---
title: "No Advertising, Annual Revenue of 15 Million! What Exactly Makes Expiring Food So Popular on Douyin?"
description: "Expiring food is trending on Douyin, with some sharing tips to gain followers and others claiming to earn 15 million yuan annually without ads. Once seen as a bargain for the elderly, it now attracts young consumers, with over 40% of respondents willing to buy and recommend it, and 47.8% of buyers aged 26-35. The market is booming, but success requires navigating challenges like consumer stigma, online traffic, and supply chain issues."
author: "波妞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-02-17"
language: "en"
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# No Advertising, Annual Revenue of 15 Million! What Exactly Makes Expiring Food So Popular on Douyin?

> Expiring food is trending on Douyin, with some sharing tips to gain followers and others claiming to earn 15 million yuan annually without ads. Once seen as a bargain for the elderly, it now attracts young consumers, with over 40% of respondents willing to buy and recommend it, and 47.8% of buyers aged 26-35. The market is booming, but success requires navigating challenges like consumer stigma, online traffic, and supply chain issues.

Have you noticed that expiring food is very popular on Douyin now?
Some people share tips on expiring food and see their followers surge;
Some claim to earn 15 million yuan annually from expiring food without advertising...
Expiring food, simply put, is food that is about to reach its expiration date but hasn't yet. In the past, it was "clearance goods," but now it has become a hot new business.
A more important change is that in traditional impressions, "clearance goods" were the domain of the older generation looking for bargains, but under the new name "expiring food," it is increasingly favored by young people, even becoming a new favorite for some. Young people tend to prefer ready-to-eat items, and they euphemistically say, "At discounted prices, you can enjoy delicious food without compromise."
**According to the "2020 China Expiring Food Industry Market Analysis and Consumer Research Report," over 40% of respondents are willing to buy and recommend expiring food to others, and among those who consume expiring food, young people aged 26-35 account for 47.8%.**
According to consulting firm statistics, in 2020, China's snack food industry market size reached 3 trillion yuan. Even with a 1% inventory sink, the expiring food industry scale would exceed 30 billion yuan.
Capital is also particularly favoring the expiring food market.
In January this year, the expiring food discount warehouse chain brand Zhetang Youpin received a million-yuan angel round financing; last year, Shihui Bang, Boom Boom Mart, and Xiaoxiang Life all completed tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing;
The expiring food supermarket chain HotMaxx has completed 4 rounds of financing in less than 2 years, with nearly 200 stores nationwide; the expiring food e-commerce platform Haoshiqi, once invested by Alibaba, has nearly 100 million users...
Stores related to expiring food are also springing up on e-commerce platforms. According to Tianyancha data, there are over 3,000 expiring food stores on e-commerce platforms.
Such a hot market resembles Pinduoduo, which broke through the encirclement of Taobao and JD.com with low prices, but they are different. Pinduoduo focuses on the sinking market of third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities, while expiring food also targets the consumption gaps in first- and second-tier cities.
With such a large market, is this a new money-making opportunity or a capital trap? We studied multiple expiring food brands to reveal the truth behind the expiring food industry.
******Why is expiring food so popular?**
**1. The joy of getting a bargain**
Low prices are the direct reason for the popularity of expiring food, and the prices can even be described as "crazy." Take Beijing HotMaxx as an example; its chain stores are all in core business centers like Galaxy SOHO, Wanda CBD, Wangjing SOHO, and R&F Plaza, and white-collar workers enjoy shopping there.
On one hand, young people find it thrilling; with 100 yuan, you can carry a big bag of happiness! On the other hand, consumers' psychology is severely impacted; these prices feel like traveling back in time ten years!
Besides the joy of getting a bargain, some consumers also share the joy of "fleecing the system." When they find a treasure, like achieving snack freedom, they can't help but recommend it to friends. Consumers' fun comes from this occasional thrill and the sense of superiority from sharing with friends.
**2. Endorsement by big brands**
In promotional videos for expiring food, well-known brands are invariably featured. These famous brands bring a sense of trust to consumers, and combined with the price impact, it's hard for consumers not to be tempted.
For those who want to start a business, there is no such low-price channel for branded goods, so they rack their brains to contact channel suppliers.
**3. The story of making money from expiring food is compelling**
Whether it's "A post-90s person opened 5 expiring food stores with annual income exceeding 15 million yuan!" or ordinary people sharing stories of earning 20,000 to 50,000 yuan a month, these stories are invariably moving and make people want to explore further, after all, the easiest money to make is from people who want to make money.
So, some people who specialize in teaching others to do expiring food only need to tell a good story about getting goods at 20% of the price and selling at 50%, easily earning a million a year, to easily attract traffic on Douyin.
******Can the expiring food industry be done?****It's not that simple**
For ordinary people, can expiring food be done? Theoretically, everyone has the opportunity to make money from expiring food, but it's not as profitable as the stories of earning millions or tens of millions; making money is not easy.
Before you consider entering, you must first understand the challenges facing expiring food:
**1. The psychological shadow of expiring food customers**
Most people are ashamed to shop at "expiring food supermarkets," after all, human vanity. Even if you're thirsty outside and want to buy a bottle of water, you'd be embarrassed to grab a soon-to-expire drink from the expiring goods section.
Even if you're going to drink it right away... Due to vanity, even if the supermarket is in a "slum area," 50% of people would still be embarrassed to enter, and 80% would be embarrassed to walk out carrying a bunch of items.
Secondly, when a store first opens, people might visit because of cheap products, but those who regularly eat expiring food also fear: what if it's unhealthy? Eventually, they'll choose normal, fresh food.
So, what makes expiring food popular is not just opening a store in a good location and serving only a small group of people.
**2. Learning online traffic generation is essential for sustainable development**
What made expiring food popular nationwide was the shift from offline to online. **Using new media like Douyin for traffic and customer acquisition, influencer live-streaming sales, combined with private domain traffic and community group buying, can make this business sustainable.**
Take Beijing HotMaxx as an example; a single physical store has over 200 private domain WeChat groups with more than 10,000 people. In these WeChat groups, they offer privacy-protected ordering and delivery services.
For physical store customers, the first visit is often due to novelty, but the WeChat groups satisfy consumers' laziness and privacy, cultivating loyal fans of the expiring supermarket. This achieves saving money and time, and also avoids others knowing they bought expiring food.
With the prevalence of live streaming and Douyin, influencer live-streaming sales have become a faster channel than expiring supermarkets to clear expiring food inventory, and also brought expiring food into the public eye.
When product prices are below 50% or even 20% of the marked price, a single live stream can generate hundreds of thousands in revenue in one night. Therefore, video traffic generation and hiring people for live-streaming sales have become essential.
**3. The supply chain is increasingly difficult**
In an era of overconsumption, anyone could be a hoarder.
Therefore, some expiring food sources without distinctive features are hard to impress this group. Only if the supply can not entirely rely on franchisees and can find expiring food from locally well-known FMCG companies will there be advantages in product and profit margins.
******Earning millions annually in the expiring food industry****What they sell is never expiring food**
Unstable supply, unstable product quality, unpredictable traffic—such an uncertain business is definitely not the legendary high-profit industry.
So why do so many capitals still flood in, and how do they make money?
There's an old saying: "When everyone rushes to dig for gold, the real winners are always those selling shovels." To earn millions annually in the expiring food industry, the intention is not to sell expiring food but to do B2B business; the real 'customers' are never consumers.
**1. Franchise stores and partner models**
Expiring food brands that focus on chain stores can directly source from brand merchants, manufacturers, and supply origins, ensuring relatively stable supply. There are also those that focus on expiring food warehouses, acting as channel distributors, and then developing individual stores downstream. They all invariably need to continuously recruit franchisees.
Franchising an expiring food supermarket is one way this industry operates. Selecting a location, franchising, opening, and operating is the most standard model. Take Zhetang Youpin's franchise promotion as an example; the average monthly gross margin is around 35%, and the average monthly net profit margin is around 20%, with official claims that a single store can recoup investment in 5-9 months.
Linqi Bushou also promotes that a 60-square-meter store can achieve average daily sales of 6,000 yuan, with profit margins above 50%. Additionally, there are crowdfunding joint-venture store franchises, chain network store franchises (community group buying model), and other lower-threshold franchise options.
We won't comment on franchise fees because as long as it can make money, someone will be willing to invest.
But previously, HotMaxx's franchise fee was as high as 820,000 yuan, while established convenience store chains like 7-11 and FamilyMart have maximum franchise fees of 500,000-600,000 yuan. Is an expiring supermarket really more profitable than these big-brand convenience stores?
**2. Sourcing: In addition to "expiring + special sales," mix in fresh products**
The biggest problem with expiring food is its short shelf life, so for brands, selling goods is a race against time. Attracting enough franchisees to take goods can completely solve their own inventory pressure; the number of franchisees is the core competitiveness of expiring food brands.
Although major brands mainly adopt the "expiring + special sales" model, many stores actually sell products that are not all expiring discounts; many "fresh" products are also placed in stores.
Brands attract franchisees with the gimmick of ensuring stable supply, but most cannot guarantee that all products are sought-after expiring food; instead, they supply goods in a certain proportion.
Take the "Linqi Bushou" offline store as an example; 40% are imported foods, 30% are internet-famous foods, 10% are short-shelf-life foods, and only 20% are expiring foods.
Therefore, for franchisees, getting 40% of competitive expiring and special sale products is already good.
Currently, the expiring food industry is very hot, with a huge amount of post-pandemic inventory causing a temporary oversupply in the expiring market. The benefits consumers get are at the expense of manufacturers, distributors, supermarkets, and e-commerce platforms in the food supply chain.
Some say the industry's boom is short-lived, while others say it's the new direction of future retail.
For players already in or about to enter, the expiring food model itself is not problematic; sufficient supply, low prices, reliable quality, and speed in racing against time are the keys to success. If one link is not properly connected, the goods will have to be consumed by yourself or rot in your hands.
The business model of expiring food benefits brand owners and channel distributors. As for whether you can make money by selling products, it all depends on the franchisees themselves.
Source: Marketing Frontline (ID: FrontMarkting) Author: Bo Niu
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