New | China’s ‘replacement shopping’ business suffers as customs tightens checks on imported goods
Stepped-up enforcement of import regulations may spell the end to some ‘daigou’ overseas online shopping agents’ careers
China’s tightening of customs inspections on imported goods bought by individual shoppers is expected to deal a blow to its massive “daigou” industry, the practice of shopping on behalf of someone else.
Office lady Chen Xin, from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has been working as a daigou, or shopping agent, in her leisure time for three years now. Each month, she buys several boxes of cosmetics and personal care products from Amazon and other shopping websites in Japan, the United States and Britain, and resells them to others at prices 10 to 15 per cent higher.
In September, Chen made the same purchases on shopping sites in Japan and Britain, buying five boxes of shampoo, bath oils and cosmetics. But this time, her goods ended up stuck in the city’s customs office, with the logistics company saying only that all the packages were “under customs checks”.
What I bought cost just 3,000 yuan. How is it that they are charging me 50 per cent tax?
After a month-long wait, Chen finally received a call from her local post office last Friday, informing her to pick up the parcels. But she was told to pay nearly 1,500 yuan (HK$1,800) on personal postal articles taxes.
“This never happened before,” she said. “What I bought cost just 3,000 yuan. How is it that they are charging me 50 per cent tax?”
Just once or twice over the past three years, Chen said, she was charged a 10 per cent duty on the claimed price of the products. And the delivery period was never longer than about two weeks, whether the goods were arriving from Europe or North America, she said.
“With such high taxes, it’s impossible for me to find buyers. I have no choice but to return the goods to the sellers,” Chen said.
