21st Century Business Herald reporter Yi Jiaying reports from Shanghai
"On behalf of myself, I do not accept Miniso's apology."
Some fans angrily shared several crimes on social media, including scalpers, insulting co branded IPs, and poor quality control, in the Chiikawa co branded product.
A Chiikawa co branded product display video released by the official account of Shiming Chuangyou Pin claimed that the main characters in Chiikawa, Huqi, were "Blue Pants Cat", Jiyi was "intellectually disabled and crying mouse", and Usaqi was "Crazy and Strange Calling Rabbit", which caused a lot of dissatisfaction among fans.
On April 3rd, Miniso released an apology letter stating, "We are shocked by the mistakes made by our internal team... Based on this incident, we immediately removed relevant videos and, in accordance with company regulations, decided to dismiss the first person responsible for the incident and impose severe penalties on the relevant team, ordering immediate rectification."
It is understood that Chiikawa is a short manga serialized by Japanese manga artist Nagano on social media.
Liu Xiaobin, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of MINISO Group, further stated, "Recently, the joint cooperation between MINISO and Chiikawa has indeed received widespread attention. The incident occurred suddenly, and we dealt with it within 12 hours (video removal, internal accountability, and punishment within 4 hours) and apologized to IP fans."
"You know, when we call it 'baby', how can babies suffer like this?" Chiikawa fans on social media also apologize and express their inability to forgive their disrespectful behavior towards IP.
In addition, many fans have mentioned issues such as poor offline purchasing experience, and scalpers have directly increased prices near pop-up stores.
It is worth mentioning that according to data released by Miniso, the business performance exceeded 8 million yuan within three days of opening, and the unit price per customer exceeded 1000 yuan.
On March 29th, the first nationwide stop of Minikawa X Chiikawa themed flash mob landed at Jing'an Joy City in Shanghai, attracting numerous fans. Some even lined up overnight at around 22:00 the day before. On that day, it sold 2.68 million yuan in 10 hours, setting a record for the highest daily sales at the Jing'an Joy City IP Exhibition.
Subsequently, on April 1st, it landed simultaneously at Chaoyang Joy City in Beijing and Wujiaochang Heshenghui in Shanghai. In addition, the co branded products of this series are also about to be released in stores across the country.
"The unusually hot purchase of this co branded product is due to the fact that previously Chiikawa could only be purchased in Japan, and due to shipping and purchasing fees, it was expensive in the second-hand market. Anyway, the price of Minikawa's co branded product is reasonable and convenient for domestic purchases." A Chiikawa fan, Xiaomi, said in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald reporters, "In fact, after the incident, offline sales have not been affected. Today (April 4th), several newly launched stores in other regions, Ningbo and Suzhou, quickly sold out in the morning."
This collaboration not only saw booming product sales, but also boosted the performance of Miniso in the capital market.
Zhejiang Securities previously pointed out that the launch of the heavyweight IP will significantly drive sales growth, and the second quarter performance is expected to exceed expectations.
And Miniso has become an important player in the co branded market, collaborating with nearly 100 IPs.
According to the financial report of Miniso, its revenue exceeded 13.8 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 40%, with a gross profit margin of 41.2%, a year-on-year increase of 6.3 percentage points. After adjustment, its net profit was about 2.36 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 110%.