text丨Brand creator Hu Kun
On July 13, ’s premium product landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the form of a “dual primary listing”. Although the proposed fundraising amount is only HK$567 million, it is still a breakthrough. As of press time, its share price remains at HK$13.08, lower than the issue price of HK$13.8 per share.
The decline of Miniso is not only reflected in the capital market. In most of its stores across the country, ordinary people can feel a little deserted.
And this is also the third hurdle in the life of founder Ye Guofu .
In 1977, Ye Guofu was born in a farmer's family in Danjiangkou, Shiyan, Hubei. Coming from a poor family, he came to the city to work hard without even getting a technical secondary school diploma . With no education and no connections, he could only start as an assembly line worker, salesperson and other positions.
The advantage of being at the bottom is that it can be as close to the market as possible. Not long after, he noticed that he could see a "10-yuan store" every few dozen meters on the street, with a dazzling array of trinkets and extremely prosperous business.
A plan was brewing in Ye Guofu's mind. After raising enough money, he immediately opened his first store in the downtown area of Foshan , and this was the prototype of the jewelry chain brand "Aiyaya" that later spread across the country.
It was 2004. It is said that on the day of opening, Ye Guofu made a net profit of 4,600 yuan. After all, it is not difficult for him to earn 100,000 yuan a month. And his ambitions grew. A few months later, Ye Guofu opened a number of chain stores in one go, officially changed the store names, and even announced that he would open "Aiyaya" stores all over the country.
In order to strengthen the brand effect of and , Ye Guofu invited SHE, which was very popular at the time, to endorse it. And the situation is indeed developing in the direction expected. Within 6 years, the number of Miniso stores nationwide has exceeded 3,000.
While it was busy expanding its territory, Chinese consumers experienced some subtle changes. After receiving sufficient market education, people no longer simply pursue the word "cheap". "Cheap and good goods" has become the new standard. At the same time, the rise of e-commerce channels such as Taobao has also diverted consumers' attention.
Just like those born after 2000 cannot understand and Li Yuchun , "Oops", as a representative of the previous era, has begun to decline.
Ye Guofu was disheartened, but during a trip to Japan, he found a new turning point. At that time, many home furnishing specialty stores in the island country not only had a strong sense of quality and affordable prices, but also provided customers with a comfortable and pleasant feeling in the consumption scene.
This refreshed Ye Guofu's understanding of grocery stores. He found the Japanese designer Miyake Junya , and immediately cooperated with him to establish Miniso after returning to China. was determined to copy Japan's small and exquisite lifestyle home specialty store model to China .
Ye Guofu decided to follow the low-price strategy, and at the same time consciously improved the taste of products and stores to achieve a consistent style. Consumers can buy various products with simple but sophisticated packaging here, such as hairpins, eyebrow pencils, perfumes, and eye shadows for 9.9 yuan, and hats, slippers, and headphones for 19.9 yuan.
Because it has been separated from "Aiyaya" in various aspects, many people still think that Miniso is a Japanese and Korean brand.
You may ask, how did Ye Guofu achieve this seemingly contradictory combination of huge SKUs, higher product quality and lower prices?
This is another brilliance of Ye Guofu. In order to enhance the voice of Miniso in the supply chain, he improved the traditional franchise method and adopted "franchisees pay the franchise fee, decoration fee and product deposit, and bear the expenses incurred by the daily operation of the store, but the specific store location selection , decoration, goods supply and logistics, employee recruitment and training, and promotional activities are managed and controlled by the company's unified appointment of store managers."
To this end, Miniso has also set up a team including professional buyers, designers, store managers, and regional managers, who will uniformly manage the product selection and operation of its stores.
In other words, Ye Guofu wants to use the money of the "MINISO partners" to expand and let them be the "hands-off shopkeepers".
This strategy soon showed its power. After opening in September 2013, Miniso opened 200 stores within a few months. By 2017, the ambitious Ye Guofu even announced the "Ten Thousands of Stores in One Hundred Countries" plan, threatening that Miniso would be stationed in 100 countries by 2019, open 10,000 stores, and achieve annual sales revenue of 100 billion.
If it were not for the epidemic, Ye Guofu might have a chance to realize his rhetoric, but the reality is the opposite.
On the one hand, franchisees and potential investors have become more cautious, increasing the expansion pressure of Miniso. On the other hand, manufacturers have been affected by rising prices, and their ex-factory prices have also increased. In order to stabilize its positioning and customer flow, Miniso has to maintain its original price and reduce its profit level.
According to the MINISO prospectus, from 2020 to 2021, MINISO’s net profit attributable to the parent company continued to decline during the same period, and the loss in 2021 reached 1.415 billion yuan. As of the end of the year, the number of its global stores was 5,045— was only a little more than half of its goal of “10,000 stores”.
At the same time, some people commented that compared to "Aiyaya", Miniso is just a change of the soup without changing the medicine. This "ten-yuan store" model is no longer suitable for the current consumption outlook of young people, and the epidemic has only accelerated the problem. of exposure.
Anyway, after the magic weapon of "opening a store" failed, Ye Guofu panicked. Eager to find the second growth curve, he saw " Bubble Mart " making great use of the blind box trend, so he jumped in headlong.
However, in today's consumer market, speed is the key to occupying positioning. Therefore, it is often the pioneers who eat the meat, while those who follow the trend can only eat the soup. As of the end of last year, TOP YOY did not seem to have caused much turmoil. It only had 89 stores across the country, and there was no mature brand that could stand on its own like "MOLLY" and "DIMOO" owned by Bubble Mart. IP may not be able to arouse Ye Guofu's hopes in the next stage.
Throughout Ye Guofu’s entrepreneurial journey, from “Oiyaya” to Miniso, to trendy toy brand TOP YOY, every step Ye Guofu takes seems to be in line with the times. But focusing on the specific point in time, you will find that his first two entrepreneurial ventures were successful based on closeness to the market and insight into needs, but the latest change has the meaning of rushing into action and seeking medical treatment in a hurry.
This subtle difference in may be the root cause of its decline.
However, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER (better late than never), I hope this "old" warrior in the retail industry can quickly find his rhythm and continue to be vigorous.
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