Cheap Lab

Cheap Lab

Native name	執笠倉
Company type	Private
Industry	Retail
Founded	2014
Founder	So Hiu-fan
Number of locations	10 (2018)
Area served	Hong Kong
Website	www.cheaplab.hk

Cheap Lab (Chinese: 執笠倉) is a retail chain of stationery and household goods in Hong Kong. The company was founded in 2014 by So Hiu-fan soon after she separated from her ex-husband. So opened the company's first location in a 40-square-foot space in the Apple Mall section of the Dragon Centre shopping mall in Sham Shui Po, which she leased for HK$3,000 per month. The store initially sold low-cost jewellery and a small amount of stationery purchased online from mainland China, with teenage schoolgirls being its main target audience. Later that year, So expanded the store by leasing ten shop spaces in the Apple Mall, giving a total area between 300 and 400 square feet, and rebranded the store "Cheap Lab" along with introducing its logo.

Cheap Lab opened its second location at Cheung Sha Wan Road in Sham Shui Po. As the company was able to attract a wider range of customers owing to the shop's location on a busy street, the company expanded the types of products it sold to include more types of stationery, household items and smartphone accessories. So met Law Ka-cheung, her current husband, in 2016; Law's parents founded stationery wholesaler Tung Fong Stationery Co. and operated the company for 30 years. Law joined Cheap Lab as a shareholder, injecting capital and introducing new sources for procuring products, such as by bypassing wholesalers and directly importing products from a Korean manufacturer. The company opened six new locations in 2016. As of 2018, the company operated ten locations in Hong Kong. Ming Pao attributed the rapid expansion of the company to its Chinese name 執笠倉 which gives the impression of a constant clearance sale, its strategy of importing products and leasing shops, and allowing retail staff to manage and interact with customers on the company's Facebook fan page.

As of 2019, customers spend an average of HK$20 per purchase at Cheap Lab. The company trialed the sale of higher-priced products in 2019, though So noted that customers were generally unwilling to purchase products priced above HK$50. Rent constitutes 20-30% of the company's costs, higher than most retailers. To reduce costs, the company usually selects shops with both a ground floor and an upper or basement floor, with a combined area larger than 1500 square feet to accommodate multiple types of products. The company said it had difficulty expanding into shopping malls despite its size because most mall operators were unwilling to accept branding the store "執笠", which literally means "going out of business". In addition to founding Cheap Lab, So also founded online baby products retailer Little Monster in 2019, with an initial investment of HK$100,000.