taken these factors into consideration during its design, enhancing the customer shopping experience through attention to detail.

Entering the first floor, they were greeted by a huge atrium space that extended from the ground floor all the way to the top floor, like an indoor mini-plaza, featuring a signature modern sculpture.

The mall as a whole gave a distinctly modern and impressive feeling.

After reaching the atrium, they could directly take the escalator to the second floor of the Tenda experience store.

In the initial design, this semicircular area with extensive glass curtain walls was the most central location in the entire mall, so many design elements were built around it, including the mall’s escalators, which prioritized access to this area.

Upon reaching the second floor, Liang Qingfan gestured and explained: “Mr. Pei, from here all the way to the top floor, this entire area belongs to the Tenda experience store. Of course, limited to the direction behind me.”

“There are three floors in total, divided into six zones as per your previous requirements.”

“Each floor has a distinction between ‘standard zone’ and ‘core zone.’ The so-called core zone is actually the area with the semicircular glass curtain wall, which has excellent lighting and is spacious and bright. Apart from this section, the surrounding shops inside the mall serve as the standard zone.”

“This way, the standard zones and core zones across the three floors combined perfectly meet your previous requirements, dividing into six different functional zones.”

“The core zone on the second floor is the digital zone, and the standard zone is the gaming experience zone.”

“The core zone on the third floor is the merchandise zone, and the standard zone is the home living zone.”

“The core zone on the top floor is the dining zone, and the standard zone is the viewing zone.”

Liang Qingfan patiently explained as he led the three through the interior.

This zoning was clearly the result of careful consideration.

Mall floor allocations typically followed certain unwritten rules, the most important being: essential products should be arranged on upper floors, while high-profit products prone to impulse purchases should be placed on lower floors.

For example, restaurants and home appliances were generally on upper floors, while cosmetics and jewelry were usually on the ground floor.

This was because foot traffic decreased as floor levels increased.

Consumer demand for home appliances was fixed—they generally came only when they had a need and wouldn’t suddenly decide to buy a refrigerator while casually shopping. So even if placed on upper floors, consumers would definitely seek them out.

The same applied to dining—tired shoppers needed to eat and wouldn’t suddenly decide to skip meals.

Placing these on upper floors wouldn’t reduce customers’ desire to consume, but would encourage them to explore more floors, directing foot traffic upward.

Meanwhile, cosmetics and jewelry were often impulse purchases with relatively high profit margins, so they were placed on lower floors, both withstanding higher rents and generating good profits through enormous foot traffic.

Liang Qingfan’s planning clearly followed this pattern.

The dining zone was placed on the top floor so customers browsing from bottom to top could conveniently eat when tired. Digital products and the gaming experience zone were on lower floors to fully utilize foot traffic and increase turnover.

As for the difference between “standard zones” and “core zones,” it mainly lay in environmental distinctions.

The core zone featured huge glass curtain walls with excellent lighting—spacious, bright, with an open view—the entire area undivided and highly integrated.

Many digital product stores employed extensive glass designs with high ceilings to create a high-end, impressive atmosphere for consumers, enhancing their shopping experience.

Therefore, the digital zone selling phones and other digital products, the merchandise zone displaying furniture and smart home appliances, and the dining zone for consumers to eat, all requiring high-quality environments, were placed in the core zone surrounded by the semicircular glass curtain walls.

The standard zone had much poorer lighting, and areas within it were somewhat separated rather than being a unified space.

This was because the gaming experience zone, home living zone, and viewing zone didn’t require strong lighting—in fact, they preferred subdued lighting.

Whether experiencing games or watching movies, a relatively dark environment was needed.

The home living zone, strictly speaking, wasn’t a sales floor but a simulation of home settings, with certain scenes even showcasing the cozy ambiance of staying in a living room at night.

Moreover, the viewing zone, gaming experience zone, and home living zone could all be divided into several different exhibition halls displaying various styles and content, requiring separation.

So these were all placed in the standard zone.

Additionally, on each floor, there was a certain connection between the standard zone and the core zone.

For instance, on the second floor, the digital zone and gaming experience zone were placed together so players could come directly to the digital zone to purchase equipment they liked after experiencing games and the latest gaming devices.

The third floor followed the same principle with the home living zone and merchandise zone.

On the fourth floor, the dining zone and viewing zone together formed a comfortable rest area where tired customers could eat, have a drink, or sit down to watch a movie.

Each floor’s core zone was about 700 square meters, totaling around 2,100 square meters across the three floors; while each floor’s standard zone ranged from 1,000 to 1,300 square meters, totaling about 3,600 square meters.

Additionally, there were several shops on the first floor, totaling over 1,200 square meters, which were also rented to Tenda.

This was what the mall had used to round up the space for Liang Qingfan, forcibly creating 7,000 square meters.

Conveniently, these shops on the first floor could be used as exhibition areas for physical businesses like Slackin’ Internet Café and Headwind Logistics, with profit not being the primary goal but mainly for display purposes.

In short, Liang Qingfan’s arrangement was quite scientific.

Currently, the overall renovation was complete, with floors and walls spotlessly clean, and the first batch of furniture and equipment, including long tables and shelves for the digital zone, had already been delivered.

After just a few more days of preparation, the entire experience store would be ready to open to the public.

The reason for the quick progress was that the mall had originally been designed by a renowned architect, with particular attention paid to the glass curtain wall area, which had undergone several modifications. Therefore, Liang Qingfan didn’t need major alterations, only needing minor adjustments to certain details.

This saved Liang Qingfan considerable time and was a key factor in his final decision to locate the experience store here.

They first arrived at the standard zone on the second floor, which was the gaming experience zone.

According to the plan, this area would feature computers, phones, TVs, smart fitness clothing racks, VR glasses, and other devices for players to experience. However, since these items weren’t yet in place, it was difficult to imagine what these areas would look like once officially open.

Moving further in, they came to the core zone of this floor—the digital zone.

As core zones, the digital zone, merchandise zone, and dining zone all had extremely similar decoration styles, with only slight differences in layout.

Liang Qingfan approached the glass curtain wall, from where he could clearly see Yuanda Tiandi across the street, with a very open view.

“Buildings with glass curtain wall designs aren’t uncommon, but whether the final effect looks good is determined by the details.”

“The size, color, reflectivity, transparency of the glass, the structural system, the frame material dimensions, connection methods… every detail can potentially make the final effect vastly different from what was envisioned.”

“The moment I saw this glass curtain wall, I recognized that the designer had put great effort into material selection and design. The cost of the entire glass curtain wall must have been extremely high, which is why I valued this location.”

“And the end result is that whether looking in from outside or out from inside, it gives people a sense of transparency, brightness, and purity, with both a modern, minimalist feel and a sense of Zen beauty.”

“Additionally, I made a small modification to the original ceiling. The original ceiling was actually quite excellent, but the lights were too small. I specifically purchased large-area inset frosted white lights, complemented by deep black metal lines as accents, ensuring complete lighting coverage with no dead spots, while achieving brightness without glare at night.”

Although the entire experience store wasn’t fully set up yet, Liang Qingfan’s descriptions already conveyed the abundance of detail.

Zhuang Dong was almost dizzy from listening. Although he couldn’t fully understand Liang Qingfan’s meaning, he could still sense the capital “A-W-E-S-O-M-E.”

Tian Mo, meanwhile, was somewhat worried.

Because this experience store was simply too impressive!

It was in Jingzhou’s most prosperous commercial district, occupied such a large area, and featured details crafted by a first-class architect, with even lighting details full of sincerity.

It could be said that this experience store was not at all inferior to many international top-tier tech companies’ stores, and in many aspects even surpassed them!

Compared to the real estate agency where he had previously worked, it was like the difference between clouds and mud.

And thinking that he would soon become the manager of such a large store, Tian Mo, amid his excitement, instinctively felt anxious because he had no idea whether he could handle the job.

If his work had any shortcomings, wouldn’t he be failing both Mr. Pei’s expectations and wasting the efforts of Architect Liang?