Miniso, the Chinese discount retailer, well-known for kawaii plushies and scented candles than cultural cachet, is making a serious play for intellectual property. The company has signed nine artists to incubate its own IP ecosystem as a direct challenge to Pop Mart, whose toothy mascot Labubu is a billion-dollar phenomenon.
It’s an evolution for a brand whose USP has been an affordable variety model. Miniso’s bestsellers still include licensed characters from Sanrio and Disney, but the company now wants to control its own IP pipeline and is betting that in-house creations will be the answer to the next phase of growth. The timing is opportune: in Q2 2025, revenue rose 23% year-on-year, reversing four straight quarters of same-store sales decline, while net profit grew 10.6%. Supersized stores like the ‘Miniso Land’ and ‘Space’, where IP merchandise dominates, now see licensed and original IP products accounting for up to 90% of sales in some locations.
For Robin Liu, the company’s CMO since 2019, the mandate is obvious: reposition Miniso from a discount chain into a brand that resonates emotionally with the core audience—at home and abroad. Meticulous global expansion is part of that. In three years, the company has expanded from 1,900 overseas stores to 7,612 worldwide, including 3,307 abroad. Success, Liu believes, will hinge not just on a deliberate and well-timed IP push, but also on rethinking the model: experiment with CRM-driven campaigns for its 100 million-strong WeChat community, and create culture-captivating moments, like a now-famous group wedding during Qixi Festival.
Robin Liu chatted exclusively with Campaign Asia-Pacific.
Campaign: Miniso’s financials show a clear payoff from the 'big-store + IP' strategy at a time when many Chinese retailers are under pressure from muted consumer spending. How does this dual approach, licensed versus proprietary IP, fit into your long-term growth strategy?
Robin Liu: We began planning and rolling out our brand strategy upgrade four years ago, as it has been a systematic initiative. Beyond defining a differentiated strategic position, we also had to make coordinated changes across products, channels, store image, and consumer communication.
In 2024, Miniso systematically reviewed its entire channel and product matrix and categorised them into three tiers: Miniso Land, flagship stores, and regular stores. For the Land store series, we have already opened 13 Miniso Land stores and are continuing to open more at a steady pace. We also launched Miniso Space at Nanjing Deji Plaza (a high-end shopping mall featuring luxury brands) in June. It was a really positive signal. Following this, many high-end mall operators, such as Hang Lung Properties, Swire Properties, and China Resources Mixc Lifestyle, have reached out to explore collaboration opportunities.
At Miniso Space (or Friends), IP products account for 80% to 90%. For the Miniso Land stores we have opened so far, over 75% are IP products. Flagship stores target slightly less upscale malls, with IP products making up around 40% to 50% of their assortment.
The next tier down consists of our regular stores. Miniso’s presence spans from Tier-1 down to Tier-5 cities. In fact, we have nearly 2,000 stores in Tier-3 cities and below, which account for almost half of our total store count in Mainland China. Therefore, any future expansion will continue to target these lower-tier markets, utilising more flexible store models.
For these regular stores, we adapt our strategy to local conditions, given that IP awareness and penetration are relatively low in less developed regions and correlate with economic levels. Accordingly, we maintain the IP product ratio in these regular stores at around 20% to 30%.
Campaign: With competitors like KKV and Qpokee targeting Gen Z with experience-heavy formats, how does Miniso adapt its marketing and product strategy for aspirational young shoppers in small towns compared with major cities like Los Angeles or Milan?
From a branding perspective, we want young people, even in smaller towns, to be our customers. We want them to view Miniso as a trendy brand, like a hub for IP collaborations. We want them to feel that shopping at Miniso is part of the lifestyle they aspire to in the future.
On the product and day-to-day business side, our communication, including social media content influencing, will be more tailored based on what is actually available in each store in a precise way. For the young generations from smaller cities and towns, we will highlight those ever-popular, best-selling, and value-for-money products when working with KOCs (key opinion consumer) there. We can elaborate digital marketing methods to deliver targeted promotions directly to consumers based on their region.
Campaign: IP is the new battleground for Chinese lifestyle retailers. We've seen Pop Mart’s success with Labubu, which has become a billion-dollar global franchise almost overnight, and rivals like Qpokee are scaling quickly on the back of new artist collaborations. With licensed IPs delivering predictable traffic but original IP offering higher long-term upside, what's Miniso's strategy here?
After we released our Q2 financial results, we made a point during the analyst call to really emphasise developing our own in-house IPs. We have seen how Pop Mart exploded globally over the past year and a half because of Labubu, a huge success that basically multiplied their revenue and profit and dramatically elevated their brand recognition globally.
After half a year of top-level discussions, Miniso is finally making its move to the market. Back in July, we announced a series of deals and signed licensing deals with nine artists. This is a fast way to bring promising IPs, both original and existing, into our portfolio. We are building our own IP ecosystem through multiple channels, and I believe this will be a key differentiator for Miniso from other retailers like KKV and Qpokee, and will ultimately serve as a competitive moat.
Miniso is taking a two-way approach. On one hand, we engage in recreation with licensed international IPs, which is more predictable. Taking Sanrio as an example, it has long-lasting power and cross-cultural appeal. On the other hand, starting to incubate our own exclusive in-house artist IPs.
We have already proven and scaled our IP incubation model through the plush category, backed by extensive research and case studies. Meanwhile, Miniso is consciously avoiding over-exploiting IP value since we are committed to a gradual, nurturing approach and are thoughtfully planning our product roadmap. We are currently in conversation with a leading entertainment agency in China to co-develop a reality show, a talent competition for IP artists, designed to bring their creative stories closer to the audience.
I keep telling both my team and myself to adopt a truly end-to-end business perspective. Everything we do in branding and marketing today should actually drive growth. We need to think from a medium- to long-term perspective: which products will truly make us competitive? Our company culture and values are built around long-termism. Developing our own IP is a perfect example. It is tough, and it takes patience and strategic discipline, but it is worth the effort.
Campaign: How is competition from local brands like KKV and Qpokee influencing your product strategy and overall marketing focus?
The consumer and retail market in China is exceedingly competitive. If you’re in this sector, you can’t just sit back and relax. There’s no such thing as a “stable” or “business as usual” mindset here.
From a branding perspective, we have been pushing a brand upgrade for over three years. Although we are ahead of many competitors in terms of revenue and profit, we continually explore innovative and creative methods to further evolve.
The feedback I have received over the past few years, from consumer surveys, franchisees, suppliers, IP partners, to mall operators, consistently shows a fundamental shift in how the Miniso brand is perceived. We are no longer seen as just a simple variety store. But what remains unchanged is our commitment to delivering great value. We continue to offer emotional value at an affordable price, making shopping more enjoyable and rewarding.
I think that our brand's tone and texture have been steadily rising. To this point, I would say we are in a leading position in China. However, we must continue to innovate. Just like Mr. Ye (Ye Guofu, founder of Miniso) said: “Business thrives on creativity.” Everything we do, no matter marketing or products, has to start with creativity. And that creative energy has to be customer-centred. It all comes down to this: deeply understanding what they truly want, and turning those insights into products and campaigns that really resonate.
Campaign: Miniso’s 100 million-strong membership base in China has become the envy of retailers, with private traffic on WeChat providing a lower-cost alternative to advertising. But as more brands invest heavily in private traffic ecosystems, retention is harder and user fatigue is real. How do you keep that flywheel spinning and where does AI meaningfully add value beyond efficiency?
As CMO, there are two keywords I consistently bring up in all my discussions, both within and outside the company: content and users. I believe we should engage customers through a perspective of equality, bringing them into our marketing strategies and campaigns as partners, not just as audiences. We also see our high-value KOCs as the “brand ambassadors.” Over the years, they have truly grown up with our brand, co-creating content and even helping shape products.
Last year, our most viral moment on WeChat Moments was Miniso’s first-ever group wedding during the Qixi Festival. The post garnered 40-50k engagements, as users were fascinated by our company culture. This year, we invited over a dozen KOCs from Guangzhou to experience the event firsthand. We wanted to build a closer connection, and their response was amazing, resulting in a wave of authentic content from them on RedNote (or Xiaohongshu). These KOCs are at the very top of our user pyramid. They are the users who consistently engage in warm, ongoing conversations with us.
Across our major global markets, we have exceeded a milestone of 100 million members and are continuously strengthening our CRM. In China, WeChat remains our core private traffic ecosystem. Within the WeChat system, we engage users through a multitude of high-frequency touchpoints, including D2C messaging, 1-on-1 chats, community groups, Moments, and live streaming via Channels.
Having such a massive private user base allows us to run marketing campaigns more cost-effectively. These users are our most loyal brand fans, the core group we always turn to first when launching a new IP, product, or campaign. They are the ones who spark the word-of-mouth ripple effect. The key for us is identifying which of these users are not just engaged, but are also willing to create and share content, that’s how we find and nurture our future KOCs.
Currently, AI is driving efficiency across several key areas in Miniso. The first is content production. Whether it is e-commerce scene images or content from our content orchestration platform, we are using AI to adapt and extend that material to fit what our private traffic users want to see. Then, there is smart customer service, essentially a super-powered local knowledge base. It can facilitate ongoing, customised conversations, just like a human customer service agent, guiding users through pre-sales support and enhancing after-sales experience during private user communication on WeChat.
What’s more, AI is streamlining everything from product design and sales forecasting to distribution logic and supply chain management. Even our daily office workflows and approval processes, everything runs on Feishu (known as Lark outside China), highly enhancing our daily productivity.
Campaign: Talk about your plans to replicate that membership success in other markets.
Our membership system is relatively centralised, with the global HQ acting as the central hub for all user data and strategy. We are gradually optimising the programme here in China first, since it is our home base and has the largest user footprint.
Other directly operating markets that run membership systems are primarily located in three key areas. We have been in Indonesia for nine years, with nearly 400 stores. The US is our fastest-growing market, and we believe it is our top revenue-generating overseas market. We started building out the membership system there about one and a half years ago. Next on our roadmap will be Western Europe, where we plan to launch membership and user operations within the next two years.
Different markets have different user engagement ecosystems. In Indonesia, WhatsApp is dominant, whereas in North America, they rely more on traditional channels, such as SMS and email marketing. These markets are still relatively small compared to China, where our ecosystem is most mature and sophisticated. Here, we are constantly refining targeted marketing strategies, like building a central playbook that we can eventually adapt for overseas markets.
Overseas markets have their own nuances, so we need to localise based on a deep understanding of local consumers. For example, this year we built a dedicated consumer insights team within our user operations group. For me, it all comes down to one principle: think global, act local. We want to take what has already worked in China and adapt it thoughtfully, not just copy and paste. Stay humble, listen deeply, and really embed ourselves in each market.
Many of our local partners overseas have decades of experience. We highly respect that. It is a co-creation process as we work closely with them, listen to their feedback, and learn what we might have overlooked from a localisation perspective.
Campaign: As Miniso keeps growing globally, how do you manage the balance and coordination between your teams in China and those overseas? And now that your international business is much bigger than it was three years ago, what are the challenges in these markets?
During the Covid pandemic, we doubled down despite the headwinds and expanded in Europe, opening even more stores. Last year, I took a quick and tight three-day tour of Italy, one city per day. For instance, I was travelling from Milan to Rome and made a brief stop in Florence. When I stepped out of the train station in Italy, I found a Miniso store right there. Within a five-to-ten-minute walk, I could spot several more, even one near the Florence Cathedral.
I would say the biggest challenge has been limited time and energy. It is so hard to cover everything in person. That is why over the past few years, I focused more on building up the team and nurturing talent. We cannot just depend on individual efforts. In the end, we have to rely on organisational power.
What we have really achieved over these past few years is developing a marketing methodology that is adapted to Miniso's business. Many of our practices are quite innovative for the industry, as we have had numerous brands from China visit us to learn about private traffic, content marketing, IP, and global expansion. That whole process made me realiae that the team is really growing up.
When it comes to overseas marketing, we used to have just five or six people handling social media marketing. Now we have a team of around thirty. I believe we are on the right track and have found our rhythm. As Miniso’s branding has become stronger, our culture and in-house brands have continued to evolve as well. This month, I'll be visiting Fudan University and Sun Yat-sen University for campus recruitment, including our “Dark Horse” management trainee programme. We look forward to bringing in outstanding new talent and fresh blood that can grow quickly within our system, take on real responsibility, and better address the business's needs.
Campaign: Globally, sustainability has become a competitive differentiator, particularly in Western markets where regulators and consumers are pressuring retailers. Plush toys are Miniso’s top category, but also one of the most environmentally scrutinised. How is Miniso embedding ESG into product design, supply chain and packaging to ensure credibility and avoid greenwashing?
Plush toys are the top-selling category at Miniso. We have even launched eco-friendly Pen Pen plush toys made from GRS-certified materials. We are also using paper packaging instead of plastic. Then there is our drinkware line. We used to focus mainly on PC plastic, but now we have developed 26 SKUs of Tritan plastic cup, with Tritan products already accounting for a higher proportion than PC products during the development phase.
In terms of packaging, with so many stores across China, we operate through regional warehouses. Each store gets shipments twice a week on average, and larger stores get daily top-ups, all shipped in reusable mid-size boxes. We continue to produce cardboard boxes, and our recycling rate exceeds 90%.
Moreover, we are also expanding our green product offerings across more categories and prioritising suppliers with FSC certification. We are quite proud of our ESG track record, as Miniso has received an AA rating both from MSCI ESG and WIND ESG, which places us among the leaders in retail.
Looking ahead, we are planning to introduce more sustainable options in makeup tools, home goods, stationery, and toys. We may also be rolling out a Miniso-Eco label to highlight these products and apply it more widely across packaging as well.
