The store opening wave comes as China"s robotics industry continues its rapid expansion. According to data from China"s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), revenue of major companies in the robotics industry exceeded 300 billion yuan in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20 percent over the past five years. In the first half of this year, the industry revenue reached 165.5 billion yuan, up 24.5 percent year-on-year.

　　However, moving from shopping malls into ordinary households will require robots to overcome much higher barriers.

　　The home is one of the most difficult environments for robots to master, Wang said, noting that unlike standardized industrial settings, household environments are highly unstructured, placing much greater demands on safety, reliability and interaction capabilities.

　　"For Chinese robots to enter homes, it is not simply a matter of overcoming one remaining technological hurdle. What is needed is a systematic leap from being usable to being genuinely easy to use," Wang said.

　　The Chinese expert estimated that robots may need another three to five years to achieve initial household adoption, and five to eight years to enter a relatively mature stage.

　　Another key factor is whether robots can meet household needs at affordable prices, an area where China"s robotics industry has an edge, industry experts said.

　　"Consumers will not pay simply for novelty. Robots ultimately have to be affordable to ordinary consumers," Xiang Ligang, a veteran telecom industry expert and director general of the Information Consumption Alliance, told the Global Times. He added that China"s manufacturing and supply chain strengths could drive down costs as production scales up, potentially putting robotics on a development path similar to that of smartphones and new-energy vehicles.

　　From scale to strength