Your Competitors In Shenzhen Are Growing Up

At the beginning of the light, Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen is still lively, especially around Mingtong cosmetics market, where people come in and out in large packages.

Mingtong cosmetics market, in fact, was the former Mingtong digital city. Now this signboard is still on the other side of the building, but the front is changed into Mingtong cosmetics market.

Between Mingtong and hualianfa building is a nameless lane, where cars, motorcycles, carts full of goods and passers-by in a hurry crowd together. On the slope of the entrance to the west gate of the cosmetics market, two men in black with flip flops were trying to push a cart of cartons and plastic foam film to the door. The narrow stairway was constantly flanked by people. The delivery boy was running with a pile of fast food boxes, shouting "let's go, let go..." Out of it, a girl almost ran into her little brother because she couldn't dodge with her suitcase.

Such scenes often occur at the four gates of Mingtong. Entering the cosmetics market, you will find that there are more and more crowded people. From the afternoon to the evening, the deeper the night, the greater the flow of people here. At 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., it is still crowded like a holiday scenic spot, and it does not stop until 1:00 p.m.

In the early hours of the morning, the cosmetics market was quiet. Several express logistics stations around the market began to be lively again. Nearly a million packages were loaded onto the cars and transported to all parts of the country.

Can you imagine that? Many of the nearly million packages shipped from Mingtong to all parts of the country every day are not electronic products, but duty-free cosmetics. It is conservatively estimated that if each package is worth $100 million, the daily package value will be at least 100 million yuan, which is only a small proportion of Mingtong's business volume. More duty-free cosmetics are traded online here, and then they are directly delivered from overseas outlets such as Hong Kong to the whole country.

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New industry and new ecology

Mingtong cosmetics market block a is an old building, a total of six floors, one to four floors densely packed with shops of different sizes. From more than 1:00 p.m., shops opened one after another, and the flow of people gradually increased. By 4:00 p.m., every shop began to crowd, and several escalators were also full of shuttle crowds. More and more people appeared to be in a hurry. Most of them were carrying black plastic bags, while some were dragging suitcases, which were 21 inches, 26 inches and 32 inches. These people make inquiries between different stores and get the goods.

One of them, Dou Liang. A sweater, shorts, carrying a bag, carrying a big black plastic bag. Dou Liang's dress is a classic dress for hundreds of buyers.

"Do you have Lancome powder water?" Dou Liang trotted to the third floor of a beauty shop Dacheng International gate asked, the boss gave a positive answer, Dou Liang looked at the mobile phone, and asked "CPB long tube? What price? " After communicating on wechat, Dou Liang took the cosmetics he needed and put them into a black bag. After paying, he went to the next beauty shop. The shopping list on the mobile phone is still long.

While running errands and shopping between shops on different floors, Dou Liang talked about his work to the 21st century economic reporter. Dou Liang said that he worked nearby and came by to help run errands. His customers were all agents or wechat merchants, and the customers determined which store he went to get what goods. For him, he only earns a few yuan a day for his part-time job. "In fact, I just started my business and came here in July. It is said that in these months, the demand has suddenly increased."

"They are professional." Dou Liang points to the people with suitcases. Following Dou Liang's fingers, the reporter talked to a 70 year old woman with a 29 inch suitcase at the door. Ms. He claimed to be helping with the luggage, and her daughter was sweeping the goods. According to Ms. He, they are from Shaoyang, Hunan Province. Her daughter has set up a cosmetics store on the Internet, and now she is coming to buy goods. They'll come in every once in a while, so they'll have to take a big box.

Some people with suitcases are not shop owners, but pure agents. Xiao Wu told reporters that in recent months, because of the epidemic situation, she was forced to purchase goods from Mingtong, "it is said that the quality is guaranteed, and they are all duty-free products from South Korea.". Xiao Wu said that she came to observe and understand the situation of the stores and hoped to find several stores with good cooperation, which could provide her with long-term and stable supply of goods, including providing shopping tickets and taking charge of all customs clearance procedures. "The water here is also very deep. We have to see more and understand more." Xiao Wu Road.

After the completion of the sweep, Xiao Wu found an express delivery point around Mingtong to send the package. According to the reporter, around Mingtong, there are more than ten express logistics stores. In addition to Zhongtong, Shentong and other well-known express companies, there are also many logistics enterprises such as humon Yida international logistics, express express logistics, intermodal logistics and other logistics enterprises. Therefore, the large number of logistics companies in the north of China express, the distribution center is strong. In the past two years, as Mingtong digital city has transformed into the cosmetics market, the main force of the local express logistics points has gradually changed from digital electronics to cosmetics.

The reporter learned from an internal express company of Tongda department, which did not want to disclose the company's name, that the daily delivery volume of the company in Mingtong outlets was 200000-300000 pieces, of which a considerable proportion were cosmetics. Shentong express's data in Mingtong outlets is also quite impressive. The head of the company disclosed that the daily shipment volume of the whole Huaqiangbei is more than 300000 pieces, while Mingtong alone has more than 100000 pieces. He also disclosed that the data increased by 30% - 40% compared with the same period last year.

After several inquiries, the reporter of the 21st century economic report could not obtain the daily delivery volume data of the whole Mingtong market. According to the rough estimation of some couriers, the daily delivery volume is about one million pieces. "This is very rough data, which may be overestimated or underestimated, because many cosmetics go through road logistics, and the volume of each piece may be very large."

Even with a rough estimate of one million pieces, the minimum value of each package is more than 100 yuan, so the daily delivery value of Mingtong is at least 100 million yuan. That's 3 billion yuan a month and 36 billion yuan a year.

In contrast, on September 11, Haikou Customs announced the results of the implementation of the new tax-free policy on outlying islands for two months. The amount of tax-free shopping on the outlying islands was 5.58 billion yuan, the number of pieces was 6.122 million pieces, and the number of passengers was 832000, up 221.9%, 147.3% and 54.8% respectively year-on-year. Among them, the value of cosmetics purchase ranked first. The amount of cosmetics purchased was 275070 million yuan.

The industrial chain of duty-free products is forming

"This kind of trade is general trade, and the volume is not very large." Lin Xu, general manager of Shenzhen Mingtong Commercial Management Co., Ltd., told 21st century economic news that his company is the management of Mingtong cosmetics market.

It is reported that general trade refers to the unilateral trade conducted by enterprises with import and export operation rights in China. Many of their goods are spot goods stored in the warehouse on the fifth and sixth floor of Mingtong. They have completed the customs clearance procedures and can conduct real-time transactions.

The reporter learned that more shops in mingtongli are domestic display shops of duty-free shops or brand stores in Hong Kong, or e-commerce counters for global shopping. The latter two goods are not in Mingtong or Shenzhen, but in Hong Kong or domestic port bonded warehouses. Only after the off-line over-the-counter transaction or direct online transaction is completed will the goods be delivered from Hong Kong or bonded warehouse and delivered to consumers. "This year's epidemic has seriously affected the outbound market. We can't even go to Hong Kong, so a large number of owners who do cosmetics duty-free products in Hong Kong come to Mingtong to open stores." Mingtong's internal staff explained that there are also some beauty brand manufacturers setting up points here to connect with purchasing agents and wechat businesses, seeking to expand new sales channels.

The 21st century economic reporter learned that Mingtong cosmetics market is divided into two buildings, a and B. block a is the old digital city, and block B is the Sanda building. Originally, it was also engaged in digital electronic transactions. This year, it was transformed into a beauty city. In June, it just opened business. At present, there are 2500 beauty shops in the two buildings. Eighty or ninety percent of them have been hired out. In particular, block a has almost no shops and is extremely popular.

On the first to fourth floors of block a, except for a small number of electronic products shops on the fourth floor, almost all the other shops have been transformed into beauty shops. Each shop has an area of three or four square meters, and the large one can be 20 or 30 square meters. Each counter is full of its own main cosmetics. It is reported that most shops only do one line, such as European and American, Korean, Japanese, Thai, perfume, sample, etc. Because each category needs a huge capital chain and human and material support.

It is understood that the European and American lines mainly include Estee Lauder, Lancome, leptoni, Keyan's, Fulaishi, etc. Japanese products range from SK2, CPB, IPSA to medium and low-end products. Han makeup has Korean queen, snow show, AHC, etc., and there will be some rare new brands or masks in China. Thai goods are actually Thai groceries, from cosmetics, facial masks to daily necessities. Most shops also sell perfume. Perfume brands range from luxury to affordable. Dior, Versace, tomford, Chanel, Bulgari, burberry There are also special shop samples, with the brand counter to take a trial sample of the same.

The reporter found that some categories seem to be popular, and the cosmetics will be sold in many stores, such as lamer classic cream and Estee Lauder small brown bottles. The price of the 60ml lamer classic cream in the exclusive store is 2680 yuan / bottle. The reporter inquired at many outlets of Mingtong, and the price ranges from 1180 yuan to 1280 yuan. The price difference is not big, but the price is more than half cheaper than that of the exclusive store. The price of water powder is only 400 ml in lancaotong.

How about this price compared with domestic duty-free shops? The reporter learned from the Japanese duty-free shop that the price of 60ml lamer classic cream is 1869 yuan. At present, there is a 87% discount for a single piece, and 83% discount for more than two pieces. It still needs 1551-1626 yuan. The price of Lancome water in the duty-free shop is 273 yuan, which can be discounted by 85%. The purchase price is 232 yuan, which is still a little more expensive than Mingtong.

The price of duty-free shops in Japan is almost the lowest price of duty-free goods in China. Why can the price of cosmetics in Mingtong market be cheaper than that in domestic duty-free shops?

"We have Thai duty-free stores, European duty-free stores, Hainan duty-free stores, but more are from Korean duty-free stores, Korean free is the cheapest." The owner of a beauty shop told the truth that his goods came from duty-free shops in South Korea. Under the influence of the current epidemic situation, the goods of duty-free shops in South Korea can not be sold and are trying to dump, so the prices are very low.

South Korea's second largest duty-free operator Lotte duty-free China area staff confirmed to reporters that Mingtong market has a large number of duty-free cosmetics from South Korea. Under the influence of the epidemic, a large number of tourists and purchasing agents were unable to leave the country, which led to a sharp drop in sales of duty-free shops in South Korea. In order to solve the inventory problem, duty-free shops in South Korea acquiesced in a large number of middlemen to sell their stocks to the mainland through Hong Kong. Mingtong cosmetics market is one of the important channels. There are a large number of wechat merchants and purchasing agents in China, and even some e-commerce platforms undertake Korean immune cosmetics through Mingtong market and resell them to their own platform customers, thus completing the whole process of overseas duty-free products sales in China.

"This industrial chain existed before the epidemic, but now it is more complete and its role is more prominent." The staff revealed that the strategy of duty-free shops in South Korea should have worked. According to a South Korean report in July, although the number of people entering the stores has dropped by 60%, the unit price per customer has increased by 180% - 200%. Therefore, it is possible that the shipment volume of duty-free shops in South Korea will be higher than that of last year.

"Mingtong beauty is actually the largest distribution center of duty-free products in China." A senior person in the duty-free industry who did not want to be named disclosed to the 21st century economic report that the main source of Mingtong cosmetics is duty-free cosmetics from all over the country. It enters Hong Kong in the form of wholesale and transshipment (because Hong Kong is a duty-free port), and then enters the territory through customs clearance or water smuggling. Mingtong will supply these goods to purchasing agents and other channels. "At present, both legal and illegal ways exist. Some enter through normal customs clearance, while others are illegal smuggling."

Recently, Gongbei Customs, together with Zhuhai Public Security Bureau, cracked a case of smuggling high-value goods by a "water guest" Gang. 43 suspects were arrested and criminal enforcement measures were taken. Two warehouses for storing private goods were seized. About 45 tons of cosmetics, health care products and used notebook computers suspected of smuggling into China were seized. The preliminary estimated value of the case is about 1 billion yuan.

According to the information released by the police, the smuggling gang involved in the case, through instant messaging software and other network platforms, contracted orders from domestic shippers, delivered cosmetics, food, electronic products, pet products, etc. purchased by the consignors from overseas suppliers to the warehouses set up by the smuggling gangs in Hong Kong, and then transported to Macao by ship for centralized distribution, and then organized "water customers" to adopt "Ma" They are smuggled into China through ports. After entering the country, the goods will be delivered to the domestic consignors by express delivery, and the consignors will make profits by selling.

"Some cosmetics in mingtongli are likely to be admitted through similar channels." Senior people in the above-mentioned duty-free industry said that after the duty-free goods left the duty-free shops, they had become "second-hand goods" in nominal terms, so this inflow was not illegal except through smuggling channels. But for brand management, it is the scope that the brand hopes to strictly control. In addition, after the entry of low-cost duty-free goods, the low price has a great impact on the traditional channels, the traditional sales of brands in China, and the tariff collection.

The reporter learned that the outbreak of the epidemic, on the contrary, made Mingtong's business more and more popular. A large number of stores were set up after the epidemic, and it was difficult to find a hot shop, and the transfer fee was as high as one million. Is this duty-free distribution center just a product of the epidemic? Once the epidemic is over and countries resume international travel, will Mingtong's duty-free cosmetics business still be able to do?

"No, the industrial chain has been formed." The above staff of Lotte China believe that even if the tourism and purchasing channels of other countries are open in the future, this wholesale market channel will still be retained as an important part of dumping inventory of duty-free shops.

Wang Meng, chief executive officer of "Jessica's Secret", also told reporters that the main source of goods in Mingtong market is South Korea. The South Korean duty-free market has always been famous for its low price, so it will bring certain price pressure to the domestic tax-free system. The main pressure is still on the domestic traditional market. He believes that domestic duty-free shops must have a spirit to think about how to deal with such duty-free wholesale market competition?

Dialogue with general manager of Mingtong cosmetics market