Latest / The Retail Podcast / Five Things APAC: Gen Z Wellness, Blind Boxes, Dopamine Malls

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Five Things APAC: Gen Z Wellness, Blind Boxes, Dopamine Malls · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to Five Things Friday APEC Edition.
• 0:02
  I am Reef Quail Managing Director of NRF retailers Big
• 0:06
  Show Asia Pacific and I am joined by, of course, the
• 0:09
  wonderful Alex. The beautiful Alex from the
• 0:24
  Retail podcast. You can see he's been spending a
• 0:27
  bit of time in England. He's got a sun tan.
• 0:29
  Good old Blighty. It's been fantastic.
• 0:32
  I've had a ball, we saw Coldplay.
• 0:34
  We've. We've seen.
• 0:36
  Petting zoo ice skating is the full works.
• 0:40
  Today's Legoland and I'm literally upset.
• 0:43
  Why have you guys go to Lego? But my my son loves Lego.
• 0:47
  I think Lego Land, I need to do that.
• 0:49
  That will be something we need to do.
• 0:50
  Legoland is a highlight. Yeah, Oh my goodness.
• 0:53
  They've been like my oldest has been so many times, but he still
• 0:56
  goes because he's like, can I buy some Lego if I go?
• 0:58
  And I don't know where I go, my son.
• 1:01
  My son is all the so he's the same.
• 1:03
  He goes, he's turning 11 on next Wednesday.
• 1:06
  Nice. And he's he's like he turns up
• 1:08
  dutifully with a list of going this is what I want dad and and
• 1:11
  of course, you guys are you make sure that someone gets me some
• 1:14
  Lego. It's a good gift for one of the
• 1:16
  family members or too big. You know the Lego is actually
• 1:19
  what and centre. It's so funny that you mentioned
• 1:22
  the Lego, because that's, well, I don't actually, it does lend
• 1:25
  itself to our first article, but you kick yourself.
• 1:27
  All right, so it's sort of it's sort of dumb.
• 1:30
  It's all about the kids today. The first, the first thing I
• 1:33
  want to talk about is this thing, this craze that was born
• 1:38
  of Hong Kong called La Boo Boo. Yeah, and this was created by
• 1:43
  Hong Kong born artist Kaising Lung in 2015 as part of the
• 1:47
  Monsters series. Yeah.
• 1:48
  And it it was around, but it wasn't till Pop Mart took it on
• 1:53
  that it really exploded. So Pop Mart, you know, are a
• 1:57
  Beijing based founded guy by gamer Ning Wang.
• 2:00
  Like it was basically collectibles, cool urban stuff,
• 2:05
  youth orientated and they, they stumbled across this thing
• 2:10
  called the blind box. And it was, it was happening in
• 2:13
  Tokyo of all places, basically what the, the, and it's this,
• 2:16
  these blind boxes are real, a real, if you want to call it's a
• 2:20
  dopamine fix for the kids. OK.
• 2:21
  And they, basically what they did was they, they created,
• 2:25
  they, they took Popmart took the Libooboo concept and partnered
• 2:29
  with them and, and then put them in these blind boxes.
• 2:33
  So people started collecting them, but then Popmart basically
• 2:36
  pulled every trick in the book with their like, obviously the
• 2:40
  dopamine fixed the blind box. They partnered with celebrities
• 2:43
  like recently, Madonna even threw a Labooboo theme party.
• 2:47
  You know, Naomi Osaka paraded around the US Open in a crystal
• 2:51
  encrusted Labooboo charm called Billie Jean Bling.
• 2:53
  You know, man, AK pop sensation Black pink black pink's Lisa.
• 2:58
  Like they've all had dolls made like Cape, you know, these,
• 3:02
  these, these little dolls made in their likeness.
• 3:04
  We've like aspirations, like street fashion.
• 3:06
  So it's, it's pretty cool. And so all of a sudden, you
• 3:10
  know, this thing went bonkers. And so pop mark this, this, this
• 3:14
  is phenomenon, you know, so Ding wagnings worth, of course, the
• 3:18
  CEO of of pop mark growth from 1.8 billion to 2021 billion.
• 3:24
  Not bad. Like, like, yeah, you know, in a
• 3:27
  in a year or so, so top market basically grew.
• 3:30
  So they surged it, you know, their profits surged 204% from
• 3:34
  the first half to the second-half of 2025.
• 3:36
  So it went absolutely bonkers. And and they it's just been a
• 3:39
  phenomenon. Like so as said before, I'm
• 3:42
  actually really keen to find someone from a Labouba to speak
• 3:45
  at NRF APAC because I think that I've done they've not they've
• 3:48
  take it isn't just a plush collector's toy.
• 3:51
  It's a case study. This is a case study in modern
• 3:53
  day hype. It's clever design.
• 3:55
  There's scarcity, there's a collection element, there's pop
• 3:59
  cultural icons, it's tactile, it's got social media currency
• 4:03
  like it's gone bonkers in social media as you can be and, and and
• 4:07
  there is a whole grey market copied them called look like
• 4:10
  it's insane. So Popmart have just created
• 4:13
  this phenomenon and, and Popmart were doing this already.
• 4:16
  They'd actually partnered with other artists to create.
• 4:19
  Their first launch was in 2016 with Molly's.
• 4:22
  So yeah, when they did, when they did it with Liboo Boo, the
• 4:25
  whole Plot Mart thing went absolutely bonkers.
• 4:27
  So this is the the whole coming of age.
• 4:30
  It was incredible. They've got the four key IPS
• 4:32
  they've got now since that is if you've got is Molly, Yeah,
• 4:36
  Diamond Skull Panda and Liboo Boo.
• 4:39
  So Liboo Boo was the thing. For anger tenants.
• 4:42
  Yeah, the four key IP dolls, right?
• 4:44
  So Liboo Boo is the one that's the killer.
• 4:47
  Yeah, Molly was the first one that was done through a
• 4:49
  partnership with a, with a Hong Kong artist.
• 4:51
  So now around they were founded in 2010 in Beijing, but it
• 4:54
  wasn't 2016. They, they did these blind
• 4:57
  boxes. Yeah.
• 4:58
  And they, they went from just selling bits and pieces to
• 5:01
  actually having their own IP. And these four, I put these 4
• 5:05
  anchor tenants, as you say, Molly Daimu, Skull Panda, and
• 5:08
  now the Booboo are their, their IP that they're just taking the
• 5:12
  world by storm. It's insane.
• 5:13
  It sort of lends itself to what I wanted to talk about because
• 5:16
  obviously pop pop mark appear in this article.
• 5:20
  And interestingly enough, Kinsey did a report earlier this year
• 5:25
  in May that an essential when I was in Shanghai last year, I
• 5:29
  could feel and sense how Wellness as a as a sector is so
• 5:36
  big in terms of the amount of retails retailers and retail
• 5:39
  space that's dedicated to well-being.
• 5:43
  You know, getting out into the outdoors and doing yoga or so
• 5:47
  there's this sort of blend or all these outdoor activities.
• 5:51
  But now China's Wellness sort of wave, which was really
• 5:55
  noticeable, is sort of shifting to target Gen Z who ultimately
• 6:00
  health obsessed. And I think that's why we're in
• 6:03
  we've in the West that sort of translated the rise of beauty.
• 6:06
  And So what we're seeing is Chen, I'm sorry, China's Gen Z
• 6:10
  consumers redefining their retail priorities.
• 6:14
  And it is all about Wellness in its sort of holistic terms.
• 6:19
  It's actually, there was a report that I read and I've got
• 6:22
  it here in retail Asia, which sort of took the report and
• 6:26
  talks about how brands are fusing health and beauty, for
• 6:31
  example, taking a skin care supplement or a fitness
• 6:34
  integrated cosmetics are seeing sharp optics in engagement with
• 6:39
  nearly 70% of young, young Chinese shoppers prioritising
• 6:44
  feeling good over simply looking good.
• 6:47
  And I love that because I think that is a generational shift.
• 6:50
  Yeah. And, and I don't think that's
• 6:53
  limited to, you know, Asian cultures too.
• 6:56
  I think. I mean, you only have to look
• 6:58
  at, you know, the way that gatherings and social gatherings
• 7:01
  are forming around workplaces now.
• 7:03
  Yeah. And I actually, I work in
• 7:05
  events, as you know, and so I amassed together a lot of people
• 7:08
  in there just. Smaller than me.
• 7:10
  Just a small but it's OK you know?
• 7:12
  But the point is that I amass a lot of and then we have 400
• 7:15
  staff by show, right? And a lot of them are 20 to 30
• 7:18
  year olds. Yeah.
• 7:19
  And it's not about alcohol and all those elements anymore.
• 7:22
  It's about feeling good. And so and so it's, it's good
• 7:27
  food. It's, it's, you know, things
• 7:29
  like, you know, the gifts you give.
• 7:32
  Everything has changed. You know, it's no longer us Gen
• 7:35
  X's who are, you know, going as soon as we finish, we're going
• 7:38
  to the pub. Yeah, it's not that at all
• 7:40
  anymore. And that's just mind blowing.
• 7:42
  And I, I, I had a in my team, I had obviously Singaporeans, but
• 7:47
  Australians to, to Europeans to people from all over the world
• 7:52
  working in my team. And they are, that's common
• 7:55
  values. This Wellness piece is is is
• 7:58
  universally a common value. Yeah, 100%.
• 8:01
  And I think what's happened is and, and the bit sort of that
• 8:04
  links to Pop Mart is that retailers like Pop Mart and
• 8:08
  Lululemon are having to pivot really fast.
• 8:12
  And So what retailers should really be thinking about is and
• 8:16
  I think we're going to see as consumers or consumers within
• 8:19
  the region are going to see more in store Wellness zones, AI
• 8:23
  powered health diagnostics by biohacking brands entering the
• 8:28
  market. So the biggest shift in my mind
• 8:31
  is that this isn't just for shelf space, right, and sort of
• 8:35
  allocating the these health skews, but it's more about mind
• 8:40
  space and how that the well and how you tap in to the Wellness
• 8:44
  economy. So.
• 8:46
  Yeah, yeah. And I think that, you know,
• 8:48
  obviously people like Potmart have this huge social currency
• 8:51
  right now which is attracting an audience which allows them to
• 8:55
  diversify. But if I look at Someone Like,
• 8:57
  You know, a Chemist Warehouse in Australia who are a pretty, you
• 9:00
  know, they're, they're aware a big box retailer in terms of
• 9:05
  warehouse, Yeah. And then they, they're creating
• 9:09
  Wellness zones and allowing people to use tools to find
• 9:12
  Wellness pieces in their store as well.
• 9:14
  So it's, they've obviously they're thinking about Chemist
• 9:16
  Warehouse, Warehouse and Pop Mart.
• 9:19
  They're opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the way
• 9:21
  they turn up, right? Yeah.
• 9:22
  But they're still finding, they're still protecting common
• 9:25
  zones and thinkings and, and lines of thinking, you know, So
• 9:29
  yeah, it's, there's real commonality through those
• 9:32
  diverse, different, different retailers.
• 9:34
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So moving on to the.
• 9:39
  Australia Post announces that it's no longer shipping packages
• 9:45
  to the US at a value of more than $100 US.
• 9:48
  Now that so this is really crazy.
• 9:52
  Now I was so think about this as I might run if you're an
• 9:55
  Australian retailer and there's lots of them who have big
• 9:59
  customer bases in the US. Yeah, and that's so so the one
• 10:02
  I'm going to one of my favourite retailers.
• 10:04
  No, I'm only joking. Lash Therapy Australia you.
• 10:07
  Can't have favourite retailers mate.
• 10:09
  I know I think my lash is beautiful anyway, so but Lash
• 10:12
  Therapy Australia right there are really successful yeah,
• 10:16
  mascara lash serum type outfit in Australia.
• 10:19
  They're they're #1 and they're really good, but 40% of their
• 10:24
  parcels US customers. Yeah.
• 10:27
  Wow. Now Australia Post has just
• 10:28
  turned that off. And the reason that they have
• 10:32
  turned that off is because we're having this situation where the
• 10:36
  US has basically eliminated what they call the D minimus
• 10:40
  exemption. So even low value goods
• 10:42
  previously under $800 US are now subject to import duties and
• 10:47
  these tariffs must be prepaid before the parcel arrives in the
• 10:52
  US. The problem Australia Post has
• 10:55
  is that they have no infrastructure in place to be
• 10:59
  able to manage this. Yeah, they're not on Shopify.
• 11:01
  Correct. Whatever.
• 11:02
  We won't talk about platforms. So that means you can send a
• 11:05
  letter to the states? Yeah, you can send some
• 11:07
  documents to states. You can send a gift to the
• 11:10
  states under $100 US value. Yeah, but anything over that
• 11:14
  Australia Post aren't shipping anymore and it's they're not,
• 11:17
  they're not unique. So this postal services in the
• 11:21
  EU, in UK, India, Japan, New Zealand are also suspending or
• 11:27
  modifying shipments to the US because I don't know what to do
• 11:30
  about these paying tariffs before the product arrives in
• 11:34
  the country. That's incredible.
• 11:36
  That is crazy. You think about so I'll just
• 11:39
  talk about last therapy Australia.
• 11:40
  There's there's hundreds of these little, you know.
• 11:43
  Retailers or mediums? Yeah, and who've made great
• 11:45
  market in in the US, who probably 1 of Australia's
• 11:49
  closest allies who now can't do business in the US.
• 11:53
  Yeah, it's and, and like, and, and, and you go, well, why are
• 11:56
  those fit with DHL or, you know, or FedEx or whatever This those
• 12:01
  guys are so expensive. Like Australia Post was the only
• 12:04
  alternative. So these, these poor folks with
• 12:07
  these businesses, these retail businesses who have made
• 12:11
  themselves patting themselves on the back for being global,
• 12:13
  thinking that Australia Post would always be there for them.
• 12:16
  Yeah. With the change in the
• 12:18
  geopolitical situation again and again and again, we're seeing
• 12:22
  stable businesses like Australia Post and other postal services
• 12:26
  around the world being completely caught on the hop and
• 12:29
  disrupted by this this the change, the moving the goal
• 12:33
  posts in the US. Go ahead.
• 12:34
  It's OK. It's.
• 12:35
  Phenomenal. Yeah, some sign of our times.
• 12:38
  Another sort of sign of our times is what's happening in the
• 12:43
  Philippines. Philippines based investment
• 12:45
  house SM Investments is reshaping.
• 12:49
  It's more strategy, something that I've spoken about for a
• 12:52
  long time, since last year, going to actually another
• 12:55
  conference called Mappick in Cairns, which is very beautiful.
• 13:00
  But these dopamine villages that need to be created to win over
• 13:05
  Gen Z and millennial shoppers rather than just being shopping
• 13:09
  centres. And so their latest developments
• 13:12
  double S down on this entertainment complex sort of
• 13:15
  idea with K pop concerts and immersive art exhibitions.
• 13:19
  Gamified food courts is a direct response to these changing
• 13:24
  consumer behaviours. As the generations keep
• 13:28
  shifting, as the Gen X's and Boomers shop less in shopping
• 13:31
  centres, their Gen Z's and Millennials will continue to
• 13:35
  replace that spend. It's basically post pandemic
• 13:39
  behaviour. It's foot traffic alone isn't
• 13:42
  enough. So you can't just rely on having
• 13:45
  anchor tenants anymore, but you need to be.
• 13:48
  And that's the whole thing that I've coined in terms of dopamine
• 13:51
  villages. It's experience driven spend and
• 13:55
  SM is betting big on this retail and there they call it retail
• 14:00
  and retail retail and meant I can't even say that but anyway,
• 14:05
  blurring the lines between commerce and culture.
• 14:09
  I saw beautiful examples of this across Asia last year and as
• 14:13
  e-commerce continues to grow, physical stores have to earn
• 14:17
  their place in certain regions. We can see different maturity
• 14:21
  levels within various countries and its investments within its
• 14:25
  shopping centres is doing that by becoming that weekend
• 14:30
  destination. And you know, a great classic
• 14:32
  example of this, for example, is electric go karting, where
• 14:36
  there's like two floor go karting spaces.
• 14:39
  Go into your own real world Mario Kart.
• 14:42
  Yeah, Land. And this is, and I would say to
• 14:45
  you, I mean, this is going to happen really quickly in places
• 14:48
  like the Philippines, yeah, in Vietnam, Indonesia, where these
• 14:52
  populations are young, right. So this is, we've talked a
• 14:56
  little bit about Gen Z in previous weeks.
• 14:59
  Yeah. So this dopamine village, as you
• 15:01
  talk about right now, whether that's the retailer themselves
• 15:05
  providing, providing this really sticky brand experience when
• 15:08
  people go to store, flagship retail is alive and kicking and
• 15:12
  well, right? And these malls are just the
• 15:15
  wrapping around this massive flagship retail experience.
• 15:18
  I mean, you look at what Mecca, Mecca is in Melbourne at the
• 15:21
  moment, Mecca brands Mecca in terms of the beauty experience,
• 15:23
  the biggest beauty experience in the world.
• 15:25
  But we're seeing these dopamine villages popping up in in
• 15:28
  markets in Asia because they are young markets.
• 15:31
  It's not happening. It's they're still happening
• 15:33
  around the world. But you know, the, the
• 15:35
  opportunity upside in these young markets is like places
• 15:38
  like the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, because they're mark
• 15:41
  their audit, their, their populations are skewing younger.
• 15:44
  You know, we're talking, we're not talking about North Asia,
• 15:45
  Korea and Japan and China. We're talking about younger
• 15:48
  markets now. So if you, if you're a brand,
• 15:51
  you're not presenting information, whether the, the
• 15:52
  agentic AI can or the agents can shopping agents can get the
• 15:56
  information and help make rational decisions.
• 15:58
  Yeah, then the only way you're going to have a deep rich brand
• 16:01
  experience now is in a store or in at a destination retail.
• 16:05
  And, and, and so SMS, you know, it's, it's a savvy investment.
• 16:09
  You know, it, it reflects the movement within the generation
• 16:12
  and that, as I said, within the next five years, Gen Gen ZS will
• 16:16
  be the dominant generation in in retail.
• 16:19
  Yeah. And so you're putting your bets
• 16:21
  on, you put your bets on now. Absolutely.
• 16:23
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 16:25
  So another in closing, another interesting sort of strategic
• 16:29
  manoeuvre from someone or a company that you know very well
• 16:33
  is jd.com. Sojd.com, one of China's biggest
• 16:38
  e-commerce organisations, companies players, has
• 16:41
  officially launched the Warehouse in Dubai, making a
• 16:45
  strategic leap in cross-border logistics.
• 16:48
  So I think this is a leaf out of, you know, what Amazon has
• 16:52
  been doing across the globe quietly over the last 10 years.
• 16:56
  Now JD is doing with this opening of this warehouse there.
• 17:00
  And what this does is it enables JD to source slash delivery
• 17:04
  times to the Middle East and African markets, while also
• 17:08
  supporting their third party markets and sellers from Asia
• 17:12
  Pacific, aiming for that sort of global reach.
• 17:15
  And what we'll see, this isn't sort of necessarily JD plugging
• 17:19
  into, sorry, doing this in a vacuum.
• 17:22
  What they're also doing is plugging into device AI driven
• 17:26
  inventory and custom clearance system, which was phenomenal.
• 17:30
  And for the AIPAC retail sector, it signals a future where made
• 17:34
  in Asia meets delivered global faster, cheaper with fewer
• 17:39
  logistical bottlenecks. So you know, taking your story
• 17:43
  about Australia Post, I think, you know, we can see that the
• 17:46
  world is reorganising itself until there is more of a stable
• 17:50
  base to do business in. And JD have got, I think it's
• 17:54
  Vietnam and Malaysia. They've got sort of similar
• 17:56
  distribution setups in Southeast Asia as well.
• 17:59
  They've been, they've been quite Chinese domestic, like most
• 18:03
  Chinese retailers and Indian retailers that matter.
• 18:05
  Their countries are so massive when that when they step out,
• 18:09
  they step out big. Yeah.
• 18:10
  So it's pretty fascinating. But I want to share, I want to
• 18:12
  share something about JD because I had AI had a bit of a moment,
• 18:16
  a bit of a fanboy moment last this year.
• 18:18
  So one of my Advisory Board members who is the president of
• 18:22
  WUMA in China, yeah, said you need to meet my friend Sandy.
• 18:26
  I went, I'd love to I'm going to Beijing.
• 18:28
  And so Sandy, who's in the centre of that picture there is
• 18:31
  the CEO of jd.com and I'm like pretty happy.
• 18:36
  Believe me, I could believe this is this is incredible.
• 18:39
  So I'm in Beijing, I go to the Jing Jing Gai on Compass JD
• 18:43
  campus. Yeah, I go to the top four of
• 18:45
  the number one, number one building on the campus.
• 18:48
  It's massive it's bigger than Googles campus right it's.
• 18:51
  Huge. And like, it's like incredible
• 18:53
  on them. And then you go in, it's all
• 18:54
  white tiles. You feel like you're in some
• 18:57
  sort of, you know, Stanley Stanley Kubrick film from
• 19:00
  anyway, with white tiles. Crazy.
• 19:02
  And we got that and I meet and we sat down for an hour and we
• 19:06
  talked retail and Chinese retail.
• 19:09
  And I'm like. But I'm having a pinch me
• 19:12
  moment. Yeah, she was amazing.
• 19:14
  She gave, she was generous with that time.
• 19:16
  She spoke and shared. She talked about their journeys
• 19:20
  into different parts of the world and what worked and what
• 19:22
  hadn't. And so, you know, massive fans,
• 19:25
  these guys, because this, you know, I think I'm trying to
• 19:27
  think it was. Is it $270 billion turnover USD?
• 19:32
  OK. Like anyway, yeah.
• 19:35
  So that. Was because the average sort of
• 19:36
  you know turnover here for a retailer is about 5-6 billion,
• 19:40
  right Yeah, so yeah, but marketplace it's.
• 19:43
  Just like GDP of Australia, like wow, wow, wow, wow.
• 19:48
  So anyway, so I had a massive fanboy moment.
• 19:50
  She was lovely. I've made some really good
• 19:53
  friends in China along the way. But yeah, just mind blowing
• 19:56
  moment. And the gentleman on the left is
• 19:58
  that my Kevin Yang, who's head of commercial for our com
• 20:00
  exposing business in China. And he's sort of going, he's
• 20:03
  sort of saying to me, how did you get this meeting?
• 20:05
  He's like. How did you do this?
• 20:08
  OK. All right.
• 20:09
  Yeah. Yeah, So, yeah, this is this is
• 20:11
  in Beijing. And it was just just amazing.
• 20:13
  I was phenomenal. So for I like this one of the
• 20:16
  you know, the pinch me moments for the real.
• 20:18
  If you need anyone to carry your bag next time, just going.
• 20:21
  It was incredible, yeah. Listen on that bombshell, thank
• 20:24
  you, Reef, for being with us this week.
• 20:26
  Until next week, my friend. Absolutely.
• 20:29
  There's lots more going on I want to talk about.
• 20:31
  Maybe we should talk a little bit about K Pop Demon Hunter
• 20:33
  next week, I reckon now because I think.
• 20:35
  That 100% maybe we've. Talked a little bit about Korea
• 20:38
  already, but it just keeps coming out of Korea, so yeah,
• 20:41
  yeah. They're just going from strength
• 20:43
  to strength. What a country that leads the
• 20:45
  world culturally. What an amazing like wow.
• 20:48
  So we might talk and we could talk about how many times our
• 20:51
  kids, how many times have our kids have watched it and see
• 20:55
  well. Maybe we just you can only think
• 20:56
  how long you know the lyrics. Or maybe I could sing, Or maybe
• 20:59
  a little rendition of soda pop. But anyway.
• 21:01
  On that bombshell, second bombshell, you doing soda pop?
• 21:06
  Take care. Thanks man.