Non-sale items are clearly priced and put on the shelves in large quantities

Cosmetic sample sales become a regulatory blind spot?

　　Our reporter Yuan Lu

　　The cosmetic trial set, which was originally a sample for consumers to use and experience, has become a separate business for many merchants nowadays.

In emerging beauty collection stores such as HARMAY, THE COLORIST, colorists, etc., a wide range of low-cost cosmetic samples attract young people to wait in line.

But many consumers also have doubts: Are the various samples in the beauty store genuine?

Where do so many trial kits come from?

Sell ​​famous brand mockups into an independent business

　　Walking into the HARMAY Huamei Sanli Tuenmen store, the skin care and beauty sample area on the first floor is crowded with consumers who are carefully selecting.

SK-II, Hailan Mystery, Lancome, Coyan's... dozens of trial samples of big-name cosmetics are placed on the open shelves, and from time to time, people use their mobile phones to compare the price information of similar products on the Internet.

　　Testability and high portability are the main reasons why young white-collar workers buy cosmetic samples.

"I have a sensitive skin, and I buy one or two trial outfits before buying thousands of yuan of skin care products." Ms. Sun, who works in Chaoyang District, told reporters that buying samples has greatly reduced her trial and error costs. "If you travel frequently, Bringing a sample is also much more convenient than bringing a bunch of bottles and cans."

　　The price of the sample is also very attractive.

“Originally, a face cream that cost nearly a thousand yuan can be experienced with only a few dozen yuan.” Chu, a student at a university in Beijing, said that many college students have limited financial resources and prefer to buy samples.

The reporter found that the “sample fever” even promoted the “squeeze sample artifact” on Taobao, with a monthly sales volume of close to 5,000 pieces.

Many Taobao stores are also secretly selling samples, but the samples sold in offline beauty collection stores in the past two years are obviously more sought after than online stores. Many consumers say that they are more assured of the quality of the samples in physical stores. .

The source of the big-name sample is hard to tell

　　At first, cosmetic samples were just a gift to brand consumers.

Nowadays, the demos are separated from the parent brand and become an independent sales business in some stores, but these demos on the market are not as well-sourced as official gifts.

　　The reporter visited Lancome, Hailan Mystery, Helena and other counters, and the sales staff all said that the sample can only be provided for free, while stocks last.

"The counter has strict quantity control on the samples, and it is impossible to outflow in large quantities. But it does not rule out that someone illegally sells them to the agent for the second time." A staff member of the Lancome counter said that an employee had previously detained the samples privately and was discovered by the L'Oréal Group. Fired directly afterwards.

　　"There are generally two types of bulk sources in the industry. One is that the purchasing agent obtains a certain percentage of free sample quotas after purchasing large quantities of genuine products from the counters, and then sells them at prices ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan. The counters can also complete the performance. Be willing to cooperate. Second, big-name distributors directly ration to agents, but international brands are generally very strict." Li Ni, who has been engaged in beauty marketing in Shenzhen for many years, introduced.

　　So where do the large number of samples in the HARMAY Meimen Store come from?

In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Huamei said that the goods sold in the store, whether it is formal or small-volume products, are purchased by a professional purchasing team through formal channels.

The staff in the store also said that the samples and counters sold in the store have cooperation.

However, L'Oréal clearly denied the authorization: “Most of the Group’s products will be launched in small samples, which are mainly given to consumers as gifts in sales. Except for the small beauty box, our company does not authorize any distributors to sell product samples separately."

　　It is worth noting that on January 28, Only Write, a beauty collection store in Hangzhou Kerry Center, was reported by consumers as suspected of “smuggling”.

The local market supervision bureau contacted the customs department to assist in the investigation. Nearly 3,000 suspected smuggled cosmetics were detained in the store, most of which were samples of big-name cosmetics.

Who is responsible for the quality of "not for sale"

　　The reporter noticed that the sample packages sold in the HARMAY Huamei store were all printed with the words "not for sale", but a price tag was affixed separately.

Regarding these commodity pricing standards that were originally not for sale, the relevant person in charge of the store responded: "It is not possible to disclose the core business model for the time being."

　　In addition to suspected improper gains, merchants selling samples of "not for sale", more importantly, there are hidden quality and safety hazards due to unknown sources.

Li Ni revealed that cosmetics companies rarely set up special production lines for samples, and the original samples are often out of stock. No matter how the samples are purchased, the supply is definitely not stable, and it is difficult to support large-scale sales.

　　On major e-commerce platforms, samples of brand-name cosmetics are also being sold at attractive prices, and many merchants also specifically mark "support for inspection at counters."

However, the reporter visited the counters of many shopping malls and learned that the samples are "not for sale" and the counters do not provide identification services.

Consumers who purchase the samples separately cannot complain to the brand for rights protection once they encounter quality problems.

　　The reporter noticed that the Tmall platform’s newly released "Tmall Sample Product Release Specification" has officially taken effect, and it clearly requires merchants to provide sample purchase certificates for review, but whether this platform regulation can truly exert a binding force on merchants It remains to be seen.

For cosmetic samples that are popular online and offline, it is clear that more stringent market supervision measures are needed.