China toymaker Pop Mart has opened its first official retail store in Malaysia at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur on May 20, 2023, marking its continued global expansion.
Covering 146 square metre (1,569 square feet) of retails space on the fifth floor of Pavilion KL, the brand’s latest store in Southeast Asia has been designed to appeal to young adults and millennials with colour-changing RGB lights on the doors and visually attractive colours and displays.
The store offers Pop Mart’s extensive collection of art toy blind boxes – a sealed packaging that keeps the contents of the figurine mysterious to its new owners – as well as a full lineup of Pop Mart products, providing opportunities for art toys collectors to build their own collections.
Pop Mart global president Justin Moon performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony along with Pop Mart Malaysia Sdn Bhd general manager Max Tan and Pavilion Kuala Lumpur leasing senior director Lovell Ho.
“The opening of the Malaysian store means Pop Mart’s business expansion in Southeast Asia has entered a new era. Malaysia has huge potential as a major market for us after Singapore. Both countries have a similar social culture and offer a relatively large market of art toys collectors,” said Moon.
He added, “We can leverage on what we have done in Singapore to build things up in Malaysia, with the possibility of future expansion into other neighbouring countries.”
Pop Mart Malaysia’s range of merchandise includes limited-edition items for local fans such as DIMOO Mango Jelly (芒果冻) Plus, SKULLPANDA Dark Maid Limited Edition 100%, Labubu Shepherd Limited Edition 100% and other popular collectibles.
Pop Mart first made its foray into Malaysia in early 2021 through cross-border e-commerce. The past two years have seen the company cultivating the Malaysian market to build the foundation for local offline stores.
The company aims to continue expanding its Malaysian market by opening more offline stores and robo shops in core areas of Malaysia.
According to Moon, for many Chinese brands moving into overseas markets, Southeast Asia is one of the most important markets for them.
“Southeast Asian countries have achieved rapid economic development though consumers’ strong purchasing power and large market space. At the same time, the culture is relatively diverse and they are tolerant of foreign cultures and products. A high degree of investment coupled with high investment support for foreign-funded enterprises has helped create a good business environment,” he added.
“The Southeast Asian market is one that is worth exploring, whether for offline potential or online space. We started with Singapore and have now included Malaysia. We look forward to further expanding our Southeast Asian market and build a complete offline and online sales network, with full consideration of the local culture,” said Moon.
