Robin Liu

With more than 8,000 stores globally, it’s tempting to view Miniso as a veteran of the youth retail scene. In fact, at just 13 years old, it’s barely getting started. The business, known for mixing collectibles and must-have toys with electronics and essentials—much of it tied to recognisable IP from the likes of Disney, Harry Potter and Sanrio—opened another 700 locations in 2025, most of them outside China, and is thinking even bigger.

CMO Robin Liu’s approach is maturing with the wider business and is now focused on areas designed to foster long-term loyalty among consumers and create a more sustainable model. Most importantly, developing and launching its own IP will, he hopes, “ultimately serve as a competitive moat” by keeping more revenue in-house, as he told Campaign last year. Launches such as Kumaru, Carrot Street, and Yoyo are bringing this strategy to life; the latter exceeded RMB100 million (US$19 million) in sales within six months of launch. 

But Liu also wants to lock members into Miniso’s ecosystem, integrating user journeys into the CRM, prioritising members with access to exclusive content and new launches through private channels, while creating an army of fans over time.

The fundamentals remain paramount, however. Miniso’s store experience is a mainstay of its success, and this year saw the launch of artist signings and themed zones. More than 200 IP pop-up events marked a significant evolution in the brand’s approach, and included not just a range of activities to mark the launch of Zootopia 2 but also large-scale Yoyo installations at Chinese landmarks including the Canton Tower in Guangzhou. Meanwhile, external IP continued to break records: A pop-up for South Korean singer Jennie generated RMB2.2 million (US$420,000) in first-day sales in Shanghai.

Membership now exceeds 120 million and there is clear evidence that members are driving repeat purchases and that the strategy is scalable overseas, including in the critical US market. Revenue was forecast to rise around 30% year-on-year in Q1 2026. This trend has a long way to run yet.