Pop Mart has gone big for its new London flagship. Secret Shopper heads to Oxford Street and finds a new favourite.

Regular Secret Shopper readers will already know how easily beauty products and tiny things I absolutely do not need can persuade me to part with money. Pop Mart sits firmly in the second category, and our whole family has developed a soft spot for it.

There is something about the little rush of opening a blind box that never seems to wear off, and at this point we can probably admit there is a very mild addiction involved. A brand new Pop Mart flagship on Oxford Street was therefore always going to get me through the door.

The store opened at 149–151 Oxford Street on 23rd October, in a property with around 19,000 sq ft dedicated to retail across three levels, from the basement up to the first floor. That is a sizeable step up from the 5,090 sq ft Charing Cross Road store, which had previously been Pop Mart’s largest London location.

Charing Cross Road had also been my favourite. It already felt noticeably bigger than some of Pop Mart’s earlier UK branches and gave the products more room to breathe, but Oxford Street takes that idea considerably further.

Pop Mart, but supersized

The difference is obvious as soon as you walk in. There is room to wander without constantly having to squeeze past somebody, and the larger range has space to be displayed properly. At no point during our visit did it feel uncomfortably busy.

Secret Shopper Friend has accompanied me to Pop Mart before despite having no particular interest in developing a blind-box habit herself. She immediately preferred this branch, finding it a much more pleasant place to browse than the smaller stores we had visited together.

That is a useful endorsement from someone who is not already invested in what might be hiding inside the boxes. Make the space enjoyable to browse and they might spot something that takes their fancy. Pop Mart already has people like me, but this is how it could start winning over our less enthusiastic companions too.

The different character areas have their own colour schemes, so the store never feels like one endless wall of identical shelving. Brighter oranges around the LABUBU displays give way to softer greens in the DIMOO section, which suit the character’s dreamier personality beautifully.

The SPACE MOLLY displays are particularly lovely, with enough room to appreciate the larger collectibles rather than just spot them somewhere above the stock. Some parts feel closer to a toy gallery than a shop, although there are still plenty of opportunities to leave with something considerably smaller and more affordable.

Obviously, I bought another LABUBU

LABUBUs greet you as soon as you walk through the door, with the new THE MONSTERS Cat Mode On Series particularly well represented. Alongside the blind boxes, there was a wider collection of pendants and accessories, rather than just a few pieces squeezed onto a shelf.

The cat inspired line-up includes Siamese Kitty, Ragdoll Kitty, Persian Kitty and Calico Kitty, with Maine Coon Kitty as the secret. Of course, a box came home with me, and inside was Calico Kitty, the little tortoiseshell-looking one I had been hoping for. She is ridiculously cute, so there are no complaints here.

There were also LABUBU products I had not seen on previous visits, giving even a fairly regular Pop Mart browser something new to investigate. That wider selection continues throughout the store, with familiar characters given more space alongside collections that do not always appear in the smaller branches.

Taking the shop home with you

The huge digital screens look fantastic in a store of this scale, especially alongside the physical character displays. But the bit of technology that felt most useful was much easier to miss.

The cabinets have little “shop online” QR codes, allowing you to find the products on the website while they are still right in front of you. That is handy for checking the wider collection, but also for anyone who likes something without wanting to carry it around Oxford Street for the rest of the afternoon.

A quick scan means you can return to it later without trying to remember the name of the character you saw three shops ago. As someone quite capable of falling for a collectible and then forgetting what it was called, I appreciate the help.

Pop Mart already makes its online shopping experience more interesting than most. We previously tested Pop Now for Secret Shopper, which lets you virtually shake eligible blind boxes for clues about their contents. Once you have chosen and bought a box, the character is revealed online before the physical item arrives.

The QR codes are a much simpler feature, but they make moving between the store and website just as easy. Discovering something in person does not have to mean buying it there and then, and Pop Mart gives you a convenient way to come back to it.

A loyalty scheme with a card you can keep

Pop Mart has a membership programme that rewards repeat purchases. Its UK FAQs state that members earn one point for every £1 spent, with rewards available through its Member Rewards programme, although online and physical-store points are managed separately.

You also receive an actual membership card, which feels particularly appropriate for a shop full of collectibles. With so many retailers expecting customers to download another app, there is something rather pleasing about being handed a physical object you might enjoy keeping.

Naturally, having decided how much I liked the card, I had forgotten to bring mine. Staff could find my account using my phone number, though, so my inability to organise myself did not get in the way of collecting the points.

At the till, shoppers also had the option to pay using a QR code alongside contactless. Pop Mart is a Chinese company, and QR payments are already a familiar part of everyday shopping in its home market. In China, services such as Alipay and WeChat Pay let customers pay by scanning a retailer’s code or showing a payment code on their own phone for the cashier to scan. Seeing that payment approach offered by a Chinese retailer in London makes sense, particularly for customers who are already used to shopping that way.

QR payments have been making their way onto British high streets for some time, with The Body Shop announcing Alipay payments at selected London stores back in 2016.

For Pop Mart, offering the option feels like another sensible way to make shoppers comfortable at checkout. Customers accustomed to paying by QR code can stick with what they know, while anyone who prefers contactless can still tap and go.

A new favourite

There is very little I would change about this branch. Pop Mart has given its collections enough space to be enjoyed properly, and the broader range makes a visit worthwhile even when you already know the brand well.

For someone who is not particularly interested in collecting, it is still a lovely store to explore. Secret Shopper Friend enjoyed herself without needing to care which DIMOO I was currently coveting, which is probably a better test of the space than asking somebody who was always going to leave with a blind box.

Charing Cross Road, I am sorry, I still love you, but Oxford Street has officially taken the top spot, and it is well worth a visit. 

Secret Shopper rating: 5 out of 5 stars