The Beauty Ultra-Low-Price Chain: From Inventory Glut to Private Domain Exclusives

Circulation of Ultra-Low-Price Sources

Official trial sizes and discount store full sizes show inverted pricing. Legitimate low-price goods actually stem from brand inventory overstock spillover. A brand executive noted that dealers are often not the main channel-conflict actors; brands themselves are. Brands supply low-price goods via recruitment fairs with 25% discount special approvals and year-end rebate in-kind conversions. Dealers, seeking rapid cash recovery, release goods through cross-shipping companies with margins as low as a few cents, forming a micro-profit turnover model. Advertising swaps also become a gray circulation path, where brands trade goods for ads, and ad agencies liquidate goods back into the market.

Price Moat Dismantling in Livestreams

To avoid collective dealer backlash, brands supply livestreams via traders, signing "slot fee + commission + volume guarantee" contracts. Influencers promise "lowest price online," but actual losses are borne by brands. Top livestreams bundle unsold items for fan-group clearance. Dealers camp for mega-promo ultra-low-price bundles and resell at a markup. International brands offer generous gifts at rock-bottom prices in livestreams, dismantling their price moat and yielding passively to traffic pressure.

The Repeat-Purchase Trap of Private-Domain Exclusives

Brands initially used platforms like AiKuCun to clear inventory, discovering 30%-35% margin space exceeding livestreams. Private-domain exclusives became a normalized shipping channel, but group leaders inflated sales data, causing overstocking. Unsold goods were price-cut through layers of traders. Some goods returned to public channels, causing cross-shipment. "Exclusive" products became a perforated fig leaf. Early brands like NALA NALA, which started via Taobao-to-QQ-group traffic, have already crashed in the private-domain low-price ecosystem with mixed authentic-counterfeit goods.

Implications for B2B Buyers and Brands

The purchasing side must guard against authenticity and compliance risks in trader channels. Near-expiry goods often exceed labeled shelf-life for preservative redundancy, and cross-border sourcing carries QC uncertainty. Bulk purchasing requires rigorous verification. Brands should redesign dealer benefit distribution, avoiding 25% discount specials and ad-swap mechanisms that cause inventory spillover to breach pricing systems. Private-domain exclusive designs need anti-cross-shipment mechanisms to prevent "small-loss-as-win" loss-making sales from backfiring on the regular-price market and eroding channel moats.