NEW DELHI: After rapidly opening over a 100 stores in India over the last two years Japanese value retailer Miniso is extending its reach online.
On Thursday the company announced a tie-up with Noida-based Achhacart a B-to-B online distributor that will supply the retailer's goods to other e-commerce websites such as Paytm Mall, Amazon, and Flipkart functioning as a re-seller, the company’s India head said.
It however, also lowered the number of stores it expects to open in the country. Miniso that has 105 stores in India had set an ambitious target of opening 800 stores by 2020. However, it now plans to add only 60 more stores over the next six months in what can be seen as a far more conservative stance taken by the company.
Miniso now plans to grow online, ramp up procurement of local goods from India, and grow its owned and franchised stores.
“So this year, in another six months our plan is to open another 60 stores, grow the online platform, and increase our supplies from India to be able to supply them to global markets," Tyrone Li, India head, Miniso, told Mint in an interview. He added that the company has re-looked at its business model in India to focus on online sales. "As a Japanese company we keep doing a lot of transition in our business mode, so this year we are focusing on going online," he added.
Going forward the company’s products could be made available on e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart, and Amazon, he added.
Going forward we will invest in India from retail to sourcing, he added.
In a recent interview the company’s co-founder Miyake Junya said India could see 800 stores open up by 2020. But high rentals, and finding the right real-estate can often pose a challenge to growth of most brick-mortar retailer.
Miniso that entered India in 2017 has become popular in after thrifty Indian shoppers have embraced its low-cost products such as mobile phone accessories, handbags, storage boxes, stationery, perfumes etc a bulk of them prices less than Rs1,000. As a result it has opened in India’s top cities, and tier two markets such as Jalandhar, Kanpur, Howrah etc.
