Miniso successfully expands its stores and optimizes its retail strategy through adapted SaaS solutions

The Miniso group, established since 2013 in Asia, can be proud of its successful importation in France, right in the middle of the COVID pandemic. With data at the heart of the brand system, naturally, the CEO of Miniso France Nicolas Rey, and founder Ariel Wizman chose Cegid Retail. Their goal? Smooth out and transform the in-store client experience.

Today, Miniso France owns a dozen franchises and more than 4000 product references, available in store, corners, and on their website with a priority on physical stores in city centers, train stations and shopping malls.

A customer relationship vision inspired by Asia

The brand, whose vision was inspired from Japanese culture, plays with unique products, some of which have been inspired from licenses, such as Marvel or We Bare Bears. Miniso’s desire is as Ariel Wizman explains to “surprise people by playing with a feeling that is based on childhood, on a cute aspect, kawaii, the rather regressive desire people have in Asia”. 

Maintain the I.T DNA at Miniso by choosing SaaS solutions

The Miniso group has always had data and IT at the heart of its system, by accessing sales in real-time and in all countries, regardless of the product. The brand internationally leans on an efficient software which allows accessing live shows, data, and product photos.

Therefore, it was only logical for Nicolas Rey to maintain this DNA and provide adapted tools to manage products and sales. “We selected Cegid in SaaS since this software has much greater agility than buying a license and has several advantages in terms of updates”. The CEO highlights smoother and easier management where inventory tracking, mPOS, BI have become almost intuitive, with a system deployment throughout the network that is “almost immediate.”

How Cegid manages to adhere to the Miniso DNA

For an optimal customer experience, it was essential to streamline the in-store experience. By offering better unified stock management, the Cegid Retail software was able to stand out. Nicolas Rey acknowledges the ease of implementation and an impeccable optimization, in regard to time. “The BI is very easy to deploy. Data extraction operations, management of Excel files that usually take 30 minutes, takes you a minute or two, there.”

In-store in an effective manner

Using Cegid Retail on-site allows point-of-sale managers or associates to manage their activity through pre-designed dashboards and follow their turnover, their average basket, their number of tickets, or their level of stock in store, “key tools today” according to the CEO. Organization is more efficient, at the heart of the BI, and is used daily. The result? A greatly facilitated merger between the points of sale and the webstore.

A CRM which favors an optimized customer experience in-store

Miniso has started using the Cegid platform at its headquarters. Its implementation in stores and for associates is taking place gradually, and future franchises will also be using it. The guiding principle? Re-create social ties.

Create meaningful customer experience with Cegid

Thanks to a loyalty system in partnership with Neostore, customers are “enrolled in a quick and simple way“, through a QR code. There have been many ideas on the horizon regarding how to animate this loyalty program. The founder Ariel Wizman would like to “create events such as meetings around influencers, asking DJs to play!”

 The brand wishes to offer “joyful and colorful things.” Its audience is young, “the CRM potential is major”specifies Nicolas Rey. The next project will be to put social networks at the heart of the project and create more than just a clientele, but a community.

According to Ariel Wizman, “Miniso, is the idea of a new store, playful, a place where things happen, and the fact of being well supported through a digital viewpoint, which is the case with Cegid, gives us a little more freedom.”