HEADING News

MINISO, a "globally leading IP-inspired lifestyle brand," operates under the philosophy of "Happy Philosophy," with a presence in 112 countries and regions and over 7,700 stores worldwide, making it a benchmark for Chinese brands going global. Since its inception, HEADING has been its digital intelligence partner; when MINISO went global in 2015, HEADING accompanied it all the way, jointly tackling numerous challenges in overseas markets.

In overseas store operations, checkout standardization and membership information compliance are often two core challenges. This award-winning case represents the phased achievements of HEADING and MINISO in jointly addressing these challenges.

Regarding checkout efficiency, peak-hour queues cause customer loss, and manual processing of online payments is error‑prone, increasing financial reconciliation difficulty. Regarding membership compliance, regulations in the US and Australia are stringent, requiring consumers to personally confirm privacy agreements; if members do not confirm authorization at manual checkout, legal marketing communications cannot be pushed.

1) Deep integration of the checkout system with major local payment providers to achieve unified payment; customized self-checkout terminals developed for local tax systems and languages.  

2) For membership compliance, in the US, privacy agreements are displayed on smart POS touchscreens for customers to scroll, read, and click "Agree" before using membership benefits; in Australia, agreements are displayed on secondary checkout screens, with customers using external keypads to page through and confirm authorization, cost‑effectively solving the challenge of non‑touchscreen devices. 

3) The implementation followed a strategy of "pilot first, optimize, then roll out to all stores."

The project ensures that member registration and marketing communications comply with authorized consent, effectively avoiding regulatory penalty risks arising from incomplete membership processes or improper user outreach. Additionally, deploying self‑service machines significantly reduces labor costs – taking the German market as an example, each store saves 0.5 FTE, and with annual labor costs of €30,000, the system upgrade cost of approximately RMB 100,000 can be recouped within one year of launch.

YUMMY SNACK, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Chengdu, Sichuan, operates two core formats: "YUMMY SNACK" snack collection stores and "YUMMY SNACK Wholesale Supermarkets." The group has over 6,500 stores nationwide, with a monthly new store capacity of 200+, an average daily transaction volume of 2,600,000, 18 large warehousing and logistics centers, and over 900 million annual shopping visits. It is one of the leading brands in the hard‑discount chain retail industry.

In 2023, YUMMY SNACK partnered with HEADING, and in 2025, the two teams deeply collaborated to implement a series of innovative optimization solutions across the supply chain – covering contract signing and renewal, deposit management, order prepayment, invoicing, and payment processes – significantly improving overall collaboration efficiency.

HEADING Approached from Five Dimensions to Achieve Systematic Optimization and Upgrades

1) Electronic contract management. The SRM system enables full‑process online management from supplier sourcing to contract signing, integrated with Qiyuesuo for electronic signatures, with contracts automatically pushed to the ERP system upon activation, greatly improving signing collaboration efficiency.  

2) Diversified deposit management. Supports both "deposit payment" and "pledge‑on‑order" collection methods, where the rolling pledge model automatically executes pledging and release cycles based on actual receipt transactions without manual intervention, linking with ordering and reconciliation/settlement operations.  

3) Optimized prepayment utilization. Prepayment is based on the estimated shipment quantity reported by suppliers rather than the order amount, and the timing for generating payables is moved from reconciliation to goods receipt confirmation, effectively improving prepayment utilization.  

4) Invoice pool management. For scenarios where invoices are issued upon shipment but receipts may be short, an invoice pool is established to allow over‑issuance and multiple offsetting, reducing the workload of voiding and re‑issuing invoices, and improving financial reconciliation efficiency.  

5) Automated payment processes. End‑to‑end integration of reconciliation, invoice registration, and payment application – supports automated reconciliation and payment applications by supplier, with bank transfers via direct bank connectivity, effectively saving labor costs.

ELISEO LTD was founded in 1995. Since its acquisition by Mr. Zhou Guanhua in 2014, the company entered a new phase of development and subsequently established the ELISEO GROUP. As a comprehensive enterprise group rooted in Papua New Guinea, after more than a decade of steady growth, the group now has 13 subsidiaries, 5 supermarkets, 5 department stores, 1 shopping mall, over 2,000 employees, and a stable supply chain network covering more than 125 major suppliers. Through continuous strengthening of information systems, supply chain, and management systems, the group has achieved rapid and steady development, earning high recognition and support from the government, banks, suppliers, and customers.

In July 2025, the group officially partnered with HEADING to drive digital intelligence transformation with the goals of "process standardization, data visualization, and management digitalization."

HEADING drove implementation from three major dimensions:  

Process standardization– Through in‑depth research, complex operations were broken down into standardized units, embedded into the system, and integrated with "theory + hands‑on" training, establishing a closed‑loop management mechanism of "execute‑check‑feedback‑improve."  

Data visualization– Over 400,000 rows of data were extracted from the legacy system; abnormal data were identified and confirmed by the client. Six major implementation strategy streams were deployed to overcome complex overseas invoice handling, tariff reconciliation, and cost allocation bottlenecks, designing a "logistics‑like" store distribution solution highly adapted to local high‑volume, multi‑frequency characteristics.  

Management digitalization– Mobile platform applications were promoted across the board, with stores and central warehouses using handheld terminals for end‑to‑end online operations of receiving, transfer, and counting. A tiered data empowerment framework was also built, connecting the needs of execution, management, and decision‑making.

The project established a standardized digital support system for over 180 key business activities, comprehensively driving ELISEO GROUP's business toward standardization, scientific management, and digital intelligence, truly achieving the leap from "rule by people" to "rule by data."