Luxury Purchase Agency: From Hundreds Of Thousands A Month To Selling Mask Corn Snail Lion Powder

Fuling, who has been purchasing luxury goods in Italy for seven years, has experienced such a serious crisis for the first time.

In previous years, March and April were the peak sales seasons for luxury goods buyers among major brands. This year, with the outbreak of the epidemic abroad, all offline shopping malls were closed. Under the condition that it was difficult to go out, Fuling, like most purchasing agents, was temporarily unemployed. She directly changed her WeChat name to "Suspend purchasing during the epidemic".

For luxury brands, this is also an extremely difficult first half of the year. The clothing show was suspended, and even the factory had to shut down. On April 1, the latest report released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) predicted that the global sales of fashion and luxury goods in 2020 would decline by 25% to 35% year on year, and the sales would decline by $450 billion to $600 billion compared with the same period in 2019.

Many agents changed careers during this period. They used to sell LV bags, but now they sell snail powder; Originally mainly engaged in luxury goods, but now we have to join the business of WeChat merchants, selling masks, donkey hide gelatin, fruits, corn

In fact, all kinds of purchasing agents and buyers involved in cross-border business have been impacted by the epidemic "Black Swan" to varying degrees. The owner of a Taobao cosmetics store told Tech Planet (WeChat ID: tech618)， This year, the cosmetics agency he knows has basically cut its business. An insider of an international luxury brand said that the purchase budget of many brands was cut in half, and the clothing in spring was facing a large backlog of inventory.

Tech Planet has found six people engaged in or related to purchasing on behalf of others. Some of them have stagnated in purchasing on behalf of others, and their income has declined sharply; Some people lost their jobs due to the epidemic, resumed their old business and started buying on behalf of others again; Some people, though not directly affected, are at the center of the storm and have witnessed the sudden epidemic, its impact on the industry and individuals

Stay in Milan, and the income drops by half

7-year senior agent purchase, Fuliu

At the moment, I live in Milan, Lombardy region of Italy, where the epidemic is the most serious.

From studying here to working here, I stayed in Italy for 7 years, and also did purchasing for 7 years. My business scale is not large. I always run alone, which is relatively easy.

The agency purchase basically covered 50% of my income. After I learned that Wuhan was closed, I began to step up the agency purchase. I distributed bags intensively for a few days and ran to the mall more frequently.

I had a hunch that the epidemic might lead to economic downturn, and there might not be too many orders in the second half of the year. I was also worried that Italy would be affected.

At the beginning of March, Celine was hard to find a discount. It was hard to find eight customers to make up for the discount amount. When I woke up the next day, the epidemic broke out in Italy. One day, 1200 cases were diagnosed, and then the city was closed. Shopping malls were closed, logistics and aircraft operations were suspended, and orders had to be put on hold.

Before the closing of the shopping mall, logistics was the biggest problem. The price of the returned logistics channel doubled, and the timeliness could not be guaranteed. A suitcase I sent before is still stuck on the road.

To what extent has this epidemic impacted the luxury industry?

Two days ago, I received a phone call from Gucci's sales team asking if I wanted to buy a bag. There was a discount and online remittance was also available. Discount is detrimental to brand tonality, and luxury brands usually avoid discounts. Even in the discount season, Gucci and other discounts are symbolic "paddling", and will not have a particularly large range. Discount styles are very rare.

But now, I feel that the relationship between supply and demand has suddenly changed. In the past, Gucci's bags were not only limited, but also bought with wallets and card bags, which is called "distribution" in the jargon. I am surprised that there is a salesperson who takes the initiative to make a phone call!

There is also a top luxury brand, which has had no discount since last year. Some time ago, the clerk told me that the whole line was being discounted at 10%. If it were not for the epidemic, the brand would certainly not give away so much profit. From this supply and demand relationship, we can see that the current economy is not very good.

In recent years, we can also see the changes in the market. I remember that in the first year of purchasing, we all went to Prada's factory to "squat". At that time, the most valuable thing was the "killer bag". As long as there were bags, they were sold at a 100% high price. Experienced purchasing agents will know from which door of the factory the counter sisters will come out, and they will specially go to check the spot.

At that time, the tellers of luxury brands looked down on purchasing agents, and they even kicked them out when they took pictures. But now the market has changed, Prada's response has been much worse than before, and some luxury brands have begun to actively attract purchasing agents and buyers, and actively hand over business cards. They are all shop assistants who have a good relationship with Chinese purchasing agents in order to get sales commissions, and their sales are always high.

So far, Milan is still closed down in the whole city, and you can't go out at will. When I go out, I need to fill in the self declaration form, stating the starting point and destination. I go out once half a month. But even if the ban is lifted in Italy in May, I won't go to shopping malls, which are crowded places, for fear of risks.

When I stayed alone in Milan, I felt flustered, short of breath and dizzy every day for a while. Later, a professor of psychology finished the analysis and said that I was a typical panic disorder. If you stay in a closed space for a long time, you will have a lot of anxiety about the future life and economy.

In fact, since 2018, the business of purchasing on behalf of others has been declining, and the number of students studying in Italy has multiplied, and people have started purchasing on behalf of others as soon as they landed. There are more and more unknown and unfamiliar agents in the shopping mall. With more and more information and channels, luxury goods are gradually disenchantment. Fortunately, I did it long enough.

Recently, all the purchasing agents I know are selling and hoarding goods. A few days ago, I saw a friend who was a purchasing agent cooperating with WeChat merchants to sell masks and donkey hide gelatin. His scale is relatively large, customer service and warehouse have to pay. In addition to selling and hoarding goods, we have to find other ways to operate, otherwise the cost cannot be covered at all.

I have no ambition to earn money all the time. I think I can eat enough and use enough. I regard purchasing as a sideline. If the purchasing business is not good for some time in the future, I will seriously save money.

At the beginning, because I often carry luxury bags in and out of the relationship, for security, I chose to rent in the center of Milan. However, according to the current situation, if half of the income from purchasing on behalf of others is reduced, I may need to consider moving to reduce expenses.

The brand budget is cut in half and the inventory is overstocked

A luxury insider, John

What I have contacted and learned is not ordinary luxury goods purchasing agents, but professional buyers of luxury goods. They are more responsible for the purchase of goods within the company, and do the Bussiness part.

These people who really become internal buyers of luxury brands will have four to six opportunities to go to Paris or Milan every year to decide the products that each brand will sell in China in the next quarter or the next whole year, as well as the number of specific products.

But because of the impact of the epidemic, they can't travel now. At this stage, the selection basically uses some forms of "cloud shopping", through watching videos and highly detailed pictures, to finalize the selection remotely. There will be many restrictions on the space of the product selection meeting held on the cross regional open line.

For professional luxury brand buyers, the impact of the epidemic on their income is not significant. The change is that in the past, buyers would go to the brand headquarters to make on-site contact with the selection of products, but now "cloud selling" is unable to touch the real fabric and feel the real hand, and the visual effect will have a certain impact.

Generally, only 50 works may be displayed on brand shows. In fact, there may be 1000 designs given by brands in a quarter, but not all of them will be given to a certain country or region.

Every quarter, the buyer will have a budget. The buyer's task is to decide which categories to buy and how many items to buy in each category within the cost framework. Their work involves evading the differences in market culture. For example, there should be no green hats in China. Wallets with blue and red leather are considered to be money wasters, and buyers will also avoid these problems.

This year, the epidemic will have a direct impact on the brand's budget and order quantity. For example, a clothing brand used to have a budget of 50 million yuan a year, but now it may be cut in half.

Luxury brands are usually cross seasonal products. All spring products, including summer products, were purchased in October last year. The factory has already finished production and sent them to China. When offline stores are closed and sales volume decreases, there will be a lot of overstock this year. The most serious backlog should be in Europe.

So when the products are launched in the next quarter, buyers will analyze the current inventory of goods and sell some of them at the end of the quarter discount, but usually the discount is not very high. The rest may be sold at a higher discount to outlets.

As far as I know, most of the luxury brand stores in China have resumed operation, and some may have recovered about 70%. However, due to the spread of foreign epidemics and the closure of stores, the non Asian region has basically been wiped out. At present, only domestic and a few Asian regions are operating, and domestic revenue has become the "hope of the whole village".

On the whole, the most serious impact on luxury brands must be performance. Generally, each brand will set a year-on-year growth rate of products, which will mostly remain at 20 to 30 percent. This year, we will give up this indicator, and catching up with last year is our biggest goal and requirement.

Temporary change to selling shoes, barely make a living

Purchase on behalf of new transfer bank, Midu

In recent years, I am a freelancer. More often, my identity is more like a travel blogger. In three years, I traveled around 49 countries. My income was supported by the home stay business in the past, but now the agent purchase has become my core income, accounting for about 90% of the total income.

In the past, I have made investments, created businesses, and hosted people. Before January, the home stay business was my biggest source of income.

Most of the time, I have 30 houses in Beijing, Sanya, Chongqing and the United States. Catching up with the recession of the home stay industry and the impact of the epidemic, except for two houses that do not need too much cost, we still keep them, and all the others are rent refunded or offline, and we have also paid part of the liquidated damages.

Now, purchasing on behalf of others is basically my main business.

I really changed my job to buy goods on behalf of others since the epidemic period. On January 27, I felt bored and wanted to find a job. So I applied for a small account and started buying goods on behalf of others. In 2012, when I was studying in the United States, I bought sneakers for athletes.

My customer base is quite special. When I was a sports reporter and started a sports project, I accumulated a large number of athlete network resources, and these people became my core users. Therefore, I mainly sell fashion brand and sports products.

Many people probably don't know about the athlete group. Their income is considerable. They are usually busy training and have no time to go out. When some people come to me to buy shoes, they choose all colors and styles for me. I will choose them for them.

Frankly speaking, I am not a traditional human flesh agent or luxury buyer. I am more a middleman and a medium between goods and customers. I choose from a large number of products and recommend them to you through WeChat friends circle and groups.

My main suppliers are basically factories, so there is no stock squeeze or out of stock phenomenon. We have also undertaken more than one supplier so that one arm can be broken and another can grow out.

However, in the whole purchasing group, all purchasing destinations that are shopping malls will be directly affected. Now we can feel that the biggest impact of the epidemic may be the efficiency of factory delivery. The delivery speed is relatively slow and the quantity is relatively small.

At the end of January and the beginning of February, there was no express delivery in Hubei, and it sometimes took about 10 days to wait for an item in other regions. Fortunately, all my customers know me, and few people rush me.

When I was in the United States, there was a 13 hour time difference from home. When I slept, it was the morning in China. I send the product in the morning and in the evening. Every day when I fall asleep, there will be income, at least one or two hundred a day, and the highest record is more than 4000.

For me, this model has no burden. In fact, there was a gap of five years between the last time I made a purchase on behalf of others. At that time, I had a fixed cash flow and would avoid social consumption. After that, I will certainly continue to do it. My operation mode has become a small system. Even if I have a regular job in the future, I should continue to do it as a minor sideline.

Some bought fruits and corn on behalf of others and sold them back home

Italian and European luxury goods agency, Hu Bo

When we came home years ago, my girlfriend and I stopped buying on behalf of others, mainly because of the poor logistics.

During the Spring Festival, domestic express delivery was semi stagnant, and international express delivery stopped a lot. Several international express deliveries we sent from abroad were all returned. A friend of mine wanted to buy a Chanel bag years ago, but he hasn't bought it yet.

My girlfriend is a fashion designer who lives in Italy. I have my own studio in China, and it's part-time to do shopping on behalf of others. We have been in Italy for two or three years. At the beginning of studying abroad, the purpose of purchasing on behalf was to earn money for air tickets, tuition fees and living expenses.

Now it's almost fun to buy on behalf of others. The products with the highest profit margin, such as some globally limited bags, sometimes take months or even a year to buy one. Some popular or ordinary commodities have limited profit margins, and we are unwilling to sell them.

I remember once I spent a day in Balenciaga, and finally I didn't earn much money after excluding the cost of express logistics. At that time, I felt frustrated because I had worked for nothing all day. Some products are too low in profit and are not worth looking around.

In fact, we buy on behalf of others in the service industry. Sometimes we are exhausted from running errands and can't buy a bag at the end of the day. Some expensive bags may have to be bought in several countries. Milan is unlikely to go to Paris, Paris is unlikely to go to Munich, or other European countries.

I think some customers enjoy my service and help them find goods. The process of finding a limited edition or popular bag.

The biggest impact of the epidemic on the whole industry is income. Full time purchasing agents usually hold a lot of goods, and they will stock up some of the most popular goods in advance. I see that in the group, these people are basically hoarding goods before selling. This batch of purchasing agents, who regard purchasing agents as sidelines, basically has zero income during this period. The shopping malls are closed, and there is no goods to sell.

I know an older sister who has been in Europe for a long time. She does agency shopping all the year round, selling some domestic products abroad, and also purchasing luxury goods and cosmetics from abroad. She has now returned home to sell fruit and corn.

Some people say that the industry of purchasing on behalf of others is a bit like a sunset industry, but I think it will not disappear in any industry. It may change its form and reappear, but I don't know what is another form of traditional purchasing on behalf of others.

We have tried to open Taobao stores before, trying to broaden channels. We will upload all product information, purchase records, receipt records and other information according to the rules, but we are reported twice a day. After being reported, it is necessary to appeal and prepare materials again. This thing alone makes my head big. It was too difficult to do Taobao. The two of us could not attend to it, so we closed the Taobao shop.

Since last September, I can feel the rise of live purchasing. I saw two little girls broadcast live in the mall before, and everyone would watch them. I felt embarrassed, but they broadcast hard there. However, I think the more inconspicuous and unimportant this model is, the more likely it will eventually overturn the market.

I changed my business to sell masks and lost more than 100000 yuan

Makeup shop owner, Jiang Feng

At the beginning, I felt that the epidemic had no impact until the duty-free shops began to collapse in prices. The obvious signal is that Japanese and Hainan duty-free stores have started to offer a 60% discount.

The prices of duty-free shops everywhere are falling, and my goods are becoming less and less valuable. In particular, the price difference of lipsticks, which were stored years ago and years later, was up to 40 yuan. For example, Armani 405 color can sell for more than 170 yuan before the year, but after the year, it will only sell for about 130 yuan, down more than 20%.

In our business, we have to stock up when the goods are discounted, but this year's price fluctuations can be said to be unimaginable, and you never know whether you are bargain hunting. Previously, the goods bought at a high price also need to be discounted and reduced, so as to press down the cost, and even have to sell at a loss. The money is on the goods, and the cost must be diluted.

The reason for the epidemic is that customs clearance in Hong Kong has been suspended, and the timeliness of goods purchased by foreign duty-free stores has been greatly affected, from less than one month to more than two months at the longest. We began to look for domestic Japanese and duty-free shop resources. The price may not be cost-effective, but the cycle is short and the capital turnover rate is fast.

During the epidemic this year, many purchasing agents and WeChat merchants made a profit by selling masks. I only sold masks once and lost more than 100000 yuan.

In fact, I didn't plan to sell masks at the beginning. I haven't followed the popular saffron and Thai prayer cards before. It's easy to scold when selling masks. However, many customers discussed in the group, but they couldn't buy masks. We just had a way, so we decided to sell a wave of masks at the cost price as a reward to customers.

There are a lot of WeChat merchants and mask suppliers in the market. We are not sure. Honestly, South Korea found a regular mask supplier with KF94 specification (equivalent to domestic N95).

At first, I ordered 70000 masks, and thought 10000 of them would be donated to Wuhan, and the rest would be sold. The unit price of the mask negotiated with the factory is 4 yuan, plus the cost of mailing and customs clearance, the price is 6.8 yuan, which can cover the cost and can hardly earn money to sell. At that time, the lowest price of the same mask was more than 10 yuan.

After the first batch of goods was put into the warehouse, the Korean factory was stuck all the time, asking for a price increase to 7 yuan, and would not allow them to be taken away without additional money. But I have put the masks on the shelves according to the original price and inventory, and they have also been photographed. Thinking that the mask was really just needed, I agreed. Then, the price was increased again, and the cost of a single mask rose to 13 yuan, plus the cost of freight 13.5 yuan.

The cost has more than doubled, but I can't force everyone to make up the difference, so I have to go to the price supplement link, and those who volunteer to make up the difference can make up for me. However, there are not many subsidies, about one sixth to one seventh.

Most importantly, the 70000 masks that were promised at the beginning were crushed to 30000 in the end. After receiving the goods, we donated 10000 pieces to Wuhan, and only 20000 pieces remained. We had to negotiate with the customer to deliver the goods according to one third of the quantity purchased, and refund the price difference after receiving the goods.

This time, I lost more than 100000 yuan. I'm used to doing business with losses and losses, but reputation comes first. At the worst time of this period, I only had 500 yuan left in Alipay.

Now, the purchasing industry is becoming more and more difficult, and it has reached the end. I know that the business of cosmetics agency stores has basically cut back this year. Like us, many products can only be priced at cost in the end, and money needs to flow.

This year, we didn't have much profit as a whole. The profits of the last two months have been used to dilute costs. The previous purchase price was too high, and the loss was a fool.

The original industry was opaque, with few people, few stores and little competition. In my impression, the best years for purchasing in Europe and the United States are 2016 and 2017. The profits are so high that they can earn 30% of the selling price. For example, YSL round tube No. 12 lipstick, with a purchase price of more than 140 yuan, can sell for 220 yuan, basically closing your eyes to make money.

But now, the profit of a lipstick is only about 10 yuan. On the one hand, there are more and more channels for people to buy lipstick, and big platforms have begun to make 10 billion subsidies; On the other hand, e-commerce platforms force us to do activities. If we don't do activities, we won't give traffic support. Peer price comparisons are also very fierce. In many cases, we are forced to cut prices.

I've been in this business for five or six years, and I've seen ups and downs. But seriously, I don't know how long I can do it now.

Agency purchase is really a sunset industry

European luxury purchasing agency, SUSU

After most shopping malls in foreign countries closed, many purchasing agents were closed, and there was no way to continue purchasing. If there is a spot, sell it.

I mainly do European and American purchasing. Purchasing on behalf is what you need and what I can bring you. I sell all shoes, bags and cosmetics. In our business, channels are the king. I work with some buyers' shops in Europe. Fortunately, there are still buyers' shops that are still open, so I can continue to sell products.

But some of my peers are specialized in discount villages, or specialized in purchasing human resources, so they have to stop, which is considered to be totally unemployed.

After the epidemic, it is obvious that the postage is rising, especially for the logistics of customs clearance. On the whole, logistics can still run through. Now, I mainly send goods back through DHL international logistics. Because more or less there will be flights taking off, but there will be a problem of timeliness.

Last month, I sent a small box of packages back from Canada. The original logistics cost was about 100, but recently I charged 250. I entrusted a relatively small Chinese transshipment company. In such a special period, it is very good for them to get through.

Due to the increase in logistics prices, the purchase price will also increase slightly. But I feel that except for LV, Chanel and Gucci, these luxury brands, the price will increase every year, and the original purchase price of most other commodities will not change much.

Recently, it is Chanel who can feel the obvious price increase. Because the global price difference of Chanel is not too obvious, many purchasing agents will go to South Korea to buy meat from South Korea. But now South Korea and China are isolated from each other, which leads to a substantial increase in the cost of buying goods, which will lead to a substantial increase in the price of bags.

Previously, many goods in the buyer's shop had discounts, but because the package was changed every year, it was not easy to perceive the change in the discount range.

The latest lipstick of Hermes is also obvious. The selling price is about four or five hundred yuan. In February this year, people only paid 40 to 50 yuan of purchase fee on the basis of the selling price. However, due to the serious epidemic, the procurement was difficult and the logistics was also greatly affected. The price is almost one a day. Now the price has risen to more than 600 yuan, and some popular color codes can be sold for 800 to 900 yuan.

Now some brands have launched special discounts online for promotion, and part of the sales amount is used to donate to epidemic relief. Previously, high-end fashion AW launched an online activity, with a large discount range, and 20% of the sales revenue was used for donations for epidemic relief. This kind of activity feedback will be particularly good. The activity time was originally 72 hours, but it was sold out within 24 hours.

In previous years, March and April were the peak sales seasons. My size was relatively small, and there was no specific accounting in terms of conversion. But now the epidemic situation will have a significant impact on sales, but there is no significant reduction in my sales.

After the e-commerce law came out last year, in order to continue to make purchases legally and legally, I specially went to the bookkeeping company for bookkeeping and tax declaration. This will lead to increased costs and less profit space. Now many overseas e-commerce and luxury brands have entered China and e-commerce platforms, and buyers will not buy them again if prices rise.

Brands such as Chanel, Hermes, LV, which are still hard to buy, including some brands that are small in number or have not entered the country, are less affected.

Purchasing on behalf of others is really a sunset industry. Last year, it was affected by the e-commerce law. This year, it is an epidemic. Now I'm always thinking, otherwise, I will not do purchasing on behalf of others, and I will work seriously and easily.

(At the request of the interviewee, Fu Liu, John, Midu, Hu Bo, SUSU and Jiang Feng are pseudonyms)