This year's Double 11 has been a turmoil. Fans in Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room were stabbed by the brand, and then they were involved in controversy due to the "clearing of inventory" in the live broadcast room. After many consumers purchased goods at full price, they discovered that what they got was an expired product. This discussion also brought the long-standing but marginal field of "expired goods" into the public eye.
Author|Yaqin
For a long time, except for beverages, snacks and other products related to food safety, consumers have not had much awareness of expired products. In the retail chain, the processing process of expired goods is also far away from the sales terminal and is not paid attention to by the public.
However, with the changes in consumer demand and market environment, in recent years, goods on expiry date have gradually got rid of the old model of scattered processing and began to enter the market in the form of independent business formats. With the emergence of new business formats, new problems have also arisen: the mixed sale of fake goods, date tampering, and "fake" expiration dates have emerged, casting a new shadow on this market where it is already difficult to build trust.
1. “Invisible” products that are due soon
In the retail industry, expired products are an unavoidable problem for all merchants. Whether it is food, daily necessities, cosmetics or electrical appliances, inventory that is approaching its expiration date may be produced due to overproduction or deviations in sales plans. Once a product approaches its shelf life, its market value will shrink significantly. For merchants, how to efficiently handle these assets that are about to depreciate has become an important part of operations.
Because of this, e-commerce promotion nodes such as Double 11 and 618, where consumers concentrate on stocking up, naturally become key opportunities for merchants to clear inventory. And top anchors with strong market appeal like Li Jiaqi are a key channel for brands to quickly digest inventory.
Under normal circumstances, the processing methods for expired products include the following: attracting consumers to buy through discounts and price reductions; bundling gifts into normal products; processing through employee internal purchases, charity donations, or event sponsorships. If the above method still cannot be digested, it will eventually be destroyed and scrapped. For dealers, goods that are not sold near the shelf life can generally be returned to the manufacturer as agreed in the contract, or processed through internal discount channels.
Different categories of expired goods are handled differently. Because food is directly related to consumers' health, the handling process is more standardized. Unsold expired food is generally used as feed ingredients, composted or used as energy.
Take mooncakes as an example. A large amount of mooncakes in stock produced after the Mid-Autumn Festival every year will be recycled to factories, and the packaging may be reused. The mooncakes themselves will undergo special processing: first, the appearance will be damaged to prevent them from returning to the market, and then they will be recycled by professional companies for use as feed. Some companies will also directly destroy them under the supervision of a third party. Of course, in addition to standardized processing, there are also some unscrupulous merchants who will sell expired food or even expired goods with falsified production dates to remote areas where supervision is relatively weak.
The treatment in the field of home appliances is slightly special. Because home appliances themselves are prone to inventory backlogs, in addition to being scrapped if stored for too long, some products in stock will be re-launched with new production dates after parts replacement. However, it is difficult for consumers to notice these "refreshed" home appliances that have been relaunched on the market.
In 2023, the Beijing News reported that A.O. Smith changed the packaging and nameplates of tens of thousands of recovered inventory products and then shipped them with new dates for sale without disclosing the truth to consumers. This is also a common practice in the home appliance industry.
Although there is no strict concept of shelf life in the clothing industry, out-of-season products are usually disposed of through discount channels, outlets or label-cutting stores. Some even change their trademarks and re-launch under other brands, including reselling them at lower prices to lower-tier markets in third- and fourth-tier cities.
Generally speaking, consumers face different degrees of information asymmetry in different categories: in the food field, they can still make limited choices by checking the date; durable consumer goods such as home appliances may face the risk of the production date being "refreshed"; and categories without clear aging marks make it even more difficult for consumers to make judgments. In addition, the popularity of online shopping channels has increased the probability of consumers coming into contact with expired products. Unlike offline, where you can check the date independently, online shopping allows consumers to invisibly transfer this part of their right to know.
Many consumers have had similar experiences: For example, when buying short-term products such as yogurt in offline supermarkets, they will habitually compare all the dates of the same product and repeatedly select the freshest batch. Because there are always some expired products mixed in, and if you are not careful, you may buy products that are about to expire at the same price.
When consumers purchase daily necessities, food, medicines and other commodities on e-commerce platforms, they have a higher chance of receiving expired products. These products, which are not easy to be selected in offline scenarios, have become "passive receivers" for consumers online. When consumers find problems and give feedback, merchants often compensate by issuing coupons or cash red envelopes. Some consumers will accept this approach, but some consumers insist on returning or replacing products with updated dates. This process also consumes consumers' time and energy.
*Picture source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
From the perspective of commercial efficiency, various online channels not only provide consumers with shopping convenience, enrich platform choices, and improve distribution efficiency, but also build efficient "inventory digestion channels" for merchants, which greatly facilitates merchants' inventory circulation.
2. From marginal market to big business
For a long time in the past, inventory digestion through e-commerce channels was only ancillary to the company's daily operations and did not form an independent business model. This was also the norm in the impending commodity market.
However, with the rapid rise of professional last-minute discount stores such as Haote Deals and Hi Te Gou, the last-minute merchandise track has experienced a "qualitative change" in recent years. People began to realize that this originally marginal market had grown into an independent and profitable new business, and a large number of individual entrepreneurs followed suit and participated by opening community discount stores or setting up flexible stalls.
*Picture source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
According to previous reports by The Paper, the comprehensive gross profit margin of temporary discount stores can reach 50%. An entrepreneur once revealed to the media that a small store of less than 20 square meters can easily exceed 10,000 yuan in daily turnover, with a gross profit margin of about 70% and a net profit margin of 40%.
In addition to physical stores and stalls, platforms specializing in integrating temporary food products have also emerged. For example, the "Food Cherish Magic Bag" sells expired food in the form of a "blind box". Consumers pay online and pick up at the store after making an appointment. It covers categories such as baking, light meals, drinks, etc. The price is mostly 30 to 40% off the original price, and is very popular among young people.
Online channels are also actively deployed. The JD.com platform has specially set up a "temporary clearance area" with a wider range of categories than offline, covering snacks, grains, oils and dairy products, wine and beverages, beauty products and daily necessities. This special area has attracted the attention of more than 1.9 million people and has become an important entrance for online sales of upcoming products. On the Taobao and Tmall platforms, there are also a large number of specialty stores with keywords such as "expiry date" and "discount" directly in their names, mainly selling food and daily necessities.
On social platforms such as Xiaohongshu, some merchants promote expired products as part of their business. At the same time, there are many posts on the platform seeking to purchase products that are on the verge of expiry. Buyers who specialize in purchasing products on expiry date are also active, forming a small C2C trading circle.
With the rapid development of the industry, it seems that expired products have got rid of the hidden processing methods in the past and moved towards scale and platform. However, this new business has also seen a lot of chaos. On the Black Cat complaint platform, there have been a total of 16,000 complaints related to "imminent deadlines".
The media has exposed many related cases. For example, the Haoteai store was exposed to selling counterfeit toiletries. It was reported that after purchasing the counterfeit products, it distributed them to other supermarkets under the names of "low-priced genuine products" and "factory direct sales." Earlier, Haoteemai was fined 7,000 yuan for selling expired chocolates.
"Yangcheng Evening News" also revealed last year that there is a trap of "immediate discounts" on big-name skin care products on the Xiaohongshu platform. Some merchants sell fake products at low prices in the name of "immediate tax exemption". Some consumers finally succeeded in returning the products for refunds with third-party appraisal certificates.
Even in JD.com's self-operated "Immediate Clearance Zone", consumers have encountered problems such as incorrect goods and misleading prices. According to Jingzhe Research Institute's observation, some of the products in this section marked as "Immediate" actually do not meet the "Immediate" standards. According to relevant regulations, food with a shelf life of greater than or equal to one year will be considered expired 45 days before expiration. Take Ora2 toothpaste in the special area as an example. Its shelf life is until January 25, 2027, which is nearly one year and three months before expiration. The group price is 14.9 yuan, and the individual purchase price is 17.9 yuan, which is higher than the same product in Jingdong Supermarket (15.9 yuan) without an expiry date.
*Picture source: JD.com APP screenshot
Currently, a series of systemic problems have emerged in the market for goods on expiry date: low-priced fakes are sold as goods on expiry date, expired goods are tampered with with the date and used as goods on expiration date, and the price difference between some so-called "expiry date" goods and normal goods is weak or even inverted. These phenomena have also become new hidden chaos in the upcoming commodity market. In addition to these visible problems, there may be more hidden corners that have not yet been exposed.
3. Be transparent and avoid tricks.
Demand determines supply. The ability of expired products to become an independent business essentially reflects consumers’ real demand for cost-effective products. Behind this is a rational shift in public consumption concepts: more and more people no longer equate "imminent expiration" with "inferior quality", but have learned to make more pragmatic purchasing choices within the shelf life.
Young consumer groups are particularly receptive to this model. From snacks and beverages to beauty and personal care products, there are many traces of their consumption in all kinds of consumer goods. The reason why they take the initiative to choose products that are due to expire is because of their effective balance between price and quality. This rational consumption mentality has not only laid a solid market foundation for the industry, but has also become an important reason for attracting the influx of a large number of market entities, thereby promoting the gradual transition of expired goods from marginalized "processing channels" to the popular consumption track.
Of course, the healthy development of "monopoly sales" of expired goods must be based on the premise of transparent information and reasonable pricing. If consumers, under information asymmetry, purchase expired goods at a price close to the regular price, or even passively receive expired products, or buy expired goods or fake goods, then the fairness of the transaction will no longer exist.
In this process, credibility and quality assurance become key. Consumers are attracted to "last-minute sales" because they are attracted by the trust and endorsement built by "genuine products at low prices + self-operated products on the platform". However, if consumers encounter problems such as unclear price differences or even buying fake products on the platform, and the platform fails to strictly control products to ensure user experience, it is essentially just consuming its long-term accumulated reputation assets.
Judging from various current industry phenomena, in the increasingly popular business of temporary goods, some merchants only regard "immediate period" as a label to attract traffic. In actual operations, they confuse the public and deceive consumers. This not only destroys the market ecology, but also seriously overdraws the trust foundation of the entire industry.
In fact, expired goods should be a potential market with win-win potential for all parties. For manufacturers, it can effectively reduce inventory pressure and reduce capital occupation; for consumers, they can obtain products of comparable quality at a lower cost; from a social perspective, it helps reduce resource waste and improve commodity circulation efficiency. Taking the food industry as an example, data shows that my country's expiry food market has reached 33.7 billion yuan in 2022, and is expected to exceed 40.1 billion yuan in 2025. If inventory can be revitalized legally and compliantly, the expiring market will undoubtedly release considerable economic and social value.
It is true that it is difficult to completely eliminate chaos in any emerging industry, but effective means can still be used to reduce the probability of its occurrence. For consumers, try to choose formal channels to purchase. Although it cannot completely avoid risks, it can significantly reduce the possibility of problems. At the same time, they should also be more vigilant about products with outrageous price reductions and carefully screen them to avoid actual losses caused by being greedy for cheap.
The various chaos exposed in reality also reflect that there are still loopholes in many links from the source of the supply chain, platform review to regional supervision. For expired goods to truly realize their potential, a more transparent market environment needs to be established. For example, the platform should strengthen the disclosure of product information to ensure that consumers can clearly understand key information such as production date and shelf life when purchasing; supervision links can also introduce more detailed standards, clearly requiring the labeling of "expiry date" signs, and regulating terminal sales behavior.
Only when transactions are based on information symmetry and voluntary mutual benefit can expired goods achieve a truly efficient and sustainable cycle.