In the context of in-depth integration of consumption upgrading and digital technology, the offline experience economy has witnessed explosive growth. As a core scenario for traffic aggregation, shopping malls are accelerating the iteration of their business structure, transforming from traditional retail to a composite scenario of “experience + consumption”. Virtual Reality (VR) technology, with its unique advantages of immersion and strong interaction, has broken the boundary between the virtual and the real, becoming a new starting point for malls to attract customers and improve rental efficiency. Among them, VR flight simulators, with diverse scenarios such as “low-altitude flight, high-altitude cruise, and fighter combat”, accurately meet consumers’ demand for new experiences and exciting entertainment. They not only make up for the high-threshold shortcoming of traditional flight experiences but also inject technological vitality into shopping malls, becoming a popular choice for malls to layout new formats in recent years.

However, the deployment of VR flight simulators in malls is not a profitable business that can be “set and forgotten”. The release of their profit potential is inseparable from the support of scientific profit model design and refined operation strategies. Currently, due to the lack of in-depth insight into the characteristics of mall scenarios and the needs of target customers, some deployers have problems such as a single profit model, low operational efficiency, and insufficient user retention, leading to high equipment idleness and lower-than-expected return on investment. Based on this, this article systematically decomposes the profit model of VR flight simulator deployment in malls and proposes implementable operation strategies by combining the development trend of the VR industry and the operation logic of shopping malls, providing references for practitioners to help realize the maximization of equipment value and sustainable profitability.

I. Industry Background and Core Advantages of VR Flight Simulator Deployment in Malls

(I) Industry Development Background

With the iterative upgrading of VR hardware technology, equipment costs have continued to decrease, and the sense of experience has been continuously improved. VR offline experience scenarios have moved from niche entertainment in the early stage to mass consumption. According to relevant data, the scale of China’s VR offline experience market has an average annual growth rate of over 30%, among which shopping malls, cultural and tourism scenic spots, and parent-child parks are the core deployment scenarios, accounting for more than 65%. As a high-value category in VR experiences, flight simulation, with its dual attributes of “professionalism + entertainment”, is deeply favored by young groups, parent-child families, and aviation enthusiasts, and the market demand is constantly rising.

At the same time, traditional shopping malls are facing the dilemma of intensified homogeneous competition and serious customer loss, and urgently need to introduce differentiated and experiential formats to enhance consumers’ willingness to visit stores and their stay time. As a representative of “technology + entertainment”, VR flight simulators can not only enrich the combination of mall formats but also attract customers with their visual impact, becoming a key direction for mall investment promotion. Some shopping malls even offer preferential policies such as rent reduction and priority in location, reducing the initial investment threshold for deployers and creating a good market environment for the deployment of VR flight simulators in shopping malls.

(II) Core Advantages of Mall Deployment

1. Significant Traffic Advantage: As a core scenario for urban residents’ leisure consumption, shopping malls gather customer groups of different ages and consumption levels, especially on weekends and holidays, with extremely high customer concentration, which can provide a stable potential consumer group for VR flight simulators. Compared with independent stores, deployment in shopping malls does not require a lot of costs for customer acquisition, and can directly achieve customer conversion with the natural traffic of shopping malls, greatly reducing customer acquisition costs.

2. Consistent Consumption Scenarios: The core consumption logic of shopping malls is “leisure + experience + consumption”. After shopping and dining, consumers have a strong demand for leisure and entertainment. The single experience duration (5-15 minutes) and consumption unit price (30-100 yuan) of VR flight simulators perfectly meet the fragmented experience needs of mall consumers, making it easy to achieve “instant consumption” conversion. At the same time, the technological display effect of VR flight simulators can also improve the overall grade of the mall, achieving two-way empowerment between “equipment and mall”.

3. Controllable Operation Costs: Shopping malls have complete supporting facilities such as property management, water and electricity supply, and safety guarantee. Deployers do not need to rent venues separately or equip security personnel, but only need to bear the costs of equipment procurement, maintenance, labor, and a small amount of venue rent, so the operation costs are relatively controllable. In addition, the centralized management model of shopping malls can also reduce the risk of equipment theft and damage, improving operational safety.

4. Wide Customer Coverage: VR flight simulators can design diverse experience scenarios, which can not only meet the pursuit of exciting experiences by teenagers and young people (such as fighter combat and extreme flight) but also adapt to the leisure needs of parent-child families (such as cartoon flight and low-altitude sightseeing), and also attract the professional experience needs of aviation enthusiasts. The wide customer coverage provides a foundation for the diversification of profit models. Combined with relevant cases, young consumers aged 18-35 who pursue new experiences are the core customer group, while teenagers over 8 years old and parent-child families are also important consumer groups.

II. Core Profit Model of VR Flight Simulator Deployment in Malls

The core of the profit model for VR flight simulator deployment in shopping malls is “based on experience and supported by diversified extensions”. It breaks the single one-time experience charging model and builds a three-dimensional profit system of “basic profit + value-added profit + derivative profit” to achieve the dual improvement of short-term cash flow and long-term returns. Combined with industry practice and data calculation, the following are the most implementable core profit models, which can be flexibly combined and applied according to mall positioning and customer characteristics.

(I) Basic Profit Model: One-Time Experience Charge (Core Cash Flow Source)

One-time experience charge is the most basic and direct profit source of VR flight simulators, and also the core support for recovering initial investment costs in the early stage. Its core logic is “precision pricing + scenario stratification”, formulating differentiated pricing according to experience duration, scenario difficulty, and equipment specifications to maximize the revenue efficiency of a single device.

Combined with the consumption capacity of mall customers and industry pricing rules, the one-time experience charge can be divided into three tiers: first, the basic experience tier (5-8 minutes), priced at 30-50 yuan, covering simple low-altitude flight and sightseeing scenarios, targeting the general consumer group, focusing on “low-cost trial” to improve conversion rate; second, the advanced experience tier (10-12 minutes), priced at 60-80 yuan, including fighter cruise and simple combat scenarios, targeting young people with certain experience needs, balancing experience and cost performance; third, the high-end experience tier (15 minutes and above), priced at 90-120 yuan, covering complex fighter missions and customized flight scenarios, targeting aviation enthusiasts and high-end consumer groups, focusing on “professional experience” to improve single customer revenue.

It should be noted that the pricing should be flexibly adjusted according to the mall positioning: core business districts and high-end shopping malls can appropriately increase the pricing (by 20%-30%), while community-based shopping malls and sinking market shopping malls need to reduce the pricing (by 10%-20%) to avoid customer loss due to excessively high pricing or reduced profit space due to excessively low pricing. At the same time, we can learn from the operation logic of 50-square-meter VR experience areas, and avoid experience conflicts between different customer groups through reasonable scenario stratification and pricing differentiation, so as to improve equipment utilization. For example, for VR flight simulators in some European shopping malls, the high-end experience tier is priced at about 8 US dollars per time, and the basic experience tier is about 6 US dollars per time. Through pricing stratification, precise coverage of different customer groups is achieved, and the hourly revenue of a single device can reach about 40 US dollars.

In addition, a “time-period discount” strategy can be launched to balance the passenger flow during peak and off-peak seasons: working days (10:00-17:00) are the off-peak period of passenger flow, and “buy one get one free” and “50% off for the second order” discounts can be launched to improve equipment utilization; weekends and holidays are the peak period of passenger flow, and the original price is restored to maximize revenue. This strategy can effectively smooth the fluctuation of passenger flow, avoid equipment idleness during off-peak periods, and improve the overall revenue level. According to actual measurement data, reasonable time-period discounts can increase the average daily equipment utilization rate by more than 30% and the daily revenue by 200-500 yuan.

(II) Value-Added Profit Model: Member Prepayment and Package Consumption (Improving User Retention)

One-time experience charge can only achieve short-term cash flow, while member prepayment and package consumption can lock in long-term customers, improve user retention rate, and quickly recover funds to reduce operational risks, which is an important profit extension for VR flight simulator deployment in shopping malls. Its core logic is “attracting prepayment with discounts and improving repurchase with packages”, designing a diversified member system and package products according to user consumption habits.

1. Member Prepayment System: It is divided into three levels: ordinary members, silver card members, and gold card members. The higher the prepayment amount, the greater the discount, and at the same time, they enjoy exclusive rights and interests to improve user stickiness. For example: ordinary members prepay 200 yuan and get 50 yuan free, enjoying a 10% discount on a single experience; silver card members prepay 500 yuan and get 150 yuan free, enjoying an 20% discount on a single experience, priority to experience new scenarios, and free equipment maintenance consultation; gold card members prepay 1000 yuan and get 350 yuan free, enjoying a 30% discount on a single experience, exclusive experience time, customized flight scenarios, and 1 free accompanying experience per month.

The core advantage of member prepayment is that it can quickly recover funds for equipment maintenance and scenario updates, and at the same time lock in core customers and reduce customer loss. According to industry data, the repurchase rate of member prepayment customers is 3-5 times that of ordinary individual customers, and the per-customer consumption amount is higher, which can provide stable support for long-term profitability. For example, the LeKe VR store in Beijing Qinghe Mixc has locked in a large number of core customers through the member prepayment system, and the proportion of member consumption accounts for more than 60%, which has greatly improved the stability of revenue.

2. Package Consumption Products: According to the needs of different customer groups, design differentiated packages to improve the per-customer consumption amount and repurchase rate. It is mainly divided into three categories: first, parent-child packages, suitable for 2 adults and 1 child or 1 adult and 1 child, priced at 120-180 yuan, including 2-3 basic experiences, and free cartoon flight scenario experience, focusing on family consumption; second, friend packages, suitable for 2-4 people, priced at 150-250 yuan, including 1 advanced experience per person, and free multi-player online flight experience, focusing on social consumption; third, time-card packages, divided into 10-time cards (250-350 yuan) and 20-time cards (450-600 yuan), with a validity period of 3-6 months, suitable for high-frequency experience users, focusing on cost performance.

The core of package consumption is “bundled sales”, attracting users to purchase multiple experiences at one time through discounts, improving equipment utilization and per-customer lifetime value. For example, the time-card packages launched for teenagers can lock in their long-term experience needs and avoid customer loss due to the threshold of one-time consumption; the packages for parent-child families can improve user repurchase rate with the help of family consumption scenarios. Combined with the operation data of VR paragliding, package consumption can increase the average annual per-customer consumption amount by more than 40%, effectively driving the growth of overall revenue.

(III) Derivative Profit Model: Diversified Cooperation and Scenario Extension (Expanding Profit Boundaries)

On the basis of basic profit and value-added profit, expanding profit boundaries through diversified cooperation and scenario extension to achieve “one-time deployment, multi-channel profit” is the key to improving the profit space of VR flight simulators. Combined with the resource advantages of mall scenarios, we can focus on the following 4 types of derivative profit models:

1. Commercial Cooperation Profit: Cooperate with catering, retail, parent-child institutions and other merchants in the mall to achieve resource exchange and win-win results. For example, cooperate with catering merchants to launch “spend XX yuan to get a free VR flight experience coupon” and “enjoy 15% off catering with VR experience receipt”; cooperate with retail merchants to use VR experience coupons as gifts for full reduction consumption, improving the promotion effect of merchants and attracting customers for themselves; cooperate with parent-child institutions and training institutions to use VR flight experience as course supporting and activity rewards, charging cooperation fees (20-30 yuan per person), and expanding parent-child customer groups. This cooperation model does not require additional investment costs, can not only increase passenger flow but also obtain additional income, achieving “win-win for all parties”. For example, the Flying Aces VR flight simulator in Dubai Mall has reached cooperation with surrounding catering and retail merchants, and has greatly improved the passenger flow conversion rate by means of giving experience coupons through consumption, with the proportion of derivative cooperation income accounting for more than 20%.

2. Customized Experience Profit: Provide customized flight experience services for scenarios such as corporate team building, birthday parties, and parent-child activities, and charge customization fees. For example, for corporate team building, a “team flight competition” scenario can be customized, and according to the team size (10-50 people), a customization fee of 80-100 yuan per person is charged, including experience, guidance, group photos, small gifts and other services; for birthday parties, an “exclusive flight scenario” can be customized to create cartoon flight and birthday blessing scenarios for children, charging a customization fee of 500-800 yuan per session; for aviation enthusiasts, a “professional flight simulation” scenario can be customized to simulate real fighter flight and route cruise, charging a customization fee of 150-200 yuan per time. The gross profit margin of customized experience is relatively high (up to more than 70%), which can effectively improve per-customer income and enhance brand reputation.

3. Advertising Placement Profit: Use the equipment screens, experience scenarios, waiting areas and other spaces of VR flight simulators to place commercial advertisements and charge advertising fees. For example, play advertisements of merchants in the mall and local brands on the equipment startup interface and waiting area screens; place brand elements (such as aircraft paint, billboards in the scenario) in the flight scenario to achieve “immersive advertising” and improve the effect of advertising communication; cooperate with game manufacturers and film and television companies to place promotional content of related games and films and television, and charge cooperation fees. The core of advertising placement profit is “realizing advertising value conversion relying on equipment traffic”, which is suitable for deployment in shopping malls with stable passenger flow and high equipment utilization, and can be used as a supplement to long-term profit. Combined with the operation data of 50-square-meter VR experience areas, the income from advertising placement can account for 10%-15% of the total revenue, becoming an important profit supplement.

4. Peripheral Product Sales Profit: Launch relevant peripheral products combined with the flight theme of VR flight simulators to achieve a closed loop of “experience + consumption”. For example, launch peripheral products such as aircraft models, VR experience commemorative coins, flight-themed key chains, and customized T-shirts, priced at 20-100 yuan, set up sales counters next to the experience area, and promote peripheral sales with the help of users’ interest after experience; cooperate with aviation-related brands to sell aviation models and flight peripherals on consignment, earning consignment commissions (15%-25%). Peripheral product sales can not only increase profit channels but also strengthen brand memory and improve user stickiness. For example, the monthly sales volume of peripheral products in some VR flight experience stores can reach 3000-5000 yuan, becoming an important profit supplement.

(IV) Auxiliary Profit Model: Government Subsidies and Events (Reducing Operation Costs)

In addition to the above core profit models, government subsidies and events can also be used to reduce operation costs, enhance brand influence, and indirectly drive profit growth. On the one hand, in order to promote the development of the digital economy and cultural and entertainment industries, some local governments will provide subsidies for VR offline experience projects (giving a certain proportion of subsidies according to equipment investment and revenue scale). Deployers can actively apply for relevant subsidies to reduce initial investment and operation costs; on the other hand, they can cooperate with shopping malls and local media to hold VR flight simulation events (such as “fighter combat competition” and “flight skill challenge”), attract aviation enthusiasts and young groups to participate, charge registration fees (50-100 yuan per person), and at the same time attract passenger flow through events, improve equipment utilization, and drive profits such as experience and member prepayment.

For example, the deployer of a VR flight simulator in a shopping mall held a VR flight simulation event in conjunction with the local culture and tourism bureau, attracting more than 200 participants and collecting more than 10,000 yuan in registration fees. At the same time, the equipment utilization rate during the event increased to more than 90%, driving the growth of experience revenue and member prepayment by more than 30%, which not only obtained direct income but also enhanced brand influence.

III. Core Operation Strategies of VR Flight Simulator Deployment in Malls

The implementation of the profit model is inseparable from the support of refined operation strategies. The core of the operation of VR flight simulator deployment in shopping malls is to “attract passenger flow, improve conversion, retain customers, and control costs”. Combined with the characteristics of mall scenarios and user needs, formulate implementable operation strategies from five dimensions: location selection, equipment, service, marketing, and cost to ensure the efficient implementation of the profit model.

(I) Location Selection Strategy: Precision Positioning to Seize the Traffic Highland

Location selection is the “first step” in the deployment of VR flight simulators in shopping malls, which directly determines the quality of passenger flow and profit potential. The core principles are “concentrated traffic, matching customer groups, and controllable costs”, focusing on the following 3 core elements:

1. Matching Mall Positioning: Prioritize shopping malls with mid-to-high-end positioning, young passenger flow, and a strong leisure and entertainment atmosphere, such as shopping centers in core business districts, parent-child themed shopping malls, and young trendy shopping malls. The customer groups of such shopping malls have strong consumption capacity and high acceptance of new experiences, which can quickly achieve customer conversion; avoid shopping malls with low-end positioning, mainly middle-aged and elderly passenger flow, and a high proportion of retail formats. The customer needs of such shopping malls do not match the positioning of VR flight simulators, and the equipment utilization rate will be low. For example, in the successful cases of LeKe VR, the monthly revenue of stores in mid-to-high-end shopping malls such as Beijing Qinghe Mixc and Shandong Jining Wuyue Plaza all exceed 200,000 yuan, while the revenue of stores in community-based shopping malls is relatively low.

2. Precise Location Selection: Inside the mall, prioritize “the main path of passenger flow”, such as the mall atrium, next to the elevator, parent-child area, and entertainment area. Such locations have high exposure, can attract the attention of passing passengers, and improve the experience conversion rate; avoid corners of the mall and areas with scarce passenger flow. Such areas have low exposure and require a lot of costs for customer acquisition, which is not conducive to profitability. At the same time, the venue area should be considered, and sufficient experience space and waiting space should be reserved according to the equipment specifications. It is recommended to refer to the layout logic of 50-square-meter VR experience areas to ensure space utilization and avoid crowding affecting the sense of experience. Generally speaking, a single device needs to reserve 10-15 square meters of space, including the experience area and a simple waiting area.

3. Controllable Costs: When negotiating rent with the mall, try to strive for a cooperation model of “minimum guarantee rent + revenue sharing” to reduce the initial rent pressure. For example, the minimum guarantee rent is 3,000-5,000 yuan per month, and the revenue sharing ratio is 10%-15%. When the revenue reaches a certain level, the rent is paid according to the sharing ratio; if it does not reach, the minimum guarantee rent is paid; at the same time, strive for the mall’s rent reduction policies (such as 3-6 months of free rent, decoration subsidies) to reduce the initial investment costs. In addition, it is necessary to understand the mall’s property management fees and water and electricity fee standards to ensure that the operation costs are controllable. Combined with industry data, the rent cost is recommended to be controlled within 20%-30% of the monthly revenue. Exceeding 30% will greatly compress the profit space.

(II) Equipment and Scenario Strategy: Iterative Upgrading to Improve Experience Competitiveness

The sense of experience of VR flight simulators is the core of attracting users and improving repurchase rate. It is necessary to start from two aspects: equipment selection and scenario update to create differentiated competitiveness and avoid customer loss due to backward equipment and single scenarios.

1. Equipment Selection: Prioritize equipment with “high stability, good experience, and simple operation”, and avoid cheap and failure-prone equipment (such as equipment with frequent freezes, blurred images, and complex operations). Such equipment will seriously affect the user experience and lead to a decline in reputation. It is recommended to choose mainstream brand equipment, such as LeKe VR and Zero Space. Such equipment has strong stability and perfect after-sales service, and supports multi-player online and scenario updates, which can meet the needs of different customer groups. The equipment specifications can be selected according to the mall’s passenger flow scale: 2-3 devices (including single and double models) can be selected for core business districts and high-traffic shopping malls to improve equipment utilization; 1 device can be selected for community-based and low-traffic shopping malls to reduce initial investment. At the same time, we can combine the advantages of equipment such as VR paragliding to select models with small floor space and simple operation and maintenance to improve space utilization. For example, the VR paragliding equipment only needs 7.2 square meters, supports two people to experience at the same time, is suitable for locations with limited space such as the mall atrium, and has simple operation and maintenance, which only requires 1 staff member to guide.

In addition, the equipment must be equipped with complete safety protection facilities (such as safety belts, non-slip mats, emergency stop buttons), and regular maintenance and inspection must be carried out (1 minor inspection per week, 1 major inspection per month) to avoid safety problems and experience interruptions caused by equipment failures. The equipment maintenance cost is recommended to be controlled within 5%-10% of the monthly revenue. A maintenance agreement can be signed with the equipment supplier to reduce maintenance costs. According to the operation data of VR paragliding, the annual equipment maintenance cost is about 10,000-20,000 yuan, accounting for about 5% of the annual revenue, which is within a reasonable range.

2. Scenario Update: The scenario of VR flight simulators is the core attraction. It is necessary to update the scenario regularly to avoid users’ aesthetic fatigue and improve the repurchase rate. It is recommended to update 1-2 new scenarios every month and 1 high-end customized scenario every quarter, covering different types (low-altitude sightseeing, fighter combat, cartoon flight, professional cruise) to meet the needs of different customer groups. For example, for teenagers, update exciting scenarios such as “fighter combat” and “space flight”; for parent-child families, update warm scenarios such as “cartoon animal flight” and “fairy-tale world flight”; for aviation enthusiasts, update professional scenarios such as “real route simulation” and “fighter training”.

At the same time, limited-time scenarios can be launched in combination with festivals and hot events, such as “Spring Festival flight sightseeing” scenarios during the Spring Festival, “patriotic fighter” scenarios during National Day, and “football-themed flight” scenarios during the World Cup, to attract passenger flow and improve experience conversion rate with the help of hot topics. The scenario update cost can be controlled at 500-1000 yuan per month. Cooperation with game manufacturers can be carried out to purchase scenario resources in batches to reduce update costs. Combined with industry practice, regular scenario updates can increase the user repurchase rate by more than 25%, effectively driving member prepayment and package consumption.

(III) Service Strategy: Refined Service to Improve User Reputation

In the offline experience industry, service quality directly determines user reputation and repurchase rate. The core of the service of VR flight simulators is “professional, intimate and efficient”. Provide refined services throughout the whole process from users’ arrival, experience to departure, improve the user experience, and create a good reputation.

1. Staff Allocation: According to the number of equipment and passenger flow scale, equip 1-2 staff members. The staff are required to have professional equipment operation capabilities, patient guidance and service awareness, and be familiar with the gameplay of flight scenarios, so as to provide guidance for users (such as operation skills and scenario introduction). The staff must wear uniform clothes and name tags, maintain a warm and polite service attitude, take the initiative to receive users and answer questions, and avoid “indifferent service” and “perfunctory guidance”. Combined with the operation experience of 50-square-meter VR experience areas, 1 staff member is sufficient on working days, and 2 staff members are equipped on weekends and holidays to ensure service efficiency.

2. Whole-Process Service: After users arrive at the store, the staff take the initiative to introduce experience projects, pricing and preferential activities, and recommend suitable experience scenarios and packages according to users’ needs; before the experience, explain the equipment operation methods and safety precautions to users, help users wear VR equipment and adjust comfort; during the experience, pay attention to the user’s status in real time, answer user questions and handle equipment failures in a timely manner to ensure the smooth experience; after the experience, take the initiative to ask the user’s experience feeling, invite users to apply for membership and purchase packages, and guide users to pay attention to the official WeChat account and join the community to lay the foundation for subsequent marketing.

3. After-Sales Guarantee: Establish a complete after-sales guarantee system. For problems such as equipment failures and poor experience during the user experience, provide solutions in a timely manner (such as free re-experience and free experience coupons); for member users, conduct regular return visits to understand user needs, and push new scenarios and preferential activities in a timely manner to improve user stickiness. At the same time, set up suggestion boxes and online feedback channels in the experience area to collect user opinions and suggestions, and continuously optimize services and scenarios.

(IV) Marketing Strategy: Precision Customer Acquisition to Improve Conversion and Repurchase

The core of marketing is to “attract passenger flow, improve conversion, and promote repurchase”. Combined with the traffic advantages of mall scenarios, formulate an “online + offline” combined marketing strategy to accurately reach target customer groups, reduce customer acquisition costs, and improve revenue.

1. Offline Marketing: Rely on the traffic advantages of the mall to carry out offline promotion activities to improve exposure and conversion rate. For example, set up a display area in the mall atrium, arrange staff to demonstrate VR flight experience on site to attract passing passengers to stop; launch “free experience” activities (such as the first 10 users to the store every day get free basic scenario experience, and free experience by forwarding the activity poster) to attract users to try; cooperate with the mall to hold promotional activities, such as “spend XX yuan in the mall to enjoy 50% off VR experience” and “70% off all experiences on member day”, and improve conversion with the help of the mall’s passenger flow; set up a check-in area in the experience area, encourage users to take photos and videos and post them on WeChat Moments, and get experience coupons by collecting likes, realizing fission customer acquisition through user social sharing.

2. Online Marketing: Focus on local traffic and carry out online promotion to accurately reach target customer groups. For example, release videos and pictures of VR flight experience on platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Meituan, and Dazhong Dianping, mark the mall location, pricing and preferential activities, launch local promotion advertisements to attract surrounding users to the store; establish an official WeChat account and community, push new scenarios, preferential activities and member benefits, and regularly carry out community-exclusive activities (such as community member-exclusive discounts and group-buying discounts) to improve user repurchase rate; cooperate with local internet celebrities and store exploration bloggers, invite them to the store to experience and shoot promotional videos, and improve brand exposure and conversion rate with the help of their traffic. According to industry data, online marketing can drive 30%-50% of passenger flow, among which local platforms such as Douyin and Meituan have the most significant customer acquisition effect.

3. Precision Marketing for Customer Groups: Formulate differentiated marketing plans for different customer groups to improve marketing effects. For example, for parent-child families, cooperate with kindergartens and parent-child institutions to carry out “parent-child experience day” activities to attract parent-child families to the store; for teenagers, launch “student discounts” (80% off with student ID), and cooperate with schools to carry out extracurricular activities to expand the teenage customer group; for aviation enthusiasts, join aviation enthusiast communities and hold professional flight experience activities to improve brand recognition.

(V) Cost Control Strategy: Refined Management to Improve Profit Space

Cost control is the key to profitability. It is necessary to carry out refined management of costs from four aspects: equipment, rent, labor, and consumables, avoid unnecessary expenses, and improve profit space.

1. Equipment Cost: When purchasing equipment in the early stage, shop around to select cost-effective equipment with perfect after-sales service, and avoid blindly pursuing high-end equipment leading to excessive costs; sign long-term cooperation agreements with equipment suppliers to strive for equipment purchase discounts, free scenario updates, free maintenance and other benefits, reducing equipment investment and subsequent maintenance costs; when the equipment is idle, consider renting it out (such as renting to corporate team building and event planning companies) to increase additional income and share equipment costs. At the same time, refer to the equipment repurchase and replacement policy, such as LeKe VR’s 80% repurchase within 3 months and 60% replacement within 1 year, to reduce equipment update costs.

2. Rent Cost: When negotiating with the mall, strive for a favorable rent cooperation model (such as minimum guarantee rent + revenue sharing) to avoid excessive profit pressure caused by high fixed rent; reasonably use the mall’s preferential policies (such as rent reduction and decoration subsidies) to reduce initial investment; reasonably adjust the equipment operation time according to the fluctuation of passenger flow to avoid unnecessary rent and water and electricity expenses when the equipment is idle. For example, during the off-peak period of passenger flow on working days, the operation time can be shortened (such as 10:00-20:00), and extended on weekends and holidays (such as 9:30-21:30) to reduce operation costs.

3. Labor Cost: Reasonably allocate staff according to the number of equipment and passenger flow scale to avoid staff redundancy; conduct professional training for staff to improve their work efficiency (such as one person can be responsible for the guidance and maintenance of 2 devices at the same time) to reduce labor costs; during the off-peak period of passenger flow on working days, the “part-time staff” model can be adopted to reduce fixed labor expenses. Combined with industry practice, the labor cost is recommended to be controlled within 15%-25% of the monthly revenue. Excessively high labor cost will compress the profit space.

4. Consumables Cost: Consumables for VR equipment (such as VR glasses lenses, disinfectant wipes, and batteries) need to be purchased in batches to strive for purchase discounts and reduce consumables costs; establish a consumables use account to reasonably control the dosage of consumables and avoid waste (such as using disinfectant wipes on demand to avoid excessive consumption); regularly inspect equipment to reduce consumables loss caused by equipment failures. The consumables cost is recommended to be controlled within 5% of the monthly revenue. Through refined management, the consumables expenditure can be effectively reduced.

IV. Risk Prevention and Profit Optimization Suggestions

(I) Core Risk Prevention

1. Equipment Risk: Equipment failures and aging will affect user experience and operational continuity. Regular maintenance and inspection are required, and a complete after-sales agreement should be signed with the equipment supplier to ensure that the equipment can be repaired in a timely manner when failures occur; at the same time, set aside a certain amount of reserve funds for emergency equipment maintenance and replacement to avoid revenue losses caused by equipment failures. In addition, attention should be paid to the copyright of equipment to avoid using pirated scenarios and prevent copyright disputes.

2. Passenger Flow Risk: Fluctuations in mall passenger flow and intensified homogeneous competition may lead to a decline in equipment utilization. It is necessary to improve user stickiness through diversified marketing, scenario updates, and refined services to reduce the impact of passenger flow fluctuations; at the same time, closely monitor the mall’s business structure adjustment and passenger flow changes, and adjust operational strategies in a timely manner (such as adjusting pricing and launching new activities) to avoid profit decline caused by mall passenger flow loss. For example, if the mall introduces similar VR equipment, it can improve its own competitiveness through differentiated scenarios, preferential activities, and member rights and interests to avoid price wars.

3. Safety Risk: During the experience of VR flight simulators, safety problems such as user falls and equipment failures may occur. Complete safety protection facilities must be equipped, staff must strictly implement safety operation specifications, and conduct safety guidance for users; at the same time, purchase relevant insurance (such as public liability insurance and equipment property insurance) to reduce economic losses caused by safety accidents.

4. Policy Risk: Some regions may introduce relevant regulatory policies for VR offline experiences. It is necessary to pay close attention to policy changes and operate in compliance with regulations to avoid penalties caused by non-compliant operations. For example, strictly abide by the relevant provisions on the protection of minors, limit the experience duration and scenarios of minors, and avoid violations.

(II) Profit Optimization Suggestions

1. Data-Driven Operation: Establish an operation data account to record data such as equipment utilization rate, passenger flow, revenue, and member consumption. Through data analysis, identify problems in operation (such as low conversion rate of a certain type of scenario and insufficient passenger flow at a certain time period), and adjust operational strategies in a timely manner. For example, through data analysis, it is found that the conversion rate of parent-child scenarios is relatively high, so the promotion of parent-child packages can be increased, parent-child scenarios can be updated, and the proportion of consumption of parent-child customer groups can be improved; if it is found that the passenger flow is insufficient in the afternoon of working days, targeted preferential activities can be launched to improve equipment utilization rate.

2. Branded Operation: Build its own VR flight experience brand, improve brand recognition and influence through unified service standards, scenario design, and peripheral products; accumulate user reputation, expand brand awareness through user social sharing and internet celebrity promotion, and attract more passenger flow; at the same time, gradually expand multi-mall deployment to form a chain operation model, reduce operation costs, and improve the overall profit level. For example, through branded operation, LeKe VR has laid out stores in many shopping malls across the country, serving more than 70 million users worldwide and achieving large-scale profitability.

3. Diversified Cooperation: Expand more cooperation channels, such as cooperating with aviation colleges and military bases to carry out professional flight simulation training and charge training fees; cooperate with cultural and tourism departments to create VR flight experience cultural and tourism projects and strive for government subsidies and traffic support; cooperate with game manufacturers and film and television companies to jointly launch customized scenarios and peripheral products to expand profit boundaries.

4. Hierarchical User Operation: Carry out hierarchical operation for users of different consumption levels and needs to improve per-customer value. For example, for high-end users, provide exclusive customized services, VIP experiences, and personal coach guidance to increase the consumption amount of high-end users; for high-frequency users, launch exclusive member rights and interests and point redemption activities to improve user repurchase rate; for low-frequency users, launch preferential packages and fission activities to attract users to the store again.

V. Conclusion

The deployment of VR flight simulators in shopping malls is a product of the integration of “technology + entertainment + commerce”, with broad profit potential, but it is not a “profitable without effort” business. The key to its profitability lies in building a three-dimensional profit system of “basic profit + value-added profit + derivative profit”, and relying on refined operation strategies to achieve the operational goals of “attracting passenger flow, improving conversion, retaining customers, and controlling costs”.

In the context of increasingly fierce industry competition, deployers need to deeply insight into the characteristics of mall scenarios and the needs of target customers, flexibly adjust profit models and operation strategies, continuously optimize experience and improve services, so as to stand out among many offline experience projects and achieve sustainable profitability. At the same time, it is necessary to closely pay attention to the industry development trend and technological iteration, update equipment and scenarios in a timely manner, keep up with the pace of consumption upgrading, and make VR flight simulators truly become the “traffic engine” and “profit growth point” of shopping malls, achieving a win-win situation for deployers, shopping malls, and consumers.