How China’s Profesional Shoppers Gets Luxury Goods with Cheaper Alternative
If you ever notice in China, there might be some question mark appearing on your head as to why some China folks can afford some luxury items which are outrageously expensive, well the answer is you can get affordable prices for luxury items by daigou 代购, professional shoppers who buy sought-after products overseas and resell them in China.
For example, a La Mer faces cream might cost around 2,680 yuan ($390) in retail stores in China, but only 1,600 yuan if one enlists the services of a daigou. and in airports around the world, you will find that these Chinese Shopper with suitcases full of cosmetics, baby products, health supplements, apparel, and luxury goods where these foreign branded are hard to be found in China.
Daigou means “buying for one’s behalf” in Chinese where the daigou at a certain peak period in 2013 can generate an economy worth over $10 billion and in 2015, it has shrunk to $5.9 billion because of the clampdown by China Government. While in 2019, a new law requiring these professional shoppers to register companies and pay taxes has narrowed the profit margins and made it tougher for the shoppers to operate.
However, the daigou are still remained popular in China with estimated that there are more than 100,000 Chinese daigou in Australia alone and over a million of them are available globally. And usually, these Daigou operates via an app such as WeChat where they can build a network of customers and sell their products through their newsfeeds. While some companies also establish some e-commerce sites on Chinese shopping platforms such as Taobao, ymatou.com, and smzdm.com.
You can also find that there are companies working together with travel agencies which they can enjoy rebates from retailers too and these companies will hire staff to shop in duty-free stores designated by the agencies and maintain inventory items plus they have purchasing power in which they can enjoy higher rebates from duty-free operators.
While if you have noticed that there are even smugglers who illegally import goods to Shenzhen just across the border from Hong Kong to avoid customs duties and these daigou could simply mail the goods where the shipping cost will be lower and the taxes would be levied on the items.
This job certainly attracts those who always wanted to travel and enjoy shopping, which is pretty much the pro and cons here. As who doesn’t like shopping right?