Finding niche - say, culture, history - key to China retail centers' future

While traditional shopping malls are facing big challenges due to the impact of online shopping and changing consumer behavior, those that can develop niche markets to meet the tailored demand of consumers might actually see new opportunities.

There are large amounts of space available inside most shopping malls, and that space can be used for more types of business operations--say, parties or areas for business negotiations and dating - -to strengthen the malls' social functions, industry analysts said.

CapitaLand, one of Asia's largest real estate companies, plans to launch the Beijing-based shared-workspace startup UR Work, a rival of WeWork, into its malls.