diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 07298b9d..26dffade 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -27,3 +27,6 @@ __pycache__/
 # docs
 /docs/generated/
 /docs/_build/
+
+# other
+_version.py
diff --git a/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py b/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
index 71c58139..d328dd97 100644
--- a/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
+++ b/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
@@ -168,6 +168,7 @@ def _poly(arr: ArrayLike) -> Polygon:
 
 def _get_points(path: Path, specs: dict[str, Any]) -> Table:
     table = read_parquet(path / XeniumKeys.TRANSCRIPTS_FILE)
+    table["feature_name"] = table["feature_name"].apply(lambda x: x.decode("utf-8"), meta=("feature_name", "object"))
 
     transform = Scale([1.0 / specs["pixel_size"], 1.0 / specs["pixel_size"]], axes=("x", "y"))
     points = PointsModel.parse(