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Disrupted retail with brand licensing and SPA model, making extreme value-for-money a lifestyle for global youth
Ye Guofu is an important explorer of China's new retail, founding MINISO in 2013. Using a brand licensing model in partnership with Japanese designer Miyake Junya, he built a global brand of extreme value-for-money household and creative goods. His SPA model integrates three advantages: direct supply chain procurement, efficient store management, and brand premium. MINISO listed on the NYSE in 2020. In 2022, he acquired shares in Yonghui Supermarket, continuing to expand his footprint in China's retail market. MINISO now has over 5,000 stores in more than 100 countries, becoming a benchmark case for Chinese consumer brands going global.
In an era of increasingly rational consumers, spending less money to buy equal or better quality products is a business logic that works across all economic cycles. Extreme value-for-money is not a low-end positioning, but compressing costs to the limit through supply chain optimization while guaranteeing design aesthetics and quality perception.
Source: 叶国富接受《第一财经》专访，2019
The SPA model integrates design, production, and sales within a single enterprise, eliminating profit leakage from intermediate links while achieving faster product iteration and more precise inventory management—an efficient retail paradigm proven by Uniqlo and ZARA.
Source: 叶国富接受《商业评论》专访，2021
A truly globally replicable retail brand must highly standardize product development, store design, supply chain management, and operating procedures so that the cost and quality of opening stores in any country remain consistent, enabling rapid replication without eroding brand value.
Source: 叶国富名创优品全球化战略发布会演讲，2019
By integrating design-production-sales across the entire chain, eliminate intermediary price differences, maximizing consumer-perceivable value while maintaining healthy retailer margins.
MINISO's hit products such as 10-yuan essential oils and 39-yuan scented candles, by procuring directly from Chinese factories and eliminating agent tiers, compressed prices to 1/3 to 1/5 of competitors while maintaining quality.
Through licensing collaboration with globally known IPs such as Disney, Marvel, and Sanrio, layer emotional premium on top of extreme value-for-money products to expand the target user base and increase repurchase rates.
MINISO's Disney collaboration series significantly improved young consumers' purchase intent and social sharing intent while maintaining the original price range, becoming a core means of driving traffic and improving repurchase rates.
Through a highly standardized franchise system covering site selection standards, decoration specifications, product manuals, and training systems, rapidly replicate the store network globally in an asset-light manner.
When entering markets such as Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, MINISO adopted a standardized franchise model with local partners responsible for store operations and headquarters providing merchandise and brand support, achieving rapid expansion from 0 to hundreds of overseas stores within 3 years.
MINISO's core selling point was collaboration with Japanese designers, intentionally creating a Japanese atmosphere in store style and brand positioning, but its essence is a Chinese brand with Chinese supply chains—this positioning strategy succeeded in the market while also triggering controversies about brand authenticity.
Ye Guofu simultaneously pursues extreme value-for-money (price compression) and brand premium (IP collaborations, design aesthetics), creating inherent tension in business logic: brand premium means higher licensing costs while extreme value-for-money means maximally compressed profit margins.
Engaged in retail in Hunan, accumulating channel and supply chain experience
Ye Guofu grew up in rural Hunan and had worked in the retail industry for many years before founding MINISO, accumulating rich experience in supply chains, site selection, and retail operations, which laid the foundation for MINISO's subsequent rapid expansion.
SPA model validation and rapid global expansion
Founded MINISO in 2013, using Japanese designer collaborations as endorsement to quickly establish brand tonality; rapidly expanded store numbers through a combined franchise and direct-operation model; continuously strengthened brand influence through IP collaborations with Disney and Marvel, while expanding into global markets including Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and America.
NYSE listing and brand premiumization transformation
Listed on NYSE in 2020, but immediately began a brand upgrade strategy, attempting to shed the cheap knockoff label and move toward higher quality positioning. Also launched the TOPTOY trendy toy sub-brand, entering the blind box economy. Acquired shares in Yonghui Supermarket in 2022, expanding the retail footprint.
Context: Ye Guofu was born in rural Hunan to an ordinary family, developing a hardworking character from a young age that laid the foundation for his later resilience in the retail industry.
Decision: Chose to leave home for work, exploring opportunities in commercial circulation
Reasoning: Entrepreneurs from rural backgrounds often prioritize pragmatism, learning through trial rather than waiting for perfect conditions
Outcome: Accumulated practical business experience, forming a deep understanding of retail supply chains
Lesson: Self-made entrepreneurs often have stronger cost consciousness and supply chain awareness—this is the fundamental source of understanding the extreme value-for-money model
Context: Before founding MINISO, Ye Guofu founded the Aiyaya accessories chain brand, rapidly expanding to thousands of domestic stores and accumulating rich fast fashion retail and franchise management experience.
Decision: Entered the low-price accessories chain retail sector, validating the extreme value fast fashion model
Reasoning: Accessories as low-decision-cost consumer goods are ideal for validating the extreme value model, while the store expansion model could serve as a reference for the later MINISO
Outcome: Aiyaya expanded to thousands of stores, providing Ye Guofu with practical fast fashion retail and supply chain management experience
Lesson: Entrepreneurs' success is often built on previous failures and small successes; Aiyaya laid the operational foundation for MINISO
Context: In 2013, Ye Guofu partnered with Japanese designer Miyake Junya to open the first MINISO store in Guangzhou, with Japanese design style and extreme value-for-money as core selling points, targeting the 18-35 year old young consumer group.
Decision: Use Japanese designer collaboration to endow brand premium and SPA model to ensure extreme value-for-money, achieving both simultaneously
Reasoning: Chinese consumers have a natural trust and affinity for Japanese design, while China's low-cost supply chain is an advantage that cannot be globally replicated—combining the two can create unique brand value
Outcome: MINISO quickly won young consumer favor and began rapid nationwide store expansion
Lesson: Successful brand positioning lies in finding the perfect intersection of consumers' functional needs (value for money) and emotional needs (design aesthetics)
Context: After establishing a foothold in the Chinese market, Ye Guofu began pushing MINISO's globalization strategy, using Southeast Asia as a springboard and gradually expanding to markets including Europe, America, and the Middle East, adopting a franchise model cooperating with local partners.
Decision: Rapidly replicate stores through standardized franchise model rather than building its own overseas operations teams
Reasoning: Building overseas teams has high costs, slow speed, and cultural adaptation difficulties; leveraging local partners can quickly enter markets and reduce compliance risks
Outcome: MINISO entered more than 40 countries within 3 years, becoming one of the fastest globally expanding Chinese retail brands
Lesson: The correct path for consumer goods globalization is to find a replicable standardized operating system, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel in every market
Context: MINISO reached a global IP licensing collaboration agreement with Disney, licensing Disney's classic cartoon characters for MINISO product design, becoming an important milestone in MINISO's IP collaboration strategy.
Decision: Use collaborations with globally top-tier IPs to build brand credibility endorsement, improving consumer trust in brand quality
Reasoning: Licensing from global IPs like Disney means the brand's quality and copyright compliance have been approved by international top brands—this is the most direct way to dispel consumer doubts about cheap product quality
Outcome: IP collaboration products became MINISO's traffic engine, significantly improving young consumers' brand awareness and purchase frequency
Lesson: Layering strong IPs on extreme value-for-money products is an effective path to breaking through consumers' psychological price expectations and creating emotional premiums
Context: In October 2020, MINISO officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker MNSO, with an IPO valuation of approximately $2.8 billion, becoming the first Chinese new retail brand to list in the United States.
Decision: Chose to list on NYSE rather than the Hong Kong Stock Exchange or A-share market
Reasoning: NYSE is more attractive to global investors, helping MINISO build an international brand image while providing more capital support for global expansion
Outcome: Successfully raised approximately $608 million, with brand internationalization endorsement significantly enhanced; but subsequently faced brand positioning questions and stock price pressure
Lesson: Listing is a capital milestone, but after listing you face stricter public scrutiny and stock price pressure—the brand building task becomes heavier, not lighter
Context: After listing, MINISO began repositioning, abandoning the early Japanese brand endorsement market strategy and instead emphasizing its positioning as an original Chinese design brand, while improving product quality and average selling price.
Decision: Proactively remove the Japanese designer endorsement label, shifting to Chinese original brand positioning
Reasoning: With the rise of Guochao (Chinese trends) and improved Chinese consumer brand awareness, continuing to borrow Japanese brand endorsement was no longer necessary and damaged brand authenticity in international markets
Outcome: Brand upgrade is still ongoing with contested effectiveness; per-store sales have improved but overall brand awareness transformation still requires time
Lesson: Transitioning from leveraging others to building one's own core brand perception is a necessary path for consumer brand growth, but cognitive dissonance during the transition is the greatest risk
Context: In 2022, MINISO announced a strategic investment in Yonghui Supermarket, acquiring a certain shareholding; Ye Guofu hoped to use this to enter the mass supermarket retail track and diversify the retail business portfolio.
Decision: Enter the mass retail market through strategic investment rather than building from scratch
Reasoning: Mass supermarkets complement MINISO's niche retail, and strategic investment is lower cost and faster than building from scratch, allowing leverage of Yonghui's existing channel resources
Outcome: The investment is still being integrated with synergy effects to be validated; but it indicates Ye Guofu has more ambitious intentions for the Chinese retail landscape
Lesson: Consumer retail entrepreneurs, after a single brand matures, often face a strategic choice: deeply cultivate a single track or build a diversified retail ecosystem
Ye Guofu acknowledged in multiple interviews that MINISO's SPA model referenced Uniqlo's business logic, listing Yanai's works as an important reference for his business thinking.
Ye Guofu personally narrates MINISO's entrepreneurial journey and business model, systematically articulating the extreme value-for-money philosophy and global expansion strategy—a primary source for understanding his business thinking.
Ye Guofu mentioned this book in public speeches, connecting MINISO's low-end disruption strategy with Christensen's disruptive innovation theory, viewing MINISO as a practitioner of upward disruption from the low end of the retail industry.
Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai's SPA fast fashion model is the most important business reference for MINISO; Ye Guofu has acknowledged learning from Uniqlo's business model in multiple interviews
MINISO's success validated the extreme value-for-money + branding consumer goods path, influencing the positioning and business model design of many subsequent Chinese consumer brands
Japanese designer Miyake Junya was MINISO's Japanese partner at brand founding, providing Japanese design endorsement for the brand
叶国富把极致性价比做成了一种全球竞争力，这是中国零售创业的重要突破。
