Imported Cosmetics in China Are Much Expensive Than That in US
One colleague traveled to Shanghai yesterday, and we had a dinner with some other colleagues in the Super Brand Mall tonight. The Japanese style BBQ was very delicious and we had a happy time together.
I had asked this colleague to buy three bottles of Clinique lotion for me, each costs $24 and tax-free. After the dinner, we saw a Sephora (a shop sells cosmetics) at the entrance of the mall. We just walked around and found that the price of the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion with Pump is 460RMB (about $67), almost 3 times expensive.
You can see that the price difference is very large, hence there is a new business called purchasing agent. Some people that travel abroad frequently (like airhostess）will buy these kind of stuffs back and sell them, mostly through internet, such as Taobao.com. Some of them can make a lot of money with this new business, especially in Shanghai and Beijing.
Imported cosmetics are treated as luxury goods in China, and the tariff rate on Import cosmetic is 50%. This may be one of the reasons that they are much expensive in China. We also know that Haagen Dazs is a common ice cream in US, while in China, it costs 25 RMB (about $4) for a single ball.
The product prices in China are much higher than that in US or many other countries. As China is a developing country and people’s income is much lower than those developed countries, I don’t think these prices difference is a normal phenomenon.
