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