Bright lights and colourful design-led lifestyle products are attracting shoppers into the flagship store of fast-growing global brand Miniso that opened its doors for the first time last week on London’s Oxford Street.

This new store is the retailer’s second outlet in central London following the successful opening of its unit on nearby Shaftesbury Avenue. This adds to its other shops across the capital including Westfield White City, Ealing Broadway Shopping Centre and Brent Cross. This takes the UK portfolio to 23 stores although the prime location of the latest on the UK’s key shopping thoroughfare marks a significant move for the company and it is also notably its largest in the country encompassing 2,700 square feet.

© Miniso

Saad Usman, chief operating officer at Miniso UK, says: “MIniso’s venture onto Oxford Street signifies a momentous chapter in our journey, embodying our steadfast belief that ‘Life is for Fun.’ It doesn’t get much bigger than Oxford Street, and the street’s global reputation as a premier shopping destination resonates seamlessly with Miniso’s commitment to delivering top-quality, affordable products to everyone. It is an iconic shopping destination so it makes perfect sense that we would want to open a store there.” 

Its affordable products are predominantly aimed at its main customer base of Gen Z females and mums with young children. The popularity among the two groups is down to accessible prices and a wide variety and huge choice of products including items created through partnerships with brands like Sanrio and Disney. 

© Miniso

At the new Oxford Street store shoppers have access to all Miniso’s best-selling products including its Sanrio Blind Boxes (these contain a mystery collectible toy), plushies, homewares and accessories. “Our customers go crazy for Blind Boxes and plushies. Working with brands like Sanrio on our Blind Boxes really drives their popularity, people just love them and we always see a huge buzz on channels like TikTok as the new Blind Boxes and plushies drop,” says Usman.

© Miniso

The store also offers the company’s brand-new beauty range and exclusive fragrance lines including, nail polishes, perfumes and makeup products. The retailer has identified fragrances specifically as one of the categories that will be pivotal to its global ambitions. 

© Miniso

“We have just launched our new beauty range and are about to launch our self-care beauty products. We’re expecting both collections to be hugely popular. Like all of our products it will come in at a very affordable price point, which like the rest of our products really drives the popularity,” he explains.

For Gen Z shoppers the pricing proposition is vitally important. In May this year Miniso reduced its prices as part of a wider strategy that was helped by its shipping costs reducing and it was able to pass these savings directly onto its customers. “Before we dropped our prices in May 2023, 95% of our stock was under £20. Since the price reduction in May 95% of our stock is under £15, and 83% is under £10,” says Usman.

© Miniso

The opening of Oxford Street is also meaningful because the group’s strategy is for each of its global markets to focus on opening stores in premier shopping districts and the UK is the first market to follow this vision. More high profile UK store openings are planned for early 2024. 

Since its first store in China opened its doors in 2013, the brand has become globally recognised and the store network now extends across 5,800 outlets in over 100 countries, including some famous retail destinations such as Times Square in New York and from last week London’s Oxford Street was added to this list.