"Thank you all for your continued support… Now I have no choice but to close the store. Skin care products are discounted…" On April 22, the skin care brand BLACKLABO Heizhixue (hereinafter referred to as "Black Order") published its 99th+ store closure announcement on Xiaohongshu, and included product links for the 99th+ time.
Closing a store is fake, but diverting traffic is real; clearing out a store is fake, but selling goods is real. On the Xiaohongshu platform, this is not an isolated phenomenon, especially among small and medium-sized brands that specialize in cosmetics, skin care, aromatherapy and other daily chemical products.
In the new round of traffic winter, more and more brands with less than 10,000 fans are using "store closing and clearance" as their content focus. "Thank you for your love, I really can't hold on anymore…" Behind the seemingly sad but similar copywriting is a marketing farce of small and medium-sized brands.
01 "Countdown to removal from shelves! Almost sold out!", pretending to be closing stores and clearing out stock has become a way to attract customers
Searching for words such as store closing and clearance on Xiaohongshu shows that there are 60,000 notes related to "clearance skin care products" and 30,000 notes related to "store closing and clearance". It can be seen that the Xiaohongshu platform is becoming an important promotional position for brands to close stores and clear out stores. However, many brands have embarked on a "wrong path", using the pretense of closing stores to divert traffic, promote products, and deceive consumers.
According to statistics from Cosmetics News, on April 21st alone, Black Order issued 2 store closing notices and 31 clearance notes. The cover pictures mostly show skin care products piled up in warehouses, and are marked with bold yellow characters such as discontinued, out of print, clearance, sold out, and off the shelf. A search for "store closing" and "clearance" on Black Order's homepage in Cosmetics News showed 99+ notes each.
Aromatherapy brand Yuwen Formula once released a clearance note on March 16, claiming that there was a "final countdown of 3 days" and "the last 100 orders left." However, until April 17, the clearance product link was still there, and the inventory had increased. Clicking into the comment area of the "closed store" note, most of them are post-purchase positive comments selected by the merchants. So far, that clearance product link has sold 3,858 orders.
Such emotionally charged notes, out-of-stock promotions and wording of “the brand has come to an end” continue to stimulate users’ desire to buy. Many consumers said that when they saw the store was closed for clearance, they wanted to buy it. Since the price was cheap, they wanted to buy it and try it out.
In consumer psychology, store-closing content is consistent with the “scarcity effect.” People call the phenomenon of increased purchasing behavior caused by "rare things more valuable" called the "scarcity effect." When consumers are placed in the context of "if you miss it, you will lose it", the urge to stock up will naturally be amplified.
Therefore, when selling goods, merchants often use "one-time sales" and "clearance specials" to lure customers and increase their willingness to buy. The "closed store clearance" on Xiaohongshu has become a new cyber method of attracting customers.
02 “If I don’t have money to promote, at least I’ll have over a hundred views”, closing the store narrative becomes a shortcut to traffic.
Although the store closures of some brands on Xiaohongshu are "in full swing", when users click on the Tmall flagship store of the same brand, the invisible store closure announcement, the usual new products, and the usual customer service responses all seem to indicate that these brands are not really poorly managed or may be facing bankruptcy.
To this end, Cosmetics News asked the customer service staff of several brands whether they were really closing their stores. Most of the answers received are "some products are no longer produced, some are still in production, and there are more people looking for them", or vague answers such as "I don't know the details, it depends on the boss."
The customer service staff of the Xiaohongshu store of the daily chemical brand UUKKG said frankly: “It’s because we didn’t have money to promote it, and no one read the notes when we posted them, so we cleared the store.” He said that since the store closure was announced, the effect of the notes has been much better, and at least the number of views has exceeded 100. When asked whether the store was really closed according to the notice time, customer service said it was unknown. So far, a UUKKG product called Deep Moisture Anti-Dandruff Scalp Cream has sold 5,183 orders.
Skin care brand Guoke published a clarification note on Xiaohongshu on February 28, declaring: "It has not gone bankrupt. It really doesn't have much budget to invest, so it can only rely on the title to save itself." At the same time, it also lamented in the article: "The traffic code is honest and I don't bully you." So far, Guoke's acne-clearing essence milk, which is known as "special price return to the factory," has sold more than 8,000 orders; a cleansing mud mask known as "Rebirth and Return" has sold more than 6,000 orders.
If you claim to be closed but don't close the store, aren't you afraid that consumers will feel cheated and stop buying?
Faced with this kind of doubt, some businesses have already prepared ways to deal with it. "It doesn't matter, a notice will be sent out at that time saying that the WeChat store has been closed." Xiaohongshu customer service of a certain daily chemical brand replied. In addition, Xiaohongshu stores and Tmall flagship stores are operating as usual.
Bai Yunhu, an e-commerce marketing expert at Meiyun Space, said: "Close-out marketing is a double-edged sword. It may win sympathy in the short term, but in the long run, it will do a lot of damage to the brand." He emphasized that in an environment of intensified internal involvement, many white brands are moving to "sideline" play, which is actually not conducive to the healthy development of the industry. From an industrial perspective, we must promote an environment of innovation and high-quality development, drive digital and intelligent upgrades with unique marketing and retail models, and truly avoid involution and find a path to global competitiveness for Chinese domestic brands.
Regarding the review and supervision of such store closing and clearance notes, Cosmetics News called Xiaohongshu’s official customer service, but has not yet received a reply.
03 “Haha, I was deceived by clearance…”, consumers see through the trick
“I believed it once or twice, but started to doubt it after more times.” said Li*ye, a Xiaohongshu user who was interviewed by Cosmetics News.
As a large number of brands repeatedly use store closing and clearance copywriting, consumer sensitivity has gradually increased. Questioning voices such as "being tricked" and "fake store closures" frequently appeared in the comment area, and the trust of related brands also suffered a decline.
In the face of user doubts, some brands choose to "technically avoid". On April 22, Cosmetics News left a message on Heizhixu's note: "Is the store really closed for clearance? I even sent out a new makeup remover an hour ago." However, the comment was deleted ten minutes later.
On April 23, Heizhixu published a note on Xiaohongshu in response to recent users’ doubts about its “fake store closure”. In the note, the brand emphasized that some products had indeed been sold out and promised that they "will no longer be on the shelves."
Cosmetics News pointed out in the comment section of this note that the makeup remover product that Black Order had previously claimed to be sold out has recently been put back on sale. In response to this, the brand responded that the re-listing of the product was a "benefit given by the boss to fans" and was a "resumption of production in a small amount" and "did not declare clearance on the Xiaohongshu platform." Subsequently, the Cosmetics Newspaper checked the brand's past releases and found that the cleansing balm had appeared in clearance and discontinuation notes, with relevant screenshots as evidence. After raising this question, the account of Cosmetics News was immediately blocked by the other party, and the relevant comments were also deleted.
In the game of "closing stores and clearing stocks" where it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, brands deny past statements while blocking voices that raise questions. This is not restoring trust, but accelerating the loss of trust. In this process, consumer attitudes gradually differentiated: some users said "it's cheap anyway, buy it and try it", while other consumers said "I feel cheated and will never buy it again".
Between long-term consumer trust and short-term traffic gains, many brands choose the latter. Behind this, it reflects the survival anxiety and struggle of small and medium-sized brands. Among these brands that choose to close stores for clearance, there may be no shortage of good products. However, this approach not only damages the long-term image of the brand, but also affects those merchants who really need to clear their inventory.
"I really can't hold on anymore…" This may be a gimmick, or it may be his inner voice. However, in the game between platforms and merchants, the construction of trust mechanisms and the improvement of supervision mechanisms will be the key to determining the sustainable development of the e-commerce ecosystem. Only companies that insist on putting consumers first under difficult circumstances can harvest consumers' money and votes.
