It sold for 8 million yuan in three days after it was launched. Chiikawa made famous and excellent products win thoroughly again

In the late night of April 7th, inside the dormitory of Central China Normal University, while her roommates were already asleep, Lv Bing focused intently, staring at the live stream of the Taobao channel for Miniso. As the clock struck midnight, she swiftly clicked on the pop-up link and submitted her payment at lightning speed. It wasn't until she saw the confirmation of successful payment that she finally breathed a sigh of relief, letting go of the anxiety that had been hanging over her.

Lv Bing stayed up late to snatch up a limited edition plush toy, a collaboration between Miniso and the popular IP "chiikawa". In order to secure it, Lv Bing not only prepared strategies in advance on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), but also mobilized her "connections" – enlisting 6 friends to help her in the endeavor, but only she and 1 friend managed to succeed.

Joining Lv Bing in the live stream were over 50,000 others eagerly awaiting the limited edition release. However, after the limited edition items sold out, despite other items still being available, the number of viewers in the live stream plummeted to 500. This trend wasn't exclusive to Taobao; similar occurrences of items quickly selling out were observed on Douyin (TikTok) and JD.com's live streams as well.

Online excitement for limited edition items was not enough for Lv Bing, who made a special trip to the offline store at the Wuhan Optics Valley World City to queue up and purchase the regular edition. She noticed that, aside from some fast-selling limited edition items and out-of-stock large-sized plush toys, the staff were quick to restock other series.

Going to the offline store specifically allowed her to "pick and choose" as the craftsmanship of different plush toys varied, affecting their appearance. Online purchases were like opening a blind box, while offline purchases allowed her to personally select the most "eye-catching" one.

Lv Bing's love for Chiikawa stemmed from the widely circulated emoji pack, with its cute little face and mischievous expression being particularly adorable.

She said, "It perfectly reflects my state of mind."

After getting into it, not only did she change her social media profile picture to characters from it, but she also scoured everywhere for their related plush toys. Originally only available through Japanese purchasing agents, with the launch of domestically collaborated products, she naturally joined the buying frenzy.

Young people like Lu Bing who are crazy about Chiikawa are not uncommon. Many users on Xiaohongshu (a social media platform) have shared their spending records, with some spending nearly 3,000 yuan in just half a month after diving into it, and feeling anxious for not being able to get their hands on in-stock items.

Offline, queuing up to pick faces; online, staying up late to snatch purchases, what has Chiikawa relied on to win the hearts of young people?

The electronic ibuprofen for young people

Chiikawa (吉伊卡哇) is an abbreviation in Japanese for "small and cute", the three main characters have round faces and tiny limbs, each with their own personalities but get along well.

The manga conveys such a core message: efforts may not necessarily yield returns, facing difficulties may not necessarily have enough courage, reality is cruel, but imperfect people can also live happily.

It happens to be a microcosm of young people's survival in the current environment, which explains why it is so popular.

As the official account wrote in the introduction on Bilibili, "Welcome everyone to embark on a healing journey with the cuties", Chiikawa can be called the electronic ibuprofen for young people, increasingly loved and followed.

As early as 2022, it surpassed well-known IPs such as "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Sanrio" to win the annual character award in Japan, topping the list of popular products in successive years. This trend has blown into China, creating a phenomenal scene.

The enthusiasm of Chinese young people for Chiikawa is directly reflected in the data.

On March 29th, the themed flash mob event jointly organized by Miniso and Chiikawa landed at Joy City in Shanghai's Jing'an District, setting a historical record of over 2.68 million in sales in a single store in 10 hours. In the first three days of opening, the performance exceeded 8 million, and the average customer spending exceeded 1,000 yuan. In order to buy collaborative peripherals, some people even brought blankets and queued up at the door a night in advance.

As of now, the hashtag #TakeTopStreamerChiikawaHome# initiated by Miniso on Weibo has received over 40 million reads and over 60,000 discussions.

Not only fans are attracted, but also scalpers.

On the idle fish platform, the limited edition large plush toy, originally priced at 520 yuan, is generally marked up by 50-100 yuan, and at its peak popularity, it has even been inflated to a sky-high price of 1500 yuan.

IP collaboration has become a lucrative business.

The popularity of Chiikawa proves that a successful IP not only requires high-quality content support but also a mature commercial chain to continuously produce cross-border peripherals and collaborations.

Miniso, on the other hand, has already made a fortune through various IP collaborations.

According to financial reports, Miniso's annual revenue in 2023 exceeded 13.8 billion, a nearly 40% year-on-year increase, with an adjusted net profit of approximately 2.36 billion, a 110% year-on-year increase.

In Q4 of 2023, Miniso's gross profit margin reached 43.1%, setting a new historical high and increasing by 15 percentage points compared to the same period in 2020, before the brand strategy upgrade.

This success is attributed to Miniso's commitment to IP collaborations.

In 2019, Miniso launched a series of Marvel collaboration products, which received excellent market feedback. Since then, Miniso has regarded IP collaborations as an important means of growth and has repositioned itself as a "collection of lifestyle products with IP design as a feature."

In the field of IP collaboration, there is more than just one player like Heytea.

"Not enough flavor, let's collaborate with IP." The new-style tea drinks are no longer just focused on studying consumer taste preferences, but also on cross-border IP collaborations.

Luckin Coffee's collaboration with "Chiikawa" for the Qixi Festival limited edition Black Pineapple series sold over 7.27 million cups on the Qixi Festival day; Heytea's collaboration with "Light and Night Love" went online and immediately received a surge in orders, with approximately 800 to over a thousand cups waiting to be made, with an estimated wait time of 4 to 9 hours.

One popular IP collaboration after another, taking turns to shine, has propped up the half of the sky for tea consumption.

However, as good as IP collaborations may be, there is a risk of a mishap if not careful.

A recent product showcase video posted by Heytea's official account for the Chiikawa product used inappropriate terms for the characters, which sparked dissatisfaction among fans. Heytea took down the video and issued an apology promptly, but many fans were not satisfied with the apology.

A cautionary tale is the incident where a staff member at a store of Heytea insulted players and game characters of "Light and Night Love," leading to the game company suspending the collaboration.

It seems that catching the windfall of IP collaborations is not an easy task.