Miniso

Beauty and fashion products are driving growth at the Indian unit of Miniso, the Japanese low-cost retail chain that launched its first store in August 2017. The beauty category, launched in July, is expected to contribute 20% to the company’s overall business, said Young Liu, chief business development officer at Miniso. The beauty range includes moisturisers, body washes and colour cosmetics.

“In other countries, the revenue from the beauty range is double the India numbers, therefore we believe there is a huge room for growth. Currently, we are localising the beauty range, bringing colours that suit the Indian skin tone which will further drive this growth,” Liu said.

Miniso currently houses between 2,000 and 4,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in 12 categories, including health, beauty, stationery, gift items and creative homeware, at its 67 stores in India with a starting price of ?150.

The company achieved its annual target of ?700 crore revenue for 2017-18 in India with an average ticket size, which is 1.5 times higher than its other global markets.

With a presence across metros and tier I cities, the company plans to further penetrate smaller towns by taking the store count to 800 by 2020.

“We want to take our brand to tier II, III and IV towns and simultaneously expand our warehousing capabilities by setting up two to three new warehouses by 2019,” said Liu.

Besides Gurugram, Mumbai and Bengaluru, Minsio will open a new warehouse in Kolkata next year.

The low-cost retailer said it will rely heavily on the franchise route to achieve the expansion targets. Currently, out of its existing 67 stores in India, 42 are franchise-owned. According to Liu, the key challenge to the expansion target is the quality of shopping malls in the country.

“There are not enough shopping malls in India to open Miniso stores. We have so many investors who want to invest in our stores but there are not enough well-managed shopping malls in India. Apart from malls, the high-street locations are equally important to us and we want to focus on that as well,” he added.

The company, which targets customers in the 28-40 year age group, said that bottles, electronics and perfumes are its top-selling products. Indians prefer bright colours and the brand is looking to add them in its product range, it said. Last year, Miniso partnered with Marvel Studios to bring Pink Panther-themed products globally and it will bring more such superheroes-themed accessories to India next year.