Dialogue With General Manager Of Mingtong Cosmetics Market

"There are Zhongguancun in the north and Huaqiangbei in the south." China's two most representative e-market commercial streets have achieved transformation. With the decline of profits in the electronic industry, Huaqiangbei, which has the title of "the first street of China's electronics", has also encountered a cold winter. As one of Huaqiangbei's largest electronic and communication product stores, in March 2017, Mingtong digital city began to march into the beauty industry. Now it has become a weathervane of Huaqiangbei's transformation, leading a number of Huaqiangbei digital shopping malls to turn to the beauty market.

Recently, Lin Xu, the manager of Mingtong cosmetics market and general manager of Shenzhen Mingtong Commercial Management Co., Ltd., received an exclusive interview with the 21st century economic report to analyze why Mingtong digital city had to transform the beauty industry at the beginning, and how to get a share of the beauty market.

Cross border transformation of new runway

21st century: Mingtong digital city has been brilliant in the market. Why can't this professional accessory Market persist?

Lin Xu: any industry will encounter bottlenecks, but we have never thought about this industry. The more difficult it is to go down in the cold winter. The reason why the professional mobile phone accessories market can't go down is that the mobile phone battery and case can be replaced before, but now all of them are built-in, which leads to the industry from 100 categories to one. On the other hand, now that one Bluetooth covers all mobile phones, there is no need to buy different data lines.

21st century: what transformation explorations have you made before and after the crisis in that industry?

Lin Xu: Huaqiangbei's mobile phone industry began to decline from 2010 to 2011, including the decline of the electronic market. At that time, we were also thinking about what market Shenzhen lacked and wanted to turn to the professional market that Shenzhen lacked. At that time, we had considered the interest market, but we thought that the interest market might conflict with the traditional Chinese cultural background, so we could only continue to look for new directions, such as smart wear. In 2016, wechat began to be introduced. At that time, there were more categories of wechat businesses, including cosmetics, accessories, household goods, etc.

But many industries are short-lived, not long-term. At the end of the year, many businesses withdrew.

21st century: the transformation of cosmetics market is quite different from the previous format of Mingtong. Why is there such a big change?

Lin Xu: we should see that Huaqiangbei has its history and advantages. Huaminbei is a well-known electronic component market in China, so it is also a strong market for China's electronic components. We often visit the surrounding areas, including markets of different formats across the country.

It is found that in the cosmetics industry, when the whole market is experiencing a cold winter, 10 cosmetics shops doing cross-border e-commerce are living well. This proves that they have a way to survive and that they have vitality. So we started to do market research from this point. Although the cosmetics we are making today are not related to our previous formats, we have also fully understood the industry information, including the development process of their enterprises.

21st century: compared with the electronic market, how long do you think the window period of cosmetics is? Will cosmetics encounter the same dilemma as electronic products?

Lin Xu: I think the cycle of cosmetics may be longer than that of mobile phone accessories. There are many categories of their products. At present, the demand of consumers is constantly improving. From the age of 10 to 80, different cosmetics can be used in each year. Cosmetics are evolving every year. Unless there is great progress in science and technology in the future, if you give an injection in the face, you don't have to do anything for a year. If you have everything you should have, it may impact on cosmetics. If not, I think this industry has a long life.

Differentiation breaking through market melee

How to break through the market differentiation in the 21st century? Does the experience of e-market help Mingtong establish itself in the cosmetics market?

Lin Xu: the management of the market includes the characteristics of the market. Whether it is electronic or mobile phone, cosmetics or tea market, it is just that the fields are different. Although the management mode and promotion operation are different, they are actually the same. Electronic products are updated and fashionable, and cosmetics are also fashionable.

"21st century": the duty-free market and tax market of beauty industry have a very complete supply and marketing system. In fact, the duty-free cosmetics in Mingtong market earn a price difference. Now the country is constantly reducing the tariff. How much vitality can your market survive when the price difference space is getting smaller and smaller?

Lin Xu: direct mail shops have their own advantages. Because some consumers are looking for cross-border businesses and don't like to buy Chinese labels, cross-border businesses have their own customers. In addition to cross-border trade, there is a business form in our market, mainly for general trade goods. Many Hong Kong importers and exporters come here to set up outlets. In addition, we are also providing pilot demonstration and advertising for Korean and Japanese manufacturers. For example, bening green, including snow show and so on. Their manufacturers are not in China. They already have their own distribution system. They just display rather than sell.

21st century: what is the proportion of exhibition halls?

Lin Xu: about 10%. There are many brands in the cosmetics market. There are at least tens of thousands of brands in South Korea, among which quite a number of domestic consumers do not know. The exhibition hall that we provide is like a live advertisement, and it is very cost-effective. They can directly connect with domestic sales channels.

21st century: a lot of Mingtong's goods come from overseas duty-free market, and your scale is growing. Does it have an impact on other duty-free stores in China?

Lin Xu: there should be no impact. There are people in every channel, such as duty-free shops. There are people in duty-free shops. The shops here also have many customers of their own, with different positioning. As a market, we do not interfere in the operation and format of shops, but only collect rents.

What's more, we can only guarantee that everything in the market is genuine. All cosmetics will be fined 10% if they are fake. This is my promise to consumers.

In the past, there was also a cosmetics market in Guangzhou, but they made false labels and made bad reputation. When we saw their shortcomings, we decided to insist on maintaining the market here, and fake businesses and shops would enter the blacklist of the market. Only in this way can consumers be assured of consumption and the market will have great vitality.

In addition, there are more and more opportunities for you to visit the Japanese and American cosmetics market in the 21st century? How to break through the competition?

Lin Xu: the competitiveness of coastal areas is still very strong. But I never think about competitors because they are not under my control. Our professional market never consider how other people's market is. As long as we learn from other people's good things, you should not doubt others, do not question others, and do not consider what kind of influence others can have on you. The situation of each regional market is different and there is no comparability.

Now we also want to introduce domestic first-line brands, because the cycle of China's cosmetics industry is too short. Many raw materials are supplied by China to foreign countries. We do not have our own brands or big national brands. In the next step, we want to introduce some well done brands in China, let them set up stores here and introduce the cosmetics industry chain.

We will gradually diversify in the future. I won't do it. Sooner or later, others will do it. I have to stand in this position first.

Duty free shops, your competitors are rising in Shenzhen

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