中國香港的另類羣體 掀起奢侈品代購熱

May Liu earns about $2,500 a month as an office worker in Hong Kong, but she spends about 10 to 15 times that on luxury goods, buying everything from Prada handbags to products from US cosmetic brand Fresh.

May Liu是一名在香港工作的辦公室文員，每月收入約2500美元，但她在奢侈品上的花費是這一金額的10至15倍，購買的產品從普拉達(Prada)的手袋到美國馥蕾詩(Fresh)的化妝品無所不包。

While Ms Liu loves shopping, she buys mostly for others in her role as a “daigou” agent – a growing breed of people who specialise in helping mainland Chinese consumers secure products from overseas.

雖然May Liu喜歡購物，但她主要是作爲一名“代購”幫別人買東西——作爲一個人數日漸增長的羣體，代購專門幫助中國內地顧客從境外購買商品。

She started her daigou business a year ago as a way to earn more money, but the young mainland Chinese was soon bringing in up to $10,000 a month. Ms Liu now has about 2,600 clients, who use Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter, and WeChat, a messaging app, to order goods.

她一年前開始從事代購業務，以增加收入，但不久之後，這位來自中國內地的年輕人每月最高就可進賬一萬美元。May Liu現在約有2600名客戶，這些客戶通過微博（Weibo，相當於中國的推特(Twitter)）以及聊天應用微信(WeChat)來下單訂購商品。

“I didn’t know how much money I would make. I didn’t have any expectation of profits,” says Ms Liu, who asked to use a pseudonym. “I only knew it would be profitable.”

May Liu要求使用化名。她說：“我不知道自己能賺到多少錢。我對利潤沒有任何預期。我只知道這一行能賺錢。”

She has not given up her day job, realising that being a daigou agent, while highly profitable, can also be illegal.

她沒有辭去正職工作，因爲她明白，代購這一行雖然利潤豐厚，但可能是違法違規的。

Some agents focus on ferrying goods from Hong Kong to mainland China.

一些代購專門從事將商品從香港代送到中國內地的業務。

But the web-based phenomenon has spread to expatriate Chinese who are help compatriots back home buy brands from cities such as Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul.

但這一興起於網絡的現象現已擴散到了旅居海外的中國僑胞羣體，他們幫助國內同胞從巴黎、倫敦、紐約、香港、東京以及首爾等城市購買名牌商品。

The daigou boom is an example of how ecommerce is rapidly transforming the Chinese retail market.

代購熱潮是一個明證，表明電子商務正在快速改變中國零售市場的面貌。

According to Chinese media, there are hundreds of thousands of people working in the daigou business. A search for the term on Alibaba’s Taobao, China’s largest online marketplace, produces more than 240,000 virtual stores and nearly 15m items from child car seats through air purifiers to pocket printers.

據中國媒體報道，目前有好幾十萬人在從事代購業務。在阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下網站淘寶(Taobao)上搜索“代購”一詞，會顯示出超過24萬個網絡店鋪以及近1500萬種商品，從兒童汽車座椅、空氣淨化器到便攜式打印機無所不包。淘寶是中國最大的在線交易平臺。

The China e-Commerce Research Centre says the daigou market grew 19-fold between 2008 and 2012 when it reached Rmb48bn, and reckons that it rose again in 2013 to Rmb74bn ($12bn). According to a recent study by Bain, about 60 per cent of the Chinese consumers who buy luxury goods have used daigou at some point.

中國電子商務研究中心(China e-Commerce Research Centre)表示，代購市場在2008至2012年間增長了19倍，規模達到了人民幣480億元，2013年代購市場繼續增長，規模達到了人民幣740億元（合120億美元）。貝恩公司(Bain & Company)近期進行的一項研究顯示，約有60%的中國奢侈品消費者曾經使用過代購服務。

The business is thriving for several reasons. Many Chinese believe the same product is better made when bought overseas because of the mainland’s uneven reputation for quality.

代購行業蓬勃發展主要是由於以下幾個原因。很多中國人認爲，同一種產品，購自海外的質量會好一點，因爲中國大陸的產品有着質量不穩定的名聲。

The rising strength of the renminbi, the growing purchasing power of Chinese consumers, and high-profile food safety scandals in China, have also spurred demand for safe and high-quality foreign products.

人民幣匯率穩步走強，中國消費者的購買力不斷提升，中國食品安全醜聞引起公衆關注，也都刺激了市場對安全性高、質量又好的外國產品的需求。

Mo Daiqing, an analyst at the e-commerce research centre, says the main reason Chinese are turning to daigou is because of hefty import tariffs on luxury goods. China levies a 50 per cent duty on cosmetics, one of the dominant daigou categories, and that is before the imposition of the standard 17 per cent value added tax that is added to imported luxury products.

中國電子商務研究中心的分析師莫岱青表示，中國消費者轉向代購的主要原因是，國內對奢侈品的進口關稅太高。目前中國對化妝品徵收50%的關稅（這是代購商品中的一大主要門類），而在此之後還要再對進口奢侈品按標準徵收17%的增值稅。

“The same brands of milk powder, cosmetics and handbags are much cheaper in Hong Kong, the US, Japan and South Korea than in mainland China,” said Ms Mo.

莫岱青表示：“同樣品牌的奶粉、化妝品以及手袋，在香港、美國以及韓國買的要比在中國大陸便宜很多。”

But the industry is increasingly drawing attention from customs officials in mainland China and Hong Kong, particularly with the rising numbers of so-called parallel traders who take advantage of multi-entry visas to cross the border at the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen many times a day, carrying products for resale that they do not declare at customs.

但代購行業正日益受到中國內地和香港海關官員的關注，特別是人數越來越多的“水客”(parallel traders)。這類人利用一簽多行政策，在中國南方城市深圳每日穿越邊境多次，將所攜帶的未報關商品在境內轉手出售。

Dong Yizhi, a lawyer who specialises in ecommerce, points out that the daigou business is not illegal if the agents pay import taxes, but says that if agents pay duties the premise of the business becomes moot.

專長電商領域的律師董毅智指出，如果代購人員支付進口關稅，那麼代購業務就不是違法的；但在這種情況下，代購將失去存在的意義。

“If they pay customs duties, the price disparities will be much smaller and they won’t make money,” said Mr Dong.

董毅智表示：“如果代購支付關稅，國內外商品的差價將顯著縮窄，代購就賺不了什麼錢。”

Chinese citizens can legally import Rmb5,000 ($823) of duty-free goods for personal use each time they return to the mainland. But Shenzhen customs officers are taking a tougher line on parallel traders who cross the border back into the mainland more than once a day with goods over the value of Rmb500.

中國公民從境外返回中國大陸時，每次可以依法攜帶價值不超過人民幣5000元（合823美元）的免稅商品供個人使用。但深圳海關對每天往返境內超過一次的水客採取了更加嚴厲的標準：每次攜帶的免稅貨品價值不得超過人民幣500元。

Liu Lizhen, a Shenzhen customs official, said the move was aimed at clamping down on the abuse of the multiple re-entry system.

深圳海關官員劉麗珍（音譯）表示，此舉旨在打擊濫用多次往返簽證機制的情況。

This has become a more serious issue in Hong Kong since 2009 when it started allowing Shenzhen permanent residents to enter the former British colony without restrictions.

自2009年以來，水客在香港已經成了一個愈發嚴重的問題。香港自2009年開始允許深圳市永久居民不限次數前往這片曾經的英屬殖民地。

“We once found a person who had crossed the border 26 times a day,” said Ms Liu.

劉麗珍稱：“我們曾經發現過一個人，他在一天之內穿越邊境26次。”

According to the Shenzhen customs bureau, more than 20,000 parallel traders operate at the six land border checkpoints between Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city.

來自深圳海關的信息顯示，在香港與深圳之間的6個陸路口岸往返的水客數量超過了兩萬人。

Hong Kong’s immigration department said just over a thousand parallel traders were arrested last year for breaching the terms of their stay in the territory.

香港入境事務處表示，去年超過1000名水客因爲違反在香港境內的逗留條款而被逮捕。

Despite the crackdown, May Liu, the daigou agent, says she is not worried, and still travels to Shenzhen a few times a week.

雖然面臨政府打壓，但作爲一名代購的May Liu表示自己並不擔心，仍然每週數次前往深圳。

“Carrying so much stuff across the border every time provides me with a lot of exercise. I don’t even have to go to the gym,” jokes Ms Liu.

她開玩笑稱：“每次帶這麼多東西穿越邊境對我來說是強度很大的鍛鍊。我甚至都不用去健身房了。”

‘Brands are much cheaper in Hong Kong, the US, Japan and South Korea than China’

“名牌商品在香港、美國、日本以及韓國的售價遠比在中國內地便宜。”