It takes more than nerve to invest in a shopping mall in Shanghai, at several billion yuan a throw. It also takes more than money.

Too many have opened in the past few years, and most of them give shoppers a case of dj vu, with similar floor plans, fashion and food.

But there's still no shortage of property developers ready to jump on the mall bandwagon, each believing that they have something dazzling or unusual enough to lure increasingly picky shoppers.