In 2017, The Historical Central Store, Midland Building, Erza Building and Overseas Chinese Building formed a new business complex called The Central, featuring stores including Nike, New Balance and Skechers.

In 2018, boutique hotel Edition opened in the art-deco former headquarters of Shanghai Power Company.

In June, the biggest flagship store of Huawei replaced the clothes retailer Forever 21 in the Hardoon Building.

The first store of popular Korean emoji character Kakao Friends in the city made its debut on the new eastern stretch of Nanjing Road after putting up a successful pop-up store on the western end of the street last year.

Many old brands on Nanjing Road have also launched new businesses.

The Sanyang Food Store turned itself into a cafe. Shao Wan Sheng, which specialized in alcohol-preserved food, added imported alcohol and Spanish ham to its product line.

Shanghai Laodatong Rice Shop developed a series of products featuring rice as a major ingredient－rice ice cream, rice drinks and even rice facial masks. Taikang Foods opened a new branch with a trendy beverage chain, Sweet 7, offering bubble milk tea and mango drinks.

A week before the opening of the eastern extension of the road, the management company of the pedestrian street brought a large pop-up theme park by Bilibili, a popular video-sharing website that features animation, comics and games.