Miniso (名创优品)

Founded in Guangzhou in 2013, Miniso first borrowed every code of Japanese stationery and variety retail: a katakana logo, red and white bags, a designer co-founder in Tokyo. The strategy was attacked in China itself, and the company eventually issued public apologies in 2022 and embraced its Chinese identity.

The model itself works: ten thousand shops in about a hundred countries, a catalogue refreshed weekly and a successful pivot to licences — Sanrio, Disney, Barbie, Harry Potter — that turned a generic-goods chain into a collectors' destination. It is Pop Mart's direct competitor on the small collectible object.