Asian Retailers Expand Reach

Retail chains from Japan and China that specialize in affordable, stylish merchandise, especially home goods, gifts, and stationery, are expanding quickly on a global scale. Known for their Asian design sensibility—which has become popular worldwide—they turn products over quickly to encourage return visits and give fans new surprises each time. They are often open to collaborations with character properties and other global and local IP, both with and without Asian roots. 

While the U.S market is not typically among the first to be targeted in these retailers’ expansion plans, many of the operators have established a presence in North America as they continue to grow. Examples include:

• Miniso. A Chinese-based global lifestyle retailer that celebrated its 10^th anniversary in 2023, Miniso has more than 6,400 stores in 105 markets, with between 550 and 650 more expected to be added this year. In the U.S., it has opened more than 100 mostly mall-based stores in 27 states since its 2017 market entry. Known for reasonably priced products with an often-changing assortment that promotes treasure-hunting, the company announced a new brand strategy last year that focuses on redesigned stores, expansion of its own IP, and more third-party collaborations. It has forged partnerships with about 100 property owners worldwide in the last couple of years, including with We Bare Bears; Care Bears; Peanuts; Hello Kitty, Cinnamoroll, Gudetama, and other Sanrio characters; Disney’s Disney Villains, Mickey & Friends, Winnie the Pooh, and Marvel, including Spider Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and others; Sesame Street; Coca-Cola; Tom and Jerry; and Minions. The collections include things like coffee mugs, snow globes, bucket hats, and brush and comb sets, among many other items. Miniso opened its first U.S. IP Collection store, at the American Dream Mall, in 2024, featuring products tied to its proprietary characters (Mini Family, Dundun Chicken, and more) and has opened U.S. pop-ups such as a Stitch-themed shop in Times Square in March 2024. Internationally, it operates IP Collection stores featuring partner properties, such as a permanent Barbie-themed location in Malaysia and Sanrio-themed store in Indonesia, as well as pop-ups, including one tied to the manga property Chiikawa in Shanghai.  

• Daiso. This Japanese-headquartered company has more than 6,000 stores in 26 countries, including 90 in the U.S., where it opened its first in 2005. The 50-year-old brand carries 100,000 affordable products across a variety of categories, including home décor, stationery, and food, many with Japanese-inspired designs. Earlier this year it announced a collection of Miffy products in all of its U.S. stores. Merchandise includes air fresheners, calendars, keychains, pencil pouches, scented pens, and sticker sheets. It currently has an extensive collection of Coca Cola-licensed products in its stores in Japan and other Asian territories, including Singapore, featuring trays, coolers, picnic-ready tableware, beverageware and beverage coolers, baskets, totes, knives and forks, cloth napkins, and stickers. 

• PopMart. A Chinese operator with more than 500 stores in 30-plus countries (as well as 2,300 Roboshop vending machines), its model is a bit different in that it is focused on pop-culture collectible figures, or art toys, in various sizes, along with blind boxes, keychains, water bottles, pencil cases, sketchbooks, device accessories, stickers, and the like. It opened its first permanent U.S. store in 2023 at the American Dream mall. It works with a variety of artists to create toys whose IP it manages, with characters including Hirono, Skullpanda, Kubo, Dimoo, Molly, and others. It licenses those characters out to other companies, such as a men’s collection from Pronounce for its character Labubu and a global Pop Mart x Uniqlo UT collection. It also pairs with outside IP, such as Harry Potter, Steamboat Willie, SpongeBob, Powerpuff Girls, and others, with the company’s roster of artists creating figures tied to the properties. These are sometimes in combination with proprietary IP, as was the case with a Jean-Michel Basquiat Skullpanda and Space Molly figures with Balmain and artist Louis De Guzman. PopMart’s experiential brand extensions include a theme park in Beijing and a permanent art exhibition in Singapore. 

• Muji. This Japanese chain, founded in 1980 as a proprietary brand of Seiyu department store, carries 7,000-plus lower-priced and no-frills, but still quality, products. It has more than 1,000 stores in 32 countries worldwide, including over 50 in the U.S. Categories include women’s and men’s apparel, backpacks and bags, stationery, tableware, cookware and kitchen supplies, health and beauty, snacks, furniture, home fragrance, luggage, and many others, all meant to be simple, stylish, and timeless. Because of this mission, it does not enter into collaborations as often as some of its competitors, but it occasionally works with outside partners. It offered smart scooters and other merchandise (apparel, totes, helmets, etc.) with designer Naoto Fukasawa and recycled products brand Gogoro, for example, and a back-to-school collection with artist Alison Hui in Australia. The brand has extended into other businesses such as cafés and campsites, as well as creating curated collections with other retailers, including West Elm. 

• Mumuso. Founded in Shanghai in 2014, Mumuso has been expanding globally and has more than 2,800 stores, including several in Canada. It carries affordable products in a wide range of categories, from home goods, electronics, and beauty, to stationery, bags and other accessories, and children’s products. The chain does not collaborate with outside properties, but it does have a proprietary set of characters, the Mumuso Family, which it features on a range of merchandise, limited to its own stores so far. It has generated some controversy in Asia for seemingly presenting itself as a Korean retail chain despite being headquartered in China. (Miniso has faced the same sorts of concerns, presenting as Japanese.)

Other similar retailers are increasing their global footprint as well, although they do not participate much in licensing to date. They include the Chinese retailer Ximi Vogue, which has 1,100 stores in 65 countries, including Canada and the U.S.—one opened in Alabama earlier this year—and Bookoff, a Japanese used bookstore chain that carries lots of manga and anime, along with toys and other products based on those properties, with all the merchandise being second-hand. Uniqlo, which is more apparel-centric than these chains but also offers a wide range of collaborative pop-culture-themed products, can likely be credited, at least in part, with paving the way for the latest wave of Asian retail expansion.