Crowds of tourists are seen on a Shanghai pedestrian street during the 2026 "Shopping in China" International Consumption Season (Shanghai Station) and the 7th Shanghai May 5 Shopping Festival on April 30, 2026. Photo: VCG

At noon on Thursday at Wujiaochang Square in Yangpu District, Shanghai, crowds gathered to test a new exoskeleton robot. Users simply press one button to receive assistance when climbing stairs and another to gain support while walking downstairs. The booth drew long queues of people waiting for a firsthand trial.

"I came here specially for this experience," a Shanghai resident surnamed Wang told the Global Times on Thursday. "I have trouble walking, so I wanted to give this exoskeleton a try. If it works well, I plan to buy one and take it home right away. With it, I will even be able to go hiking and travel more easily in the days ahead," he said.

The lively scene is a typical example of booming tech-themed experiential consumption gathering momentum across Shanghai during the ongoing 7th Shanghai May 5 Shopping Festival, which will run through the end of June.  A wide range of debut stores, tech experience activities, consumption promotions and cultural tourism programs have been launched across all districts, creating a vibrant market atmosphere and driving steady growth in retail sales.

As China's consumption structure continues to upgrade, experiential and technology-driven consumption has become a mainstream trend. A host of AI-themed, experience-focused first stores and exhibitions have debuted across the city during the shopping gala.

A visitor tries out an exoskeleton robot at Wujiaochang Square in Yangpu District, Shanghai, during the ongoing 7th Shanghai May 5 Shopping Festival on May 7, 2026. Photo: Qi Xijia/GT

AI carnival

As a part of the festival, the event held at Wujiaochang Square, which will last from April 28 to June 4, connects technological research, industrial supply and scenario-based consumption. It brings cutting-edge technologies from laboratories and production lines into ordinary people's daily lives, unleashing new driving forces for consumption upgrading through original innovation, according to the agenda released by the Yangpu District Commerce Commission.

The event brings together a lineup of leading tech brands and innovative products. In addition to exoskeleton robots from ULS Robotics, Bitsrealm Technology is set to showcase the first domestically developed first-person view drone simulator, which fills a gap in China's high-end flight simulation software market. Suning will showcase a full range of smart home appliances, AR glasses and other smart lifestyle products, according to the agenda.

A staff member from ULS Robotics told the Global Times that the exoskeleton robot is equipped with an AI gait learning system that adapts to users' walking habits, reducing physical exertion by 30 percent to 40 percent when going up stairs. 

"During the May Day holidays, we hosted hundreds of visitors daily. Exoskeletons once felt like science fiction, but this festival lets people experience them firsthand. We offered a 1,000-yuan subsidy for the first 100 buyers - which is nearly gone now," the representative said.

Along the Huangpu River in Xuhui District, the Z·Pilot AI black-tech experience store has become another popular check-in spot for visitors during the Shanghai May 5 Shopping Festival. In this AI carnival-style store, technology is no longer just cold code; it is a series of interactive experiences that people can touch and feel, allowing visitors to experience firsthand the novelty and convenience AI brings to everyday life.

The store features nearly 500 AI products across various categories, including smart wearables, health management, kids' education, and home life - such as AI robotic cats, AR real-time translation glasses, AI-powered camera glasses, smart wireless guitars, and 0.3-square-meter all-in-one smart home gyms.

"Visitor numbers surged two- to threefold during the May Day holidays, especially among out-of-town tourists and young families in the latter half of the holidays," Shi Zhinan, deputy general manager of Z·Pilot, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Unlike traditional retail stores, visitors stay much longer here, exchanging ideas while experiencing products and creating a strong community atmosphere for tech lovers. Products such as the smart guitar and AR glasses are among the most popular items, Shi said. "Many consumers have only seen these products online before, and the offline immersive experience is far more impressive."

Setting up the first flagship store of Z·Pilot in Shanghai, the brand has expanded its presence across the city with multiple outlets in commercial districts, street-front locations and community spaces, and now operates more than 20 stores nationwide.

 "We're not just selling products - we're making technology an accessible, participatory lifestyle. Many people get their first exposure to AI products, robots and smart hardware right here. The openness and ease draw people in - they may come out of curiosity, but leave with a new vision of future lifestyles," Shi added.

Consumption Spree

Beyond the booming consumption spree this spring, Shanghai's first-store economy will maintain strong momentum throughout the year. Unitree Robotics, a global leader in robotics, will open its embodied intelligence experience center, its first center in Asia, in Jing'an district in late May, offering interactive bionic robot displays and integrated AI-powered entertainment and educational experiences. JD 101HOME, JD's all-scenario immersive future lifestyle mall, is also set to open soon. Aligning with the May 5 Shopping Festival and JD 618 shopping carnival, it will create an interactive and customizable lifestyle exhibition space that showcases future lifestyle scenarios, according to the Jing'an District Government.

Industry experts pointed out that as domestic consumption continues to transform and upgrade, experiential consumption and tech-driven consumption have emerged as mainstream market trends, fueling the expansion of domestic demand.

"Personalized interaction, emotional value and immersive experiences have become core factors that consumers value most when shopping. For technological and AI products, artificial intelligence can effectively meet people's demand for emotional value, bringing a sense of novelty and trendiness while reshaping consumer perceptions," Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Thursday.

In the first quarter of this year, China's total retail sales of consumer goods reached 12.7695 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.4 percent. The expanding application of smart products has further warmed up the tech consumption market, China Media Group (CMG) reported.

E-commerce platform statistics showed that the transaction volume of smart glasses surged more than 220 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026; sales of AI sleep headphones rose over 50 percent year-on-year; and sales of smart plush toys jumped 394 percent from the previous quarter, according to CMG.