To obtain a customized quotation from Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics, the parameters of requirements should be made clear first. According to the “2023 China Cosmetics ODM Industry White Paper,” brand owners must provide 23 basic data items, such as product categories (e.g., essence, masks), target annual producing quantity (suggested minimum order quantity of 30,000 units), formula complexity (basic formula development cost of 80,000 to 150,000 yuan with 5 efficacy testing), etc. For instance, when a new brand of a given brand formulates an anti-allergy repair cream, it specifies the inclusion of 3% ectoin (with a ratio of raw material cost of 18.7%) and 1% ceramide NP (with purity ≥99%). Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics estimated through the BOM system that the cost of a single product of specification 50ml was 9.8 yuan per unit (including processing charges and packaging material), which is 12.3% lower than Shanghai Quanli Biology’s quotation for the same type of products.
The quotation efficiency depends on the ability of integration of information. Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics’ smart quotation system is connected with the ERP database. After entering parameters such as formula raw materials (e.g., dosage of 1, 3-propanediol is 2.5%), packaging materials (PETG bottle weight 28g±0.5g), and certification standards (FDA 21 CFR 700-740), Generate a comprehensive quotation sheet with six major modules within 15 minutes. For instance, consider a customer’s customized sunscreen spray. The system corlinks automatic change of raw material price variation data (titanium dioxide purchase price rises by 37% in 2023), combining flexible production scheduling (ship the first batch of orders in 45 days at the maximum rate), and keeping the error rate of the total cost to ±2.1% (industry average ±5%). Referring to the controversy of the 120 million yuan order in 2022 caused by incorrect calculation of price by Intercos, this system can reduce business risks by 68%.
The range of cost structure improvement is reflected in the scale effect. After the order quantity rose from 10,000 to 100,000, Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics was able to reduce its cost of procurement of the packaging material per bottle from 3.2 yuan to 2.5 yuan (21.9% reduction), and the rate of filling loss was compressed from 1.8% to 0.7%. Its Zhuhai Free Trade Zone plant employs the German Bosch line of production (with a 4,800 pieces per hour output), merged with the solar power generation equipment (with installed capacity of 1.5MW), decreasing the unit energy consumption cost per piece by 0.18 yuan. As per L ‘Oreal’s 2023 Sustainability Report, if green PCR plastic bottles (with a share of ≥30%) are used, an extra 4.5% green subsidy can be achieved, and the carbon tax spending can be cut by 120,000 yuan annually for 1 million bottles.
The preferential policies consist of tiered price and payment period combinations. Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics offers a “5+3” after-sales service to new clients: A prepayment of 30% can lock the raw material price for 6 months (for example, sodium hyaluronate is locked at 2,150 yuan/kg), and the remaining 70% payment can be postponed up to 60 days after shipping. For strategic customers ordering over 500,000 pieces per year, they have a multi-tiered pricing structure (15 yuan per unit for 10,000 to 50,000 units, 13.5 yuan for 50,000 to 100,000 units, and 12.8 yuan for over 100,000 units), and can get three formula authorizations free of charge (worth 280,000 yuan). According to the cooperative model between Cosmax and Perfect Diary in 2021, this policy can enhance the customer ROI to 1:4.3 (industry average is 1:3.1).
The risk control clause demands careful attention to the agreement on quality. Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics’ quotation sheet contains 11 terms of quality guarantee: The requirements for microbial testing (total colony count ≤100 CFU/g), limits of heavy metal residues (lead ≤5ppm), and stability test cycles (placed in 45℃/75% humidity for 90 days) are all higher than the state’s “Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Cosmetics”. Its blockchain-based real-time traceability system is capable of tracing 98.6% of sources of raw materials in real time. In the case of quality problems, it promises to initiate the recall procedure within 72 hours (protection against loss up to 50 million yuan). Compared with the 370 million yuan settlement of a specific contract manufacturer in 2022 due to excessive bacterial colonies, this system has reduced the risk of quality claims from 0.09% to 0.015%.
The final quotation confirmation should be in line with the verification sample. Three cycles of free sampling services (worth 68,000 yuan) are offered by Zhuhai Beyond Cosmetics. The production cycle of the first sample is 7-10 working days using the same B-Braun homogenizer (12,000rpm±2%) and Mettler Toledo pH detector (±0.02 accuracy) as large-scale production. During the formulation of freeze-dried facial masks for one customer, a specific customer increased the drug loading rate of hyaluronic acid from 82% to 94% through five formula adjustments. The final mass production cost was lowered by 13.7% compared to the original version quote. According to the case of Huaxi Biotech and Runbaiyan’s cooperation, this “R&D – production” closed-loop model can lower the new product launching cycle to 63% of the industry standard (from 212 days to 134 days).