Miniso


Miniso is a Chinese low-cost retailer and variety store chain that specializes in household and consumer goods including cosmetics, stationery, toys, and kitchenware. Co-founded in 2011 by Japanese designer Junya Miyake and Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu, the company is headquartered in Guangzhou, China under their Chinese holding company Aiyaya. In 2016, the company's sales revenue reached $1.5 billion, up from $769.9 million one year previous.
Miniso has been criticized for sharing an aesthetic similarity to other Japanese variety stores, as well as for being a Chinese retailer that markets itself as Japanese. Even so, Miniso has expanded outside of the Chinese market and operates 1,800 stores in Asia, Europe, Oceania, Africa, North America, and South America. It had plans in 2015 to eventually open 6,000 stores worldwide. The 4 products of MINISO brand wave book, CirXquare round small fan, U-shaped fan and portable U-shaped pillow won the red dot award honors.
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History

Miniso was founded in 2011 by Japanese designer Miyake Junya and a Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu in Tokyo, Japan. and opened its first store in China in 2013. Initially claiming to be a famous Japanese brand, despite operating in Mainland China under Chinese company Aiyaya and had no outlets in Japan. Miniso has since expanded outside of China and opened over a thousand stores worldwide.
In January 2017, Miniso announced that they were seeking to enter the North Korean market, opening their first store in Pyongyang four months later. According to The Economist, the store was popular among the country's wealthy but only accepted foreign currency, including the U.S. Dollar, Chinese Yuan, and Euro as payment. Soon after opening, the company's Japanese branch came under pressure for violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 2321 prohibiting trade with North Korea, distanced themselves from the move, and blamed the Chinese offices for the decision. As a result of the controversy, Miniso promised not to ship any more products to North Korea and the Pyongyang store was rebranded as "Evolution".

Expansions and locations

Miniso first established a retail presence in China, and the majority of its stores still operate there. Even so, it has pursued an aggressive expansion plan in countries connected with China's One Belt One Road economic policy, alongside other similar international retailers like Mumuso, XIMIVOGUE and LÄTT LIV, with shopping malls sometimes having several rival stores. It first began expanding in Asia: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Nepal, Macau, India, Pakistan, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Mexico, Thailand and Bangladesh. Sales in one store in Vietnam on its opening day exceeded $10,000 in one hour. Miniso's store in Pyongyang was notably the first and only foreign-branded retail store in North Korea. It arrived in Australia in early 2017.
On 27th May 2016, Miniso opened its first store in Seacon Square Srinakarin, Bangkok that Operating under the name of MiniSo Company Limited which Singtai Trading Company Limited is the sole importer. Currently, in Thailand, Miniso has a total of 52 branches nationwide.
In North America, Miniso currently operates several stores in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. On August 6, 2016, Miniso signed a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperation Agreement with an American partner to expand its retail operations to the United States. The first U.S. store opened in Pasadena in April 2017.
In Central America, Miniso opened its first store in Panama. They had opened 4 stores by October 2018.
In South America, Miniso opened its first retail store in Brazil in August 2017, its second in Chile in December 2017, with plans to enter nearby Argentina soon. In May 2018 its first retail store in Peru opens at Jockey Plaza Shopping Center. In Colombia it started operations with a double opening of two stores on August 30 in the city of Bogotá, by December 2018 they plan to open the first 15 stores in the country.
In Europe, Miniso operate retail outlets in Spain, Germany, Italy, Estonia, Serbia, Armenia and Russia, among others.
In Africa, Miniso first entered Morocco in early 2017 with 15 stores in multiple cities around the kingdom and South Africa in august 2017 West Africa in Nigeria one month later. There are also stores in Kenya and in Kampala, Uganda. As of January 2018, Miniso operates two stores in Egypt.
On September 1, 2018 Miniso opened two stores in Romania and plans to open 40 more stores nationwide.
On January 12, 2018 Miniso opened its first store in Bangladesh.
In June 2019, Miniso announced it would open 6 more stores in Israel bringing the total to 18 by the end of the year.
On 8th November 2019, Miniso opened its first store in United Kingdom, in Ealing Broadway, west London. It continues to claim to be from Japan and uses the “MINISO Japan” store name, and printed the website “www.miniso.jp” on their shopping bags.
As of January 2020, Miniso has over 3,500 stores in 79 countries, with an approximate revenue of 2.4 billion USD in 2019.

Marketing

Miniso's marketing strategy has been compared to Japanese retailers such as Muji, Daiso, and Uniqlo due to similarities in both store aesthetics, brand design, and inventory. Because of its Japanese-influenced branding strategy, the company's products have been criticized as "made in China to look Japanese", particularly when most of the company's stores are located in China, where people trust Japanese brands more than domestic offerings. It has also been criticized for affixing grammatically incorrect Japanese-language labels to many products, a consequence of using Baidu Translate to produce Japanese language copy, as admitted by Miniso management.
Nevertheless, because of Miniso's success in expanding its number of retail stores, AllianceBernstein, a global asset management company, called its market strategy a success by "filling a price-point niche left unaddressed by the Japanese formats it was imitating".