Spatial Pattern and Influencing Factors of Urban Invisible Consumption: A Case Study of Changsha

Abstract

Urban invisible consumption space is a physical consumption space with weak visibility in urban public space, which has become a new channel for urban business and consumption development. It is progressively becoming an important part of the urban business. Analyzing the spatial pattern and influencing factors of urban invisible consumption is an important basis for promoting online and offline commercial development in cities. Taking Changsha City as an example, the invisible consumption space of the city was identified using POI and business information data of Gaode open platform. Using the Gatiss-Ord index and the geographically weighted regression model, we analyzed the spatial distribution of the urban invisible consumption with different levels of Internet participation. The results show that: 1) the main consumption type of invisible consumption space in Changsha is experiential service consumption; 2) the invisible consumption space infiltrated by the Internet, with Wuyi Square and Red Star Business Circle as the main core areas, presents a structural form of "a main core area, an auxiliary core area, strip distribution, and a point-like mixture"; 3) compared with the traditional invisible consumption space, which is less influenced by the Internet, the invisible consumption space infiltrated by the Internet has clear spatial heterogeneity and less spatial autocorrelation. The results show that the urban invisible consumption space tends to cluster in areas with a mature business atmosphere, convenient transportation, high cost-effective rent, and close to residential areas. The spatial distribution of invisible consumption in Changsha presents a basic spatial structure in line with the central place theory, showing a polycentric form of agglomeration and diffusion. Urban invisible consumption space clusters in the local industrial and commercial center. Moreover, the evolution of places shows a trend of infiltration and aggregation to blocks and the location influence is weak, but it is not "no location influence at all". Its distribution characteristics are in line with the theory of flowing space on the scale of urban internal block. However, invisible consumption space use is positively influenced by the Internet, and its potential commercial value lies in promoting and making full use of the existing urban space resources. In addition, for an "online famous city", the offline consumption activities in the network platform are increasing in abundance, and invisible consumption space will become a more important place to perceive the hidden vitality of the city.

Keywords

• e-commerce
• flow space
• invisible consumption space
• online-offline
• spatial structure
• changsha