Spatial Heterogeneities of O2O Retail Space in Urban China Under Digital Transformation: Evidence from Guangzhou, China

The rapid development of digital technologies has driven the emergence and popularization of online-to-offline (O2O) retail, reshaping the retail landscape in urban China. However, spatial distribution characteristics and influencing mechanisms of emerging O2O retail have not been thoroughly investigated in extant studies. Taking the central urban area of Guangzhou as the case, this study utilized multi-source data and machine learning methods to explore the distribution characteristics of O2O retail space and to further identify the nonlinear effects of the built environment, sociodemographic, and economic factors on its distribution. The results revealed that O2O retail space exhibited a ‘single-center’ distribution pattern, in contrast to the ‘multi-center’ distribution pattern of traditional retail space. This finding supported the diffusion of innovation hypothesis, highlighting that the expansion of O2O retail modes first spread from traditional developed retail space. Furthermore, spatial heterogeneities were observed across different types of O2O retail space, with O2O in-store showing a ‘core-periphery’ spatial structure as described by Central Place Theory, whereas O2O delivery displaying a ‘horizontal, non-hierarchical, and multi-centered’ network structure following Central Flow Theory. Compared to traditional retail space, the distribution of O2O retail space was more influenced by sociodemographic factors such as the proportion of youth, education level, and income level, but less affected by the built environment factors like office and building density. Furthermore, nonlinear effects of these influencing factors on the distribution of O2O retail space were identified, which enriched the existing literature by highlighting effective ranges and threshold effects. These findings provided valuable insights into O2O retail space development in the context of digital transformation.