Chinese brands, chasing higher margins, are expanding into U.S. retail in 2025 to counter weak domestic demand. Pop Mart, Miniso, Anta, and Urban Revivo are opening new stores despite tariffs and decoupling pressures.
The counterintuitive trend, which started to emerge in 2023 after the COVID pandemic, accelerated this year as lethargic local spending prompted Chinese consumer companies to look abroad, initially in Southeast Asia.
New York A Litmus Test for Broader Expansion
Urban Revivo, often called ‘China’s Zara,’ opened its New York flagship in March.
The company’s presence in a fashion capital like New York was a litmus test for broader success elsewhere, said Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Urban Revivo’s parent Fashion Momentum Group, which last year saw sales revenue approach $1 billion.
He said Urban Revivo’s success in the West would hinge on strategy, product and brand value, and played down the heightened U.S.–China trade tensions that have marked U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to office.
A Reuters review of company filings and social media posts found that Chinese brands, including Urban Revivo, Auntea Jenny, Chagee, Luckin Coffee and Mixue, opened their first U.S. stores in 2025. Anta soon plans to open a store in Beverly Hills.
Miniso, which celebrated its 100th store opening in 2023, had grown to 421 North American stores as of September.
More Money
Pop Mart, which debuted in the U.S. in 2023, operated 41 locations there by mid-2025 and signaled plans for rapid expansion.
The brands targeting America were already winners in China’s fiercely competitive consumer market. If rewarded with success also in the U.S., they could reap profit margins far higher than they are accustomed to in Asia.
Younger, cost-conscious Western consumers – already shopping on Chinese platforms like Shein and PDD Holdings-owned PDD.O Temu offering better value with prices – would be the most likely target market, analysts said.
Anta, the largest sportswear brand by market share in Chin
Brand Awareness Poses A Challenge In The U.S.
A broader push into the U.S. poses challenges for Chinese brands, often little known outside their homeland.
Anta’s Beverly Hills store, and its sponsorship of U.S. basketball stars like Kyrie Irving, are aimed at boosting brand recognition, said Sagar Thanki, portfolio manager at Guinness Global Investors in London, another Anta shareholder.
“It’s about building trust in a new market rather than going completely gung-ho with their efforts to break into the U.S.,” said Thanki.
But price, and the freshness of new brands, may sway some younger customers.
(With inputs from Reuters)
