Consumption has entered an era of comprehensive discounting, where discounting does not mean absolute low prices but rather all brands are squeezing out premium bubbles. Amid promotion fatigue, cautious consumption, and low-price competition, the Double 11 brand rankings across platforms are largely stable with lackluster growth, with only niche emerging categories like outdoor and men's, as well as cost-effective domestic brands and industrial belt brands, standing out. Proya surpassed foreign brands to become No.1 in Tmall beauty, and together with Hanhoo became TOP2 in Douyin e-commerce beauty. This change is set against the backdrop of domestic consumers gradually disenchanted with high-end international brands since last year, shifting to domestic skincare brands with mid-range pricing and similar functional ingredients. In the current consumption environment, more cost-effective domestic brands are once again favored by consumers. Tmall and Taobao's newly added store popularity ranking (based on cumulative transaction count) features a large number of domestic brands and white-label products. For example, snack industrial belt merchant Bibizan ranked third in the food popularity ranking, second only to Three Squirrels and McDonald's. The resurgence of cost-effective domestic brands differs from the previous wave of big-brand alternatives driven by supply chain and consumption entrepreneurship; the shift in consumer demand plays a more fundamental role—changes in the external economic environment have made consumers more rational and cautious. Source factory guides on social platforms have narrowed the information gap between consumers and supply chains, making it transparent which products are white-labeled and which are original. Channel competition around price is also intensifying: JD.com leverages Li Jiaqi to promote its low-price procurement capabilities; some influencers unabashedly mention "breaking prices" and "comparable prices across the internet"; Tmall uses order volume as a key indicator for Double 11, whereas previously Tmall was a benchmark channel for brands to set tone and anchor prices, but this year the platform basically does not give traffic to price-maintaining products; even Hema, a representative of new retail, is fully discounting and clearing out many brands. Consumers have ample space to carefully calculate and more precisely weigh whether a product is worth it, which categories to buy on which platform with what mechanism to get the best deal, which categories can be bought cheaply, and which need to be bought expensive. A summary of consumer characteristics is: prefer cheap ones, can buy expensive ones, but absolutely cannot be overcharged. Channel low-price competition and consumers' enthusiasm for price comparison have greatly increased the difficulty of brand price management. Price management itself is a major industry challenge, and in the fierce low-price competition among channels, it is even more difficult to prevent. The price disputes between Xinba and Mousse mattress, and JD.com and Haishi are examples. To cope with such a competitive environment, it has become standard practice for brands to adapt to each channel's price and characteristics with differentiated products and specifications. Some brands, especially high-priced ones, simply avoid promotions altogether and do not participate in any price promotions. Behind the brand rankings and platform strategy changes, a more macro change is that consumption has entered an era of comprehensive discounting, where discounting does not mean absolute low prices but rather all brands need to squeeze out premium or inefficient bubbles to adapt to the increasingly competitive consumption environment. The brand landscape will thus be reshaped. In mass categories that emphasize use value, consumers are unwilling to pay for high marketing expenses, inefficient supply chains, or costs from dispensable innovation selling points. This objectively benefits merchants that can reduce intermediate costs and provide high cost-performance products—such as industrial belt white-label brands with supply chain advantages and leading brands with scale advantages. "How to become China's Uniqlo" has become a core proposition for some leading brands. But this does not mean high-end brands have no room to survive; they just need to provide clearer and more specific reasons to convince consumers why the brand is worth the price. The baseline is product quality related to use value, and raw material ingredients, scientific research professionalism, and cost structure all need to face stricter scrutiny from consumers. The added value is the emotional and social value that users are willing to pay for. In this process, brands that lack both cost-effectiveness and justification for high pricing, without supply chain and brand accumulation, and without stable sales and cash flow, will be naturally eliminated by channels, consumers, and peers. This will be the definitive direction of consumption industry evolution. Rise of White-Label Branding The current consumption environment brings development opportunities to supply chain and industrial belt merchants. These merchants naturally have cost and efficiency advantages in the supply chain, and without high-cost marketing, distribution, or operational expenses, they can squeeze out some brand premium and become alternatives. Consumers' awareness of white-label products is also improving; they no longer equate white-label with counterfeit or low-quality products, actively seeking alternatives from big-brand OEM factories, such as finding lululemon's same factory on 1688. 1688's "1688 Selection" launched last year focuses on big-brand OEM factories. They also purchase origin products, such as home textiles from Nantong, children's clothing from Zhili, and accessories from Yiwu. To cater to the consumption downgrade trend and build low-price capabilities, platforms have increased support for industrial belts this year. For example, Douyin e-commerce established a department dedicated to serving industrial belt merchants; Taobao and Tmall's "Thousand Stars Plan" supports new brands, mostly industrial belt merchants with supply chain capabilities; JD.com also launched the Chunxiao Plan. On the other hand, some retailers like Hema, Sam's Club, and snack discount stores are shortening the intermediate links between products and consumers, launching private labels to replace some branded products. Channel brands are also joining competition as brand roles. Hema recently entered JD.com, selling mostly its private labels. In this process, factories can also gain transactions through channel endorsement and gradually develop their own to C business and brand awareness. For example, Lihe Weidao launched its private label "Zhenzhai," and some Xiaohongshu posts mention it as Sam's supplier. In some categories, cost-effective white-label products have already changed the existing brand landscape. Before Tmall Double 11, a merchant told The Narrowcast that after Tmall tilted its algorithm toward price power this year, Bibizan surpassed Liangpinpuzi and Beicaowei to become the second in the snack category on Taobao and Tmall. With Douyin e-commerce policy tilt, Bibizan also surged in sales in June this year, ranking third in the category. A food merchant revealed that Douyin e-commerce industry staff have high expectations for Bibizan this year. These successful white-label brands also want to seize the moment to strengthen brand building and enhance brand momentum, transitioning to brands in the current consumption environment. In the second half of this year, Bibizan announced its first spokesperson, Guli Nazha, and cooperated with the TV drama "Fireworks of My Heart" for snack placement. There is also Yunnan origin merchant "Four Cats," established nearly 10 years, which has been a traffic-driven e-commerce merchant but started brand building with Hua & Hua in 2021. New consumer brands that only have concepts but no supply chain capabilities, and whose products can be easily replaced by white-label and channel brands, are most likely to be cut off by industrial belt brands. Especially new brands that rely mainly on distribution and have not yet established brand awareness are indistinguishable from white-label in many consumers' eyes. A food practitioner has a strong sense of this, as many new brands in his category have disappeared. Premium Brands Squeeze Bubbles Some brands are further strengthening their supply chain capabilities and cost-performance advantages, wanting to seize the low-price dividend that all channels are focusing on, especially in mass categories like food and beverages and basic apparel that emphasize use value. These brands can meet the low-price requirements of different channels through differentiated products and specifications, continuing to grow without affecting the interests of various channels, while also meeting consumers' demand for cost-effectiveness in the discount era. Compared to white-label products, they also have brand awareness advantages. An employee of a leading food brand told The Narrowcast that they see this stage as an important opportunity for cost-effective brands, wanting to use white-label methods (i.e., low prices from supply chain capabilities) combined with brand national awareness to gain more market share. "By following low prices to gain more users, when consumers have money in their pockets, the market will still be ours." Similar to this leading food brand, a group of brands targeting the mass market believe that this is the stage to run out China's Uniqlo. During Japan's "Lost 30 Years," Uniqlo launched affordable and good-quality casual clothing for mass consumers, achieving 150 times revenue growth and 1500 times profit growth in a shrinking optional consumer category. Such brands are either large companies or more competitive traditional leading brands with sufficient cash flow and channel resources to withstand losses and price cuts; or they have their own factories with cost advantages, or high channel operational efficiency to bring down front-end prices. For example, a mass-market clothing brand only marks up products two to three times, lower than the four to five times rate, supported by supply chain capabilities. The brand's brand director told The Narrowcast that they can ship within a week through factory quick response, reducing inventory pressure and costs, "overall costs are about 10% lower than peers." To further improve factory efficiency and reduce labor costs and inventory pressure, they upgraded their factories this year to enhance quick response capabilities: On one hand, they introduced intelligent hanging lines, concentrating all processes on one production line; previously, it took a week to produce 500 pieces, now they can produce 400 pieces a day. On the other hand, they assigned fixed styles to partner factories to improve proficiency and efficiency. What About High-Priced Brands? But not all brands want to become Uniqlo. In the consumer industry, there are many high-priced brands that do not target the mass market but are in categories that satisfy higher-level human needs (such as interest, emotional resonance, identity), such as cars, footwear and apparel, beauty, pets, and outdoor. During economic upturns, some brands may enter these categories, with slight product innovation and slogans about satisfying self-spiritual needs and expressing self-attitude, and can sell at high premiums. Now, increasingly rational and cautious consumers will scrutinize the high pricing of such brands more strictly, judging whether a product is really worth the money, and the premium space of such brands will be squeezed more severely. This year, some brands launched high-priced cross-category products that caused controversy among consumers, as consumers cannot see a brand's professional accumulation in another field, making it hard to convince themselves to buy, and they think the brand is harvesting leeks. To maintain high pricing, brands must provide more things to consumers with real materials, giving them clear and reasonable reasons to buy. On one hand, let consumers feel that the materials and craftsmanship invested in the product are professional and worth the money; on the other hand, meet consumers' spiritual needs, such as providing strong emotional or social value. The latter is the hardest and most solid; luxury goods are like this, even with price increases, people still buy. But it is difficult for the local market to produce luxury goods. A more realistic approach is to strengthen the persuasiveness of brand pricing from both product and emotional value dimensions. High-ticket brands (especially new brands) that want to stand out at this stage also need to adjust their strategies. First, look at products: only superficial innovation cannot compete with white-label products. In the past few years, new consumer brands' strengths in appearance, design, and new flavors are the most superficial innovations, and white-label products can easily follow and iterate. While condemning plagiarism, we must admit that brands must face a practical issue: how to increase investment in product innovation to widen the gap with white-label products in terms of materials, technology, and craftsmanship. The founder of a mid-to-high-end functional oral care brand told The Narrowcast that he once made a toothpaste brand focusing on appearance and fruit flavors in 2018, but the next year, a factory replicated it at near-cost price. "I sold at 19.9, he sold at 9.9, and gradually his weight was higher than mine." After launching his current brand (a mouthwash around 70 yuan), they first cooperated with pharmaceutical factories in product development, investing a lot of money. In August this year, they upgraded the product and cooperated with professional laboratories for patented ingredients. The founder said that the amount of ingredients they add is twice the minimum effective concentration, which is difficult for small and medium brands and white-label products to replicate because they lack technology and do not allocate R&D costs. The founder of trendy sock brand Shangshen Paixi, Jing Sen, also told The Narrowcast that they are currently less affected by alternative competition, and their repurchase rate has doubled compared to 2022 because of good materials, and compared to overseas brands, they are also cost-effective. This year, they continue to work on fabrics, launching wool socks and wool scarves. In categories that can meet consumers' emotional needs, high-ticket brands must also provide sufficient emotional value. Consumers are increasingly immune to emotional value; relying solely on online copy, images, and videos is hard to convince them. Brands must display the emotional value they represent comprehensively and three-dimensionally, making consumers believe that the brand is expressing sincerely, not just telling stories users want to hear. But emotional value cannot rely solely on products; social media content, communities, stores, and even the team must give consumers an overall perception. For example, Shangshen Paixi this year attaches great importance to offline store experience, hoping that products, space, and staff together bring emotional value to consumers. "If only online, consumers can only feel through their eyes." The corresponding Xiaohongshu account of Shangshen Paixi's offline store also reflects the brand's personality. Of course, not all consumers can accept high-priced products, so these high-ticket new brands no longer pursue flood-style traffic tactics but rather focus on precision of the target audience, finding those who can accept and understand the pricing logic. Since the second half of last year, we have felt that some new consumer brands are adjusting their communication with users, not pursuing rapid breakout but focusing on user precision and trust, and doing more precise product, content, and channel strategies around the target audience. For example, the aforementioned oral care brand adjusted its core audience to mothers, who are more willing to pay for functional oral care products than Gen Z. Shangshen Paixi began focusing on women with higher spending power and more mature consumption awareness at the end of last year, launching wool products and focusing on Tmall, Xiaohongshu, and offline channels with higher target user concentration. Focusing more on vertical audiences also helps brands build more stable user relationships and win a group of loyal fans. This can also form social value for some brands, with the core being to make users feel "we are the same kind of people." Once a brand has its core audience, even with big-brand alternatives or not following fashion trends, there will still be people who continue to support and consume the brand. Patagonia, lululemon, Zuczug, and ON Running are examples.