Canmake five-color pearlescent eyeshadow, the official website price is 79 yuan, the temporary futures sells 15 yuan; the M·A·C bullet lipstick, the official website sells 175 yuan, the temporary store only sells 49 yuan; a bottle of Estee Lauder costs nearly 1,000 yuan at the counter Platinum liquid foundation, the temporary store only sells more than 300 yuan...
"Cabbage price", "less than half the price, double the happiness", a recent survey of the blue eye shop found that many people have begun to become interested in temporary beauty. Since the beginning of this year, discount stores focusing on "provisional products" have also won the favor of capital many times. So, will the temporary beauty market be a good business?
Does a temporary beauty shop actually rely on a sample?
According to media reports recently, “Lingmei Optimal” has completed a pre-A round of tens of millions of yuan in financing, led by Huiju Capital, followed by Shengshi Investment and Boyingxuan. It is understood that "Lingmei Optimal" was established in 2021 and is positioned as a new retail platform that mainly sells "discounted big-name cosmetics and snacks". The total number of product SKUs exceeds 2,000. Four stores have been opened in Hangzhou and Zhengzhou.
In addition to the label of big-name discounts, according to the above report, another great feature of Lingmei Optoelectronics is the "prompt goods." The founder and chairman of Lingmei Optimal has repeatedly expressed optimism about the prospects of the temporary beauty and food market.
But when Qingyan searched for Lingmei in Hangzhou, there was no such shop on the map. An employee of the Merchants Department of Lingmei Optimal Investment Department said: “Currently, there are stores on the first floor of Baolong City, Binzhou, Hangzhou. The name of the store is Xunhuo, which is our model store." When asked whether the business model of Xunhuo is similar to Lingmei Optimal. At the same time, the other party said: "It's the same. Our future stores will be in this model."
During the inspection of the store, we found that the entire store was playing the slogan "Big-brand beauty discounts", and red billboards were used for intensive publicity. At the entrance of the store, a variety of international big-name samples were placed. The two rows of horizontal shelves are respectively placed with samples of M·A·C lipstick, Kiehl's moisturizing essence toner, Lancome sunscreen cream, sea blue mystery cream and so on. The overall shop area is not large, but all categories are relatively complete, such as mask area, sunscreen, makeup remover and skin care area.
According to our observations, beauty products are the main store in the store, accounting for about 70%, snacks account for about 20%, and the rest are daily products. In terms of beauty makeup, there are mostly samples, and the samples and masks are basically foreign brands, and the number of formal skin care products is not large.
On the whole, beauty products have a long shelf life, most of which are still 2-3 years before expiration, and very few have about 1 year of use time. We also found that there is a Korean JAYJUN Whitening Boosting Mask (1 box of 10 sheets) in the facial mask area of the store. The expiration date will be November 26, 2021. Yuan. The average price of other big-name samples ranges from 50 yuan to 200 yuan.
Comparing the prices of samples of the same model and capacity with Taobao found that the prices of most samples are 1-5 times higher than the Taobao price. This may also be one of the reasons why offline temporary discount stores do beauty makeup. The unit price of temporary snacks is generally low, and the gross profit of temporary cosmetics is much higher than that of temporary snacks, which further expands the profit margin.
As mentioned above, the model of Lingmei Optimality will be the same as that of the patrol. For the understanding of the impending delivery, Song Mingwei, chairman of Lingmei Optimality, once said that the beauty and personal care products of Lingmei Optimality are at least 8 years away from the shelf life. -15 months old goods. There is a certain discrepancy between this and the situation learned by the glaucoma survey. "Maybe some cosmetics have been produced for a few months, and there are still more than 20 months of shelf life." The above-mentioned zero beauty optimization staff was added.
It is generally believed that cosmetics have two shelf life, one is the shelf life before opening (that is, the date marked on the product), for example, skincare products are usually 3-5 years; the other is the shelf life after opening, usually about half a year to one year. Although there are differences between specific products, generally speaking of impending products, generally refers to products with a remaining shelf life of only about 1/3-1/2 of the shelf life indicated on the product.
Some insiders told us that only products with a remaining shelf life of less than one year are considered impending products. He believes that temporary and final products are generally bundled for sale. These are all unsold products. This type of special sale is to deal with the original brand’s unsold and impending products, including some that may be due to mistakes in development decisions. The product.
And this part of the product has nothing to do with the shelf life, but is simply sold to the special store at a discount by the supplier. The special store is famous for selling temporary cosmetics, or it may rely on temporary cosmetics to drain, and the low-price sales originally did not sell well. The product.
Some businesses even directly slogan "20% off the validity period within half a year, 30% off the validity period over half a year". Among them, a business named "Extraordinary Xiaozhu" that specializes in temporary cosmetics has 1.11 million fans, which shows the huge demand in the temporary cosmetics market.
Special price picking up, big-name clearance, and all kinds of temporary cosmetics as low as a few yuan to tens of yuan on Pinduoduo (a cheap e-commerce platform) are everywhere. Some merchants even support after-sales service with fidelity, claiming that they promised to return the goods for 30 days without any reason, 100% authentic, and pay 10 for fakes. They also used special counters to temporarily withdraw the counters, squeezed during purchasing and transportation, causing damage to the outer packaging, and the factory closed for direct sales. Related vocabulary attracts consumers, and its product sales are extremely high. Many special offer products have been sold for 100,000+ pieces, and many comments said that "genuine is easy to use" and "quality can be picked up", but some consumers said that "the received goods are completely different from the pictures" and "should not be pictured." Cheap".
Temporary facial masks, lipsticks, and skincare products are also more popular on Xianyu. Many Xianyu sellers have launched temporary makeup blind boxes with prices ranging from tens of yuan. Pick a style, not a colour.” At the same time, the brand, purchase channels, fineness and remaining shelf life will be indicated on the purchase page. With such low prices, "whether it is genuine" has also become a question for consumers to frequently leave messages for consultation.
Generally speaking, there are a large number of temporary cosmetics stores in the market, some of which have been operating for a long time, and there is a wide range of approvers and consumers for temporary cosmetics. Many consumers will share their experience of buying temporary beauty makeup and the treasure shops they have unearthed online. It can be seen that temporary cosmetics is not a "new" business, but with the rapid expansion of offline temporary commodity chain stores and capital entry, since 2020, temporary cosmetics has quickly become popular and become a new market "outlet".
The new generation of consumption concepts and consumption methods have changed. From blind consumption in the past to a more rational level, these changes have allowed the temporary beauty market to recombine the value chain and match new demands.
The enthusiasm for temporary beauty has made many people see business opportunities, but is temporary beauty a good business? Some economists pointed out that the lower prices of temporary cosmetics can attract the attention and consumption of some consumers in need, and businesses use deadlines to create a sense of urgency and anxiety. "Low price + urgency" is easy to attract consumers' attention, which makes temporary beauty a kind of marketing explosion.
There are also brands that say to Glaucoma that temporary beauty is neither just-needed nor optional, but short-needed. It is generally believed that short demand means that this model is unsustainable and will appear or disappear quickly at any time with market changes, and the market life cycle is very short.
However, an industry insider holds the opposite view, "Prompt beauty is a solution that will exist for a long time. It cannot be a short-term marketing gimmick, because the field of live e-commerce becomes more and more popular The wider the inventory, the larger the inventory. In the past, it was either given away as a gift, or it was included in the previous set. It seems that there was no way to help brands digest the inventory backlog. Now there are such channels to go. Digestion is actually a solution for the brand side." He believes that this way, it can also return some of the payment. This way, it is better to see this road channel. "In fact, in another way of thinking, it is a bit like an investment. Traffic is exchanged for sales, but whether sales can make up for the traffic is another matter."
"The temporary beauty store is a stock product, much like the Ole model of the past." The above-mentioned industry insider said.
The marketing director of a beauty brand said that because the shelf life of beauty products after unpacking is within one year, this depends on the consumer's usage habits and whether it is acceptable. At the same time, the low price of temporary cosmetics has damaged the normal price system of the brand, and the brand will be more cautious.
"Although the price of goods is generally lower than that of traditional channels, the profit of temporary beauty is not low." Song Mingwei once said that the reason why the retail price of snacks and cosmetics is so low is mainly because of the strength behind it. The product supply chain has greatly reduced costs.
Considerable profits, but hidden dangers in the temporary beauty business are constantly emerging. Difficulties in distinguishing true and false, re-sale of expired products with modified dates, and bad faces after use by consumers may affect consumers’ perception of temporary beauty. Cognition. "Provisional beauty is not suitable for all agents. It is best for the brand to do it. The agents are risky and may involve some legal and regulatory issues. The agents do not have the ability to solve the problem. Method." Some industry insiders also expressed to Qingyan.
"In addition, temporary beauty makeup is a derivative ecology that appears to reduce wear and tear. It is more difficult to make under the influence of normal channels. The temporary period is not long. If the purchased goods expire before they are purchased, they still have to Bear inventory pressure and costs. This will not only damage the normal price system but may even trigger lawsuits with the brand."
In this way, the temporary beauty business is still a long way from getting on track. Not only does it require a change in the concepts of consumers and practitioners, but the coordination of the entire supply chain is also extremely critical.
