Why did MINISO, which pursues the trend of life consumption, choose to work the pet track?
Recently, the well-known retail group MINISO has launched its official flagship store of pet products in Taotian, Douyin and other online e-commerce channels, and launched a new product line of pet food and pet supplies.
According to the statement of the official flagship store, MINISO Pet Products Home aims to reiterate the original intention of pet raising of "pets are healthier, accompany them longer, and have no pressure on pets", focusing on developing products from the perspective of future pet consumption, making them more fashionable, more reliable and cheaper, so that every pet family can enjoy a healthy life of pets.
At present, the official flagship store of MINISO Pet Products has launched 5 SKU series products, mainly covering sub-categories such as full-price fresh meat cat food, mineral cat litter, natural sodium-based mineral sand, and mixed cat litter. Among them, Liaoning Haichen Organic is the core production supplier of MINISO pet food series at this stage.
So, what are the thoughts behind the low-key business layout of MINISO in the pet field?
On the one hand, it may be the super brand strategy of MINISO, which needs more new increments.
In the eyes of the public, MINISO has always been the representative of affordable daily necessities collection stores. MINISO has previously relied on the business philosophy of "extreme product design, high cost performance, and excellent shopping experience" to achieve rapid expansion and breakthrough.
However, since the completion of the brand upgrade strategy in early 2023, the core of MINISO's strategy in recent years has been focusing on the field of lifestyle consumption, and wants to rely on the interest consumption business model and the three-good product framework of "good-looking, fun, and easy-to-use" to make great strides on the road to becoming a "super brand".
As a result of this strategic initiative, MINISO's annual revenue in 2023 will exceed 13.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 40%; gross profit margin reached 41.2%, an increase of 6.3% year-on-year; The adjusted net profit was approximately RMB2.36 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 110%.
And in 2024, MINISO will also continue its high growth trend. According to its financial report, MINISO achieved revenue of 3.724 billion yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 26%; The gross profit margin was 43.4%, which was even higher than the peak sales season in 2023; The adjusted net profit was 617 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.7%.
Judging from the above financial data, MINISO's super brand strategy is undoubtedly very successful. But in order to ensure sustainable growth, MINISO may need more new increments.
The fast-growing pet market is still a potential track that has not been deeply explored for MINISO, and it is also a very ideal source of new increments. Especially after the younger generation has become the main force of pet raising, the user portrait of pet raising has highly overlapped with the core user groups that MINISO is currently focusing on.
Interestingly, the hot pet market has long been verified in the development path of MINISO. For example, many series of pet clothing such as Disney, Sanrio, and Pixar launched by MINISO through co-branded IP, which became popular all over the Internet as soon as they were listed, and finally even formed a situation that was difficult to find.
However, compared with supplies, the current rigid consumption and main consumer category of the pet market is still pet food. And driven by the trend of the cat economy, the cat product market has higher growth potential. This may also be the main reason why MINISO will choose to lay out two rigid demand categories: cat food and cat litter in a low-key layout of the pet track this time.
On the other hand, full category, full channel, and full market coverage are the basic plates of MINISO, and the pet industry is naturally an indispensable part.
According to public information, MINISO's product line is extremely diverse, with more than 13,000 SKUs. The agglomeration effect generated by the combination of many SKUs provides consumers with a one-stop shopping experience, which in turn continuously improves and penetrates the brand mentality of MINISO.
However, in the previous product matrix of MINISO, its pet product line was slightly inferior. According to the observation of the pet industry, in addition to the pet clothing launched by the co-branded IP, the pet product line of MINISO previously only had the "hot pet" series with cleaning wipes, nursing shampoo, pet comb and other pet daily cleaning and care as the core.
This may be the reason why MINISO mainly focused on the field of daily necessities before. With the development and progress of social civilization, pets have gradually penetrated into human life, and the connection between people and pets has become more and more inseparable. Therefore, the strategic significance of the pet sector is becoming more and more important for MINISO, which regards full coverage as the basic market.
Similar ideas are retail giants such as Freshippo. More than a month ago, Hema also officially launched a number of product lines such as pet food and supplies, and expanded the planning and layout of pet life services.
From the observation of the pet industry, the retail giants represented by MINISO and Hema have entered the pet track one after another, which further highlights the expanding influence of pets on people's social life. Behind this is not only the underlying logic of the continuous improvement of the status of pet families, but also the increasingly significant leading characteristics of young consumers who have become the main group of pet owners in the field of retail consumption.
As for what will be the future dynamics of MINISO in the pet field, the pet industry observation will continue to pay attention. For those who are interested in this topic, please leave a message in the comment area below to discuss, or add a small editor to communicate on WeChat.