(Yicai Global) Feb. 11 -- Line Friends closed its only remaining store on the Chinese mainland in the southwestern city of Chengdu yesterday as the South Korea cartoon brand prepares to concentrate on developing its online business.

Line Friends has decided to shift focus to online retail amid recent changes in consumption habits and to cut the heavy cost of running bricks-and-mortar stores, Yicai Global learned. It will also put more emphasis on its intellectual property-related business which has a higher margin.

The Seoul-based firm, which specializes in creating derivative products of daily life cartoons such as toys, stationery and travel gear, did make money in the first half of 2021, with a 30 percent year on year jump in its e-commerce sales and a 20 percent increase in its copyright authorization business. No information about profit has been released.

Line Friends' stores lack interactivity, Zhou Jie, senior assistant director at Cushman & Wakefield Guangzhou branch's commercial real estate services, said earlier. The simple style, slow update frequency and lack of novelty mean that footfall is falling.

Line Friends said earlier that it will focus on new retailing, pop-up store campaigns and theme authorization to increase touch points with consumers through a lighter offline model and close collaboration with local brands.

Line Friends began with the introduction of carton sticker characters Brown & Friends for South Korean mobile messenger app Line with more than 200 million users worldwide. It was set up in 2015 by Line Corp., a Japanese subsidiary of South Korean tech giant Naver Corp. Its product portfolio covers stationery, travel and lifestyle goods of more than 6,400 kinds.

Editors: Xu Wei, Kim Taylor