oration for the retail chain, which has previously collaborated with Sesame Street, Hello Kitty and Adventure Time.  Brainstorming brands “Branded product is a cool thing for me, because we’re not just simply putting the logo of other brands on our products. We are actually redesigning and making new products with both Miniso and other brands’ elements,” Miniso Australia president and chief executive Ben Yip told Inside Retail Weekly. “The process of merging different elements, brainstorming to create new products that no one has done before is fascinating to me, and also drives Miniso to become better and better.” Such products also often lead to a spike in interest, and allow the brands on either side of the partnership an opportunity to reach a different market. In the case of Marvel x Miniso, being placed prominently in a homewares store gives Marvel the chance to reach the female consumer – Miniso’s main customers, according to Yip – while Miniso has the opportunity to reach more males who shop with them. The homewares brand often announces its branded collaborations through Facebook and Instagram in advance, allowing customers the opportunity to anticipate the release. “Especially for the Marvel collections, many customers started to ask about the Marvel products right after we released the information [and] suggested what kinds of products they [were looking forward to],” Yip said.  “Their passion indeed moved us.” This could be why Miniso’s branded products tend to be among its top sellers, many of which sell out on the first day of their Australian launch. Miniso has its eye on accelerating its global growth in an effort to become one of the largest retailers by 2020 by diversifying its products to reach a larger market. This is the reason Miniso partnered with Marvel. “Marvel is currently one of the most popular IPs in the world. It can help us to increase [our] popularity in the world easily,” Yip explained, while adding that Marvel gets access to Miniso’s 4000 global retail locations and product manufacturing expertise in exchange.  Miniso noted it is Marvel’s exclusive retail partner, in a deal that will last until December 2020.  However, even beyond that, there are plenty of popular brands in the world left to collaborate with and Miniso has no plans to stop at Marvel.  “Miniso is a lifestyle: simplicity, nature and good quality are always what we chase after,” Yip said.  “We are open to any brand that has a similar brand philosophy like us… We’ll insist on doing partnerships in the future.”