China's e-commerce is cooling down due to economic slowdown, pickier shoppers and industry consolidation. Is it the perfect time for traditional brick-and-mortar stores to pick up the slack and regain their crown?

SKP-S is a new shopping mall in the central business district of Beijing. It is a "farm" with robotic yet lifelike "sheep," a natural science museum where you can check out space explorers, and a gallery with edgy art displays and exhibitions. These make SKP-S not your typical mall.

And the birth of such design-driven malls is on the back of a harsh reality: Online retailing is slowing down, so it is seen as a good time for traditional retailers to regain their glory. But brick-and-mortar stores have to offer something unique. Are all these experiments and installments just a PR stunt?

Hu Panyang, strategy consultant and founder and CEO of Nightfly, said, "When the customers come to the shopping mall, per se, they know what to expect, they want to explore something new. They want to experience some technology; they want to experience art in the shopping mall. So I would not say it's PR, because using these technologies and applying this new methodology is not cheap, definitely much more expensive than PR expenses."

On whether these expensive facelifts for shopping malls will pay off, Hu went on saying that arts and designs are creating more buzz around the malls and attracting more people to come, creating a good environment and fan base for pop-up stores that could give healthy cash flows to the shopping malls, and bring much more diverse content to the place. Plus, malls haven't been charging people for getting the experience yet but that could also be a revenue stream.

That's why curation is the latest buzzword among retailers – to get the most jaw-dropping art installments and technology displays that will guarantee a full house of visitors.

Ling Chen, founding partner at Studiolite Design Consultant, said, "Interior design for retail is not just about creating styles, but also about improving operations and attracting media's attention. We want to create a space that's event-driven and makes shopping a ritualistic experience. That could help stores get more customers, beef up media coverage and ultimately increase sales."

And here's where design meets economics. "We prefer commercial complex projects. We use the concept Borderless Design to allow multiple brands co-exist in one space that follows a specific style, instead of having separate showrooms or booths with different vibes," Hu said. "More importantly, when it comes to franchise stores, we want to make the style, size and function for each store fit in the economic picture of its neighborhood, to make the stores part of the urban design, help them attract more customers in the neighborhood and maximize their turnovers."

Mckinsey says 88 percent of the online apparel consumers surveyed have shopped in physical stores in the past three months, compared to 83 percent in 2017. That's due to the serious "Fear of Missing Out" effect created by brick-and-mortar stores with their eye-catching exhibitions that are trending on social media. So the digital boom in China is not the end of shopping malls, but the rebirth of traditional retail.