MINISO Group Holding Limited, an investment holding company, engages in the retail and wholesale of lifestyle products and pop toy products in China, rest of Asia, the Americas, Europe, Indonesia, and internationally.
The company has built its flagship brand MINISO as a globally recognized retail brand and established a store network worldwide. As of December 31, 2024, the company had in its extensive global store network MINISO stores in approximately 90 countries and regions throughout the wo...
MINISO Group Holding Limited, an investment holding company, engages in the retail and wholesale of lifestyle products and pop toy products in China, rest of Asia, the Americas, Europe, Indonesia, and internationally.
The company has built its flagship brand MINISO as a globally recognized retail brand and established a store network worldwide. As of December 31, 2024, the company had in its extensive global store network MINISO stores in approximately 90 countries and regions throughout the world, MINISO stores in mainland China and MINISO stores overseas. Observing an emerging pop toy culture, the company leveraged its extensive retail know-how, supply chain capabilities, and established a platform to launch the TOP TOY brand with the strategic goal of entering into the pop toy market and eventually building its platform of pop toys.
In 2024, the company launched an average of over 1,180 SKUs under the MINISO brand per month, and offered consumers a wide selection of over 12,600 core SKUs, the vast majority of which are under the MINISO brand. The company’s MINISO product offering spans across 11 major categories, including home decor, small electronics, textiles, accessories, beauty tools, toys, cosmetics, personal care, snacks, fragrances and perfumes, as well as stationery and gifts. Under the TOP TOY brand, the company offered over 11,100 SKUs as of December 31, 2024, across categories including blind boxes, toy bricks, model figures, model kits, collectible dolls, Ichiban Kuji, and other popular toys.
Products
The company’s flagship brand MINISO offers a frequently refreshed assortment of lifestyle products covering diverse consumer needs, and consumers are attracted to the company’s products’ trendiness, creativity, high quality, and affordability. The company’s MINISO product offering encompassed over 12,600 core SKUs in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, across 11 major categories: home decor, small electronics, textiles, accessories, beauty tools, toys, cosmetics, personal care, snacks, fragrances and perfumes, and stationery and gifts. In December 2020, the company launched a new brand, TOP TOY, which is committed to building its platform of pop toys. Under the fast-growing TOP TOY brand, the company offered around 11,100 SKUs as of December 31, 2024, across major categories: blind boxes, toy bricks, model figures, model kits, collectible dolls, Ichiban Kuji, and other popular toys.
The company is able to deliver its value propositions by leveraging its supply chain capabilities that are built on China’s large supply chain, its large procurement volumes, its punctual payment to suppliers, and its digitalized, continuously optimized supply chain, which collectively contribute to the company’s overall supply chain efficiency and procurement cost advantages.
The company’s philosophy is to launch approximately 100 new MINISO SKUs every 7 days, carefully selected from a large library of 10,000 product ideas, which it refers to as the 711 philosophy. In 2024, the company launched an average of over 1,180 SKUs per month under its MINISO brand and offered consumers a wide selection of over 12,600 core SKUs. Under the TOP TOY brand, the company offered around 11,100 SKUs as of December 31, 2024. In general, the company’s products are frequently refreshed to satisfy the evolving needs and preferences of consumers.
Brand strategies
The company sells the vast majority of its products under its flagship brand MINISO, which targets primarily the younger generation. Almost all of the MINISO products are self-developed. To attract and keep the interest of consumers, the company updates its MINISO product portfolio frequently with new and trendy products. With its 711 philosophy for product rollout under the MINISO brand, every 7 days, the company aims to launch approximately 100 new MINISO SKUs carefully selected from a large library of 10,000 product ideas. In 2024, the company launched an average of over 1,180 SKUs under the MINISO brand per month.
Product Design Capabilities
The company works with both in-house designers and independent design teams globally to create innovative design concepts for it. As of December 31, 2024, the company had a designer network that includes an in-house team of over 300 designers, as well as 18 design teams consisting of internationally renowned independent designers, professional design studios, and design academies from 5 countries and regions. To integrate the design capabilities of these design teams with its own, the company has established the MINISO Design Academy, consisting of a selection of its in-house designers. The MINISO Design Academy is mainly responsible for liaising with third-party designers and adding visual and packaging designs to the product prototype designs submitted by design teams, so that the final products have a consistent appearance with the rest of the company’s branded products. The vast majority of the company’s SKUs feature elements of designs by its in-house design team.
The company generally pays a design service fee for each design it engages its design teams to create, either as a fixed sum or as a percentage of its sales revenue, subject to a pre-agreed cap, and the company generally owns all intellectual property rights relating to the design. The company sometimes allows the design teams to receive a small percentage of the sales revenue from products featuring their design in addition to the design service fee when the product sales exceed a certain threshold. The design teams are liable for any disputes, controversies, or claims arising out of or in connection with the design concepts. The company’s agreements with these design teams typically have a term of not more than three years.
Co-Branding Collaborations And Co-Development of IP products
Co-branding with IP licensors is another example of the company’s efforts to frequently refresh its product assortment. During the course of its business operations, the company has developed an approach to collaborating with highly popular IP licensors in developing co-branded products.
The company has established co-branding relationships with multiple IP licensors who own a number of popular brands, such as Disney, Sanrio, and Universal. The terms and conditions of the company’s agreements with IP licensors vary, as they are typically based on form agreements provided by the licensors. However, the company’s agreements with IP licensors typically have a term of not more than three years. Under these agreements, the company is licensed to manufacture, sell, and promote co-branded products within licensed territories, and it may not reassign such rights to any third party without the approval of the IP licensors. The royalties the company is obligated to pay its IP licensors typically consist of a fixed minimum of royalties and royalties equal to a certain percentage of sales of co-branded products.
The company has also developed the ability to identify and cultivate new IPs and co-develop them with independent design artists into popular IP products, mostly under its TOP TOY brand. The company forms close collaboration with talented independent design artists by empowering them with scalable sales channels, real-time consumer feedback, as well as strong supply chain capabilities, which help turn their design ideas efficiently and faithfully into products. Contractually, the company retains ownership of the IPs co-developed with independent design artists.
Store Network
As of December 31, 2024, the company served consumers primarily through various MINISO stores, including MINISO stores in mainland China and MINISO stores overseas.
Store operations in mainland China
As of December 31, 2024, apart from directly operated MINISO stores and directly operated TOP TOY stores, substantially all of the company’s other MINISO and TOP TOY stores in mainland China were operated under its MINISO Retail Partner model.
Among the TOP TOY stores as of December 31, 2024, directly operated, and operated under the MINISO Retail Partner Model. The MINISO Retail Partner model is a hybrid store operation model that takes advantageous elements from the franchise store model and the self-operated chain store model, both of which are industry norms. Under this model, the company provides operational guidance in the form of store management and consultation services to MINISO Retail Partners, operating in an asset-light manner.
The company only had one distributor for the MINISO brand in Tibet in China during the fiscal years for the year ended December 31 and 2024.
The company’s TOP TOY stores are operated under the MINISO Retail Partners model as well. The company has 9, 18, 42 and 64 MINISO Retail Partners operating TOP TOY stores as of December 31, 2024, respectively. Some MINISO Retail Partners in mainland China may invest in both MINISO and TOP TOY stores.
Overseas Store Operations
As of December 31, 2024, in international markets under MINISO brand, there were various stores directly operated by the company and over 2,600 MINISO Retail Partner stores and stores under the distributor model.
As of June December 31, 2024, the company had 114 MINISO Retail Partners in overseas markets, respectively. The increase in the number of MINISO Retail Partners as of December 31, 2024, was primarily due to the increase in the number of MINISO Retail Partners in Indonesia.
Supply Chain
As of December 31, 2024, the company sourced from approximately 1,800 suppliers, who are qualified manufacturers in China or other countries and regions, with some having extensive experience in supplying to other global brands.
Production
The company outsources the production of its products to third-party manufacturers. Leveraging China’s strong supply chain capabilities in the lifestyle product sector, the company sourced its products from approximately 1,800 suppliers as of December 31, 2024. The company outsources its product production primarily through the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or original design manufacturer (ODM) model, primarily because (i) these suppliers are mostly qualified manufacturers in China, with some having extensive supplying experience in the lifestyle products sector, and thus the OEM/ODM model allows the company to optimize the manufacturing capacities and design resources of the suppliers to help its business development, (ii) the OEM/ODM model allows the company to meet its demand for rapid product development, enabling it to maintain a diverse and frequently refreshed product portfolio, and (iii) the outsourcing arrangements allow the company to control and manage product costs, as well as better manage and minimize investment risks. The company leverages its design capabilities and participates in product design with both OEMs and ODMs, but it is generally more deeply involved in the design process with OEMs. As such, the company typically uses ODMs to directly manage and take charge of the development and design of more standard products, as these products require less design effort from its own product managers and designers; and it typically uses OEMs more often for products that require or allow new design ideas and concepts, as its product managers and designers can work with OEMs to refine product design and prototypes, leveraging the manufacturing expertise of OEMs and their inputs on production feasibility. In some cases, the company purchases certain products directly from suppliers without participating in the product design process, but the sales contribution of such products in MINISO stores in mainland China was less than 10% during the years ended December 31, 2024.
The company selects its suppliers based on various factors, but it generally prioritizes industry leaders, such as those with a long history of operation, a good reputation, or publicly listed companies. Other factors considered include production quality, capacity, price, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, history of cooperation, and the intention to grow with the company and adapt to its changing business needs.
Warehouses and logistics
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s products were distributed through approximately 35 leased warehouses, around 20 of which were located in China. The company distributes products out of each warehouse mostly to nearby markets, while also using some of its warehouses in China to distribute to international markets.
Sales and Marketing
Sales Channels
The company sells the majority of its products through the company’s extensive offline store network, but it has also started to develop online sales channels, which have become increasingly important. The company’s sales channels mainly comprise the following:
MINISO stores. As of December 31, 2024, there were approximately MINISO stores across the globe, with MINISO stores in mainland China and MINISO stores overseas.
TOP TOY stores. As of December 31, 2024, there were various TOP TOY stores, which were located in mainland China.
Online channels: The company supplements its offline store network by accepting online orders via its Weixin mini-programs, online distributors, and its online stores on major third-party e-commerce and O2O platforms. Consumers may order products to be delivered from either local MINISO and TOP TOY stores or from the company’s warehouses using either type of these online sales channels.
Marketing and Consumer Engagement
To promote its brand image, the company has launched various marketing initiatives, including the appointment of celebrity brand ambassadors and featuring them in promotional material, marketing through video and short-video platforms, and KOL promotion on livestreams, with online and social media-based marketing and promotion efforts being its focus going forward. Specifically, the company’s membership program and store-based consumer community are two marketing and consumer engagement measures that have proved particularly effective in China.
Membership Program: The company launched its MINISO membership program in mainland China in August 2018. As of December 31, 2024, the number of MINISO members with at least one purchase over the past 12 months was approximately 46 million. The company’s MINISO membership used to be structured in two tiers: premium membership and free membership, with the former requiring a membership fee but also enjoying more membership benefits than the latter. For example, premium members were entitled to special prices for select products and additional discounts on top of promotions both in-store and on the company’s Weixin mini-programs. However, the company has ceased to accept new premium membership registrations or renewals of such program since March 2023. The term of the premium membership is one year or one month from the date of registration or renewal. Existing premium members can still enjoy relevant benefits before the expiration of their previously paid premium membership.
The free membership program is the main membership program and is structured in three tiers: golden membership, silver membership and common membership, with accumulating consumption points generated by customers’ purchases and being categorized according to the level of consumption points. For example, all of the company’s members are entitled to coupons available in stores and its Weixin mini-programs and birthday privilege, with the golden membership being granted coupons of higher value.
As of December 31, 2024, the number of TOP TOY members with at least one purchase over the past 12 months was approximately 3 million. The successful implementation of the membership program has driven customer spending. The company’s membership program also provides valuable consumer data that allow the company to personalize its digital marketing efforts and has been key to its multi-channel customer engagement strategy.
Store-based consumer community. MINISO and TOP TOY stores in mainland China generally display a QR code that allows consumers visiting the stores to join the stores’ Weixin groups, which are managed by its specialists. These specialists keep consumers constantly engaged by sharing mainly product-related information and promotion, sometimes in livestreaming format, in these Weixin groups. Consumers who are group participants may be enticed to shop for the company’s products.
Intellectual Property
The company had around 1,122 trademarks, 346 patents, 814 copyrights relating to various aspects of its operations, and approximately 10 registered domain names (including www.miniso.com) in China as of December 31, 2024. In addition, the company owned over 1,000 trademarks outside China as of December 31, 2024.
Regulations
The company’s PRC subsidiaries, Miniso (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., Miniso Youxuan Technology (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. and Miniso International (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., have obtained certificates issued by Guangzhou Administration for Market Regulation for the filing of their operation of Class II medical device.
History
MINISO Group Holding Limited was founded in 2013. The company was incorporated in 2020.
