Nowadays, cross-border e-commerce has become a new driving force for the development of the beauty industry. However, for many beauty buyers, standing out in the fierce market competition, optimizing procurement costs, and improving profit margins are undoubtedly enormous challenges.  This article aims to deeply explore the cost optimization strategy of cross-border beauty procurement from multiple dimensions, hoping to provide practical and professional guidance for beauty buyers.

1. Price comparison strategy
When procuring cross-border beauty products, price comparison is a crucial part. To ensure product quality control, purchasers should seek multiple suppliers for product comparison and price negotiation. This strategy is especially critical at the beginning of the purchase. Although the price advantage may not be obvious for small batch products, the cost savings brought by price comparison will be very significant for long-term stable large batch purchases.

In order to continuously optimize procurement costs, buyers should regularly add some new suppliers to participate in price comparison, which can maintain the competitive pressure between suppliers and help buyers to obtain market dynamics and price changes timely.

2. Optimize product weight and volume
In cross-border beauty procurement, product weight and volume directly impact logistics costs, so the good management of these two aspects become the key to reducing procurement costs. Since we buy finished products from brands, we cannot change the design of the products themselves, but we can optimize costs through smart sourcing and logistics strategies.

Firstly, the purchasing team should analyze the weight and volume of each product in detail in order to make more informed decisions when purchasing. Knowing the weight and dimensions of different products can help buyers plan freight space more efficiently, thereby avoiding waste and unnecessary extra costs.

Furthermore, establish a good communication mechanism with brand owners in order to obtain product update information in time. If a brand releases a new version of a product, it may adjust the weight or volume, which is critical information for buyers to adjust their purchasing plans and logistics strategies.

Moreover, buyers can consider adopting a combination purchasing strategy, that is, purchasing multiple products at the same time to make full use of freight space. Through a reasonable product mix, space waste in air or sea transportation can be reduced, thereby reducing the logistics cost per product unit.

3. Select materials to reduce costs
When purchasing beauty products with brands, an in-depth understanding of the material and use value of the products is an essential step in optimizing costs. While buyers are not directly involved in the selection of raw materials and product design, understanding the factors behind these can help them make more informed purchasing decisions.

Firstly, buyers should understand the impact of different materials on product cost and performance. Some high-end materials may increase the procurement cost of the product, but at the same time, they may also increase the market appeal and price of the product. By weighing these factors, buyers can decide if it is worth paying the extra cost for these high-value materials.

Secondly, it is crucial to build long-term relationships with brands and foster trust. In this way, buyers can more easily obtain detailed information about product materials, including aspects such as origin, quality and sustainability. This information helps buyers assess the true value of the product and negotiate better prices and terms.

In addition, buyers can also understand the use value of products through market research and consumers feedback. Understanding consumers preferences for different materials and characteristics can help buyers more select products that are popular in the market. These can help reduce the risk of inventory overstocking and slow sales.

4. Packaging with a reasonable design
Product packaging is a part of beauty procurement that cannot be ignored. Excessive packaging will increase products’ costs and cause a waste of logistics resources. Therefore, the purchaser should reasonably design the product packaging according to the characteristics and transportation requirements of the product. To be more specific, in order to determine the carton size, the inner packaging size can be determined based on the freight difference between the different weight segments. This refined packaging design strategy can effectively reduce packaging and logistics costs while ensuring the safe transportation of products.

To sum up, cost optimization is a systematic project, which requires buyers to make comprehensive considerations from multiple aspects such as price comparison strategy, product weight and volume, material selection and product packaging. Only by continuous exploration and practice can we be in an invincible position in the fierce market competition, so that we can continuously optimize the procurement costs and improve the profit margins.