Zohar Gilad is cofounder and CEO of Fast Simon.
In 2024, a quirky, sharp-toothed plush toy named Labubu, produced by Chinese company Pop Mart, became a global sensation. Its popularity surged after celebrities like BLACKPINK’s Lisa, Rihanna and Dua Lipa were spotted with the toy, driving Pop Mart’s market cap to exceed a record $40 billion.
Pop Mart’s blind box sales model and limited releases created a perfect storm of scarcity and hype, leading to long lines, viral sellouts and even store fights. This led shoppers to leverage every channel they could—social media, marketplaces, local stock trackers—in hopes of finding a Labubu. Despite this online activity, Pop Mart’s offline customer UV index rose by nearly 50% in 2024, indicating one thing: people wanted to visit a physical Pop Mart to buy a Labubu. That’s where localization came into play.
In e-commerce, localization lets online sites match inventory to specific stores in real time so shoppers can discover where to buy an item locally. In the U.S. alone, sales from buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS)—one output of localization—represent over 10% of e-commerce sales.
While most merchants won’t experience a once-in-a-lifetime craze like Pop Mart, localization should be viewed as an essential element of any multi-channel strategy that includes physical stores. The underlying technology has advanced significantly in recent years, making it accessible to retailers of all sizes. Here’s what they need to know to implement it effectively.
Real-Time Inventory: The Foundation Of Trust
The Labubu hype made one thing abundantly clear: when demand spikes, customers expect precision. They want to know exactly where they can find what they’re looking for, and they expect that information to be accurate. Yet during Labubu’s peak moments, shoppers regularly encountered mismatches between what websites promised and what stores actually had in stock. A product marked “available” online might have been gone by the time someone arrived, creating frustration and eroding trust. For retailers, that kind of disconnect can lead to a lost sale and a damaged customer relationship.
At the core of modern localization is the ability to surface accurate, store-level inventory in real time. If a product is listed for same-day pickup, that listing must reflect reality when the customer sees it. Achieving this requires tight integration between point-of-sale systems, warehouse management software and the e-commerce front end. These systems must be linked via event-driven APIs that enable immediate updates rather than relying on overnight batch processes.
Inventory data also needs to be normalized across systems—especially for retailers managing multiple SKUs, stores or fulfillment partners—and, in many cases, distributed to edge locations to ensure freshness and low-latency access. During a viral product wave, the difference between a millisecond delay and real-time synchronization can mean the difference between a delighted customer and a missed opportunity.
Traditional e-commerce search, meanwhile, is often built for generic relevance, not local precision. But as shoppers scour local stores, social media and retail sites for clues about where to buy the next trending product, it becomes clear how important geospatial context is. Consumers now expect search results to reflect what’s available near them, not just by city, but often by each individual store.
To support that, search engines should incorporate proximity-based indexing, live availability data and region-specific pricing or promotions. A search in Los Angeles should not return the same results as one in Chicago if inventory and fulfillment options differ. This requires layering keyword intent with location signals and machine learning models trained on hyperlocal behavior. It’s a level of intelligence that demands robust infrastructure, continuous data flow and deep retail-specific tuning.
The People And Processes Behind Successful Localization
Technology is only half the equation when it comes to localization. The other half is how teams adapt their processes and roles to make it work in practice. Many retailers discover that introducing real-time, store-level data requires more than plugging in a new API—it often calls for cross-department collaboration, new workflows and cultural change.
Ultimately, implementing localization isn’t just about technology readiness. It’s about preparing people and processes to act on that technology quickly and consistently. Retailers who invest in training, communication and role clarity are the ones who see localization deliver on its promise of a seamless, trust-building shopping experience.
For example, store associates need training on how digital availability impacts in-store expectations. If an item is flagged as “available for pickup,” staff must have clear procedures to prioritize those orders so customers aren’t disappointed. Merchandising and operations teams also need to align more closely. Localization creates new questions: Should limited stock be reserved for walk-ins or online buyers? How should promotions differ by region? Addressing these issues requires ongoing dialogue between teams that may not have worked this closely before.
To begin, start small. Trial localization in a handful of regions before scaling and setting clear ownership across departments. Many successful retailers designate a localization lead to coordinate between e-commerce, IT and store operations. Others create shared dashboards so everyone, from merchandisers to store managers, is working from the same data.
Conclusion
The Labubu craze underscores the growing importance of localization as the bridge between online hype and in-store fulfillment. Retailers that connect real-time inventory, accurate search and local context can build trust and capture sales when demand spikes.
Ultimately, successful localization depends as much on people and process as it does on technology—aligning teams, data and workflows to deliver a seamless, high-confidence shopping experience online and offline.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?