The Shanghai Florentia Village outlet, which is located far from the downtown area and near the Pudong International Airport, is gradually recovering its luxury business as the COVID-19 outbreak is stabilizing.

Big-name and luxury brands at the outlet have tried online and offline promotions, including WeChat groups and live-stream broadcasts.

"At this time in previous years, the store's daily turnover could be 20,000 to 30,000 yuan ($2,820 to $4,230), and on weekends there would many more customers," said a shop assistant surnamed Zhao.

After returning to Shanghai from his home in Henan province, Zhao was quarantined in his apartment in Pudong district. After returning to work, though he needs to drive nearly 60 kilometers on weekdays, he was happy to have returned to his familiar job.

He said the outbreak was slowly stabilizing and consumers were gradually returning. 

Fen, the store manager, said he was concerned every day about employees who were isolated during the outbreak and asked them to take their own temperatures regularly. After 30 days in isolation, Zhao finally returned to work. 

Fen has progressed from a store assistant to manager in five years, and she treasures her job. In the face of fewer sales during the outbreak, she said that many stores had offered large discounts to attract as many offline customers as possible.

"One item, 30 percent off, two items, 60 percent off" was a common offer. At the GAP store in the Shanghai Florentia Village outlet, the second floor of the store displayed some new children's outfits which attracted some customers but the number of visitors to the store was low.

Michael Kors has 10 employees in Shanghai Florentia Village store. In the past, five employees a day were scheduled to work. Currently, some shifts have been shortened or dropped, and opening hours have been shortened as customer traffic has been light.

Nataly, a store assistant, said that the town store has adjusted its previous business hours from 10 am to 9 pm Monday to Friday, and from 9 am to 9 pm on weekends to 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am to 7 pm on weekends.

"I made eight sales today, starting from small goods worth a few hundred yuan, to bags worth a few thousand yuan," Nataly said, "People are slowly coming back to the store to buy things."