POP MART has been on a roll with its global presence, both in stores abroad and online through its AliExpress livestream sale. To capitalise on the international fame generated by its star IP LABUBU, POP MART is now strengthening its ties with the Alibaba-owned Southeast Asian e-commerce company Lazada, namely its LazMall platform, to expand its presence in the region.
POP MART joined LazMall in 2023, and its sales in the region have grown over 5 times since then, making it one of the fastest-growing toy brands on the platform. With the renewed partnership, POP MART will be able to utilise the AI tools, execution network and creator ecosystem to boost the brand’s influence and engagement in the market.
The AI tools provided by the platform can help personalise the shopping experience while making data-driven decisions on product strategies. Currently, 34% of POP MART’s sales on LazMall come from livestream, toy commentators and creators, and the new partnership can help them further leverage this. Granular data provided by the platform can help POP MART understand regional differences, such as why SKULLPANDA is more popular in Thailand or why DIMOO is best received in Malaysia. 85% of the orders in major cities such as Bangkok and Manila can be delivered within 48 hours. Lazada and POP MART are also organising a 5km run in Singapore in July, bringing the partnership offline.
Of course, the recent “collapse” of its resale market in China and the tumble in its stock price, partly due to state media’s warning against blind boxes as a whole, mean that POP MART might want to diversify its business by moving further abroad. Indeed, the current “build another POP MART abroad” strategy was announced in 2023, when blind boxes were heavily regulated following the state media warning. Its overseas business now contributes around 50% of POP MART’s total, so it is well on its way to becoming the “POP MART of the world”.