A detailed analysis of MINISO’s private domain logic

The core of private domain operation is users. It is not enough to just attract users to private domain traffic . Instead, brands need to consider things from the user's perspective, dig deep into the user's underlying needs, and provide users with long-term services and long-term value rather than short-term benefits.

If you were given three words to describe MINISO , what would you think of? The words that come to my mind are "physical store", "affordable", and "pseudo-Japanese style", and maybe the words in your mind are similar. But if I say that MINISO is closely related to the three words "private domain traffic", "community" and "e-commerce", do you believe it?

As of now, MINISO has 42 million members, of which more than 30 million are active consumer members, and its private domain users exceed 5 million.

Last year, when the epidemic was the most severe, MINISO also achieved outstanding results:

During the most difficult months of January and February, 50% of offline stores were closed, but the e-commerce business successfully grew by 300%.

In March and April, just when store performance had recovered to 80%, MINISO doubled its global new store opening target from 600 to 1,200.

In October, it was launched in the United States.

When I saw these data, I also felt that this went against the traditional impression of MINISO, which is almost a "pure offline" retailer. Its online business grew by 300%, but both online and offline business were bleak in January and February? !

Not only is the growth of online business dazzling, but MINISO's goal of doubling the number of stores worldwide is also quite "abnormal." According to the prospectus, in fiscal year 2020, it had more than 4,000 stores worldwide and revenue exceeded 9 billion. You should know that during the epidemic, offline retail companies such as Uniqlo, Yoshinoya, and McDonald's have adopted a contraction strategy of closing a large number of stores around the world outside of China.

How did MINISO achieve exponential growth in its online business? Where does the confidence come from to expand against the trend? as follows:

1. Private Domain Strategy

1. Private domain model based on “service”

MINISO's offline customer traffic has always been the envy of its peers. According to statistics, the total annual number of in-store customers reached 1 billion in 2020. So, if there is no shortage of customers, why does Miniso still need to engage in private domain operations?

After investigation, MINISO found that:

• There is room for improvement in the stores’ refined operations and inventory management of in-store customers. Stores cannot meet or understand the needs of all in-store customers at once.
• Store promotions do not match customer flow fluctuations and cannot be informed to customers in a timely manner. The customers who come this time may be attracted by the promotion next door next time. Customers are not aware of promotions in their own store and may have already made purchases in other stores before the promotion even starts.
• Store opening hours do not fully match customer needs. Customers’ purchases only occur within a dozen minutes of arriving at the store, while their needs often occur outside of business hours.

Therefore, even though MINISO has no shortage of customers, it also feels that there is a lack of effective direct channels between itself and its customers. The private domain can help it understand its customers more clearly, meet their needs anytime and anywhere, and serve them more professionally.

2. WeChat for Business

For companies with large traffic pools, WeChat for Business is a very useful tool that can not only achieve standardization but also digital operations.

Private domain operation is essentially the operation of users. It is necessary to dig deep into the underlying needs of users, understand the lifetime value of users, conduct targeted marketing, and establish close, profitable long-term relationships with users.

Enterprise WeChat can personalize group content based on the consumer life cycle and reach users efficiently. It can also recommend products and ideas to consumers, and issue coupons to achieve accurate and effective conversions.

For example, for users in the growth stage, MINISO will issue coupons after the users complete WeChat payment, seizing the golden period within 2 weeks after the first consumption to guide repeat purchases and cultivate user habits. For members in the recession stage who are expected to churn and have annual consumption of 4 or more, MINISO will try to issue multiple waves of coupons with large discounts to reach out and wake them up.

In order to solve the problems of user loss caused by employee resignation and reduce the frequency of disturbing users, MINISO directs customers to its corporate WeChat. After an employee resigns, the company obtains the customer list of the resigned member and reallocates them to other members. This prevents customer loss and ensures that customers can be effectively retained.

Therefore, from the very beginning, MINISO has used WeChat for Business as a key platform for its brand to establish connections with users.

3. Traffic diversion strategy based on “service”

(1) Store traffic diversion

In order to effectively attract customers, MINISO’s store staff often start from the current needs of users. For example, when checking out, the clerk will tell the user that a shopping bag costs 1 yuan, but as long as the user scans the code and follows the official account, they can get it for free.

If you simply tell users that “you can earn points by registering as a member” but there is no immediate benefit, many people may not bother to register; if you can meet the user’s “immediate needs”, then the success rate will be much higher.

In addition to meeting users' "immediate needs", MINISO also places QR code stands on product display racks, but the guidance has been changed to corporate WeChat, guiding consumers to add corporate WeChat groups or store managers' corporate WeChat through various benefits.

In addition, MINISO's traffic diversion strategy will also change according to different consumption scenarios to ensure that it touches the hearts of users, such as giving away masks during the epidemic, mineral water in summer, and hot packs in winter...

So far, MINISO has attracted more than 30 million followers on its WeChat official account through its stores.

(2) Online traffic generation

MINISO has laid out a private domain traffic matrix of official accounts, mini programs, Moments, corporate WeChat groups, video accounts, mini program live broadcasts, and corporate WeChat. Although the system is rich, it also increases the cost of user action.

If users have to follow the official account and add the corporate WeChat account for a simple benefit, they are likely to lose users. Therefore, the drainage path must be designed to be both simple and ceremonial. Miniso mainly has the following two methods:

① Official Account——Mini Program/Enterprise WeChat——Enterprise WeChat Group

After following the official account, users will receive two automatic reply welcome messages. One is to guide users to receive benefits and place orders in the mini program, and the other is the enterprise WeChat QR code to increase the reach between the enterprise and users. The mini program link will also be added in the official account article.

② Official account/WeChat group——Video account——Official account——Enterprise WeChat——Mini program

The video account QR code will be attached at the beginning and end of the official account articles, and the MINISO Welfare WeChat group will push news about the video account updates; and the video account copy will add a link to the official account.

In order to increase the order rate, users can watch the recommendation videos of real models on the video account, or watch the live broadcast or live broadcast replay in the mini program.

4. Refined user operation strategy

(1) WeChat public account: content seeding

① Shaping IP

In the process of brands penetrating users, in order to reduce the "advertising attributes" as much as possible, brands often "set up" a trustworthy "person" to reach users.

MINISO has created three “personas”: the neutral-style Xiao M, the fairy-like feminine M Xiaomei, and the foodie-like otaku M Xiaozhai.

Each of them has his or her own distinct personality traits, and users can always find similarities between them and themselves (love of beauty, love of food, being a homebody, etc.). This shortens the distance between the official account and the users.

In addition, MINISO is also very good at using these IP images to create emoticons, which are interspersed in articles to more intuitively convey the creator's emotions to users and further narrow the distance between the two parties.

② Content Operation

In order to improve conversion, MINISO has also put a lot of thought into the content.

First of all, we created an official grass-planting community and pushed various "grass-planting" articles on the official account from time to time. From dressing to daily necessities, MINISO has taken care of all aspects.

In addition, each recommended product is equipped with a link to purchase the individual products, allowing users to directly jump to the mini program to place an order. In this way, the shopping process is greatly shortened and the conversion efficiency is significantly improved.

Secondly, distribute coupons (such as coupons for purchases over a certain amount, discount coupons, etc.) in the pushed articles to stimulate users to place orders and further improve conversion efficiency.

There are two benefits to doing this. First, it creates a feeling of "benefits in push notifications" for users, which helps cultivate user habits, increase open rates, and enhance user stickiness. Second, if users happen to have needs, they may receive coupons and place orders, after all, the discounts are real.

2. Community operation strategy of "less disturbance, more service"

1. Operational principles: less interruption, more service

“Adding” consumers into its own private domain is only the first step for MINISO. How to "retain" customers for a long time, make them stick to the brand, and continuously contribute to the value of the entire life cycle is a greater challenge.

MINISO has summarized an important principle: less disturbance, more service.

Generally speaking, "force push" is a pitfall that many private domain companies will inevitably fall into. If users are frequently disturbed and marketing messages are continuously sent, even if they join the community, the rate of leaving the community will increase rapidly. For MINISO, their core target customers are young consumers of Generation Z. Curiosity and changeability are their personality traits, and they are more resistant to "hard advertising".

Therefore, in addition to reducing the frequency of push notifications, MINISO pays more attention to the role of community influencers and opinion leaders, so it will cleverly implant marketing information through the KOCs it cultivates.

2. Cultivate your own KOC

The initial prototype of MINISO’s community operation was the experience officer community. MINISO will frequently communicate with this group of users in the group, including new product launches and the latest event updates, so that seed customers can feel the progress and changes of MINISO.

In addition, we screened out the most loyal group among these users and helped them establish a Miniso preferred promoter group. Through the commission sharing and fission mechanism, we let them bring their own traffic to Miniso.

3. Emphasize the value of long-term community operations

MINISO wants to provide users with long-term services and long-term value rather than short-term benefits.

Therefore, MINISO's strategy is to frequently launch fan-pampering activities in the group, with the frequency of these activities almost reaching the point of being seen every day, such as discounts on new products, 29% off for 2 items in the special zone, 99-20 coupons, etc.

In addition to basic benefits, MINISO’s community shares a lot of useful content, such as the MINISO Morning News, new product launches, live broadcasts and the recruitment of new product experience officers to attract users’ attention.

At the same time, it will also attract users to actively share the good things they recently purchased from MINISO in the group, triggering interaction among fans in the group.