In recent years, with the rapid development of the e-commerce economy, offline physical stores are becoming more and more difficult to do, but in theory, there are still some industries that are not affected by e-commerce, such as restaurants, barbershops, etc.
Especially in barbershops, you can't cut your hair online, right? And haircuts are also an absolute need for consumers, but in fact, in recent years, the business of many barbershops has become worse and worse, why is this?
What used to be a "small business" is now a profiteering industry
The barber industry can also be said to have undergone earth-shaking changes in the past decade, and the former "small business" is now definitely a profiteering industry.
The former "barber" has become a "stylist" and a "fashion director"; The signboard of "so-and-so hair art" has also been replaced by "so-and-so hair design studio" or "so-and-so salon".
In the past, I went to a barbershop just to make a haircut, but now many barbershops also run derivative projects such as skin management.
It can be said that from hardware to service, all barbershops are now "upgrading" in all aspects, and these "upgrades" are also effectively reflected in the price.
Ten years ago, if you spent 20 yuan, 30 yuan to cut your hair, it was the "elder-level players" in the barbershop to personally handle the knife, and now many affordable barbershops, the minimum consumption is also to 40 yuan, 50 yuan or so, and the barber who cuts your hair may just be a "novice".
If you go to some barber shops where the decoration is "tall" and the staff service is "intimate", then the consumption is not a few hundred yuan at a time. On major social platforms, you can often see netizens sharing the shapes they spent more than a thousand yuan to make.
And this situation does not only exist in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but also in many fourth- and fifth-tier cities, there are also many "sky-high" barbershops.
The prevalence of the high price point of the barber industry naturally attracts more and more people who want to enter this field to share a piece of the pie, so the mainland barber industry has developed rapidly in recent years.
By the end of 2021, the market size of the beauty salon industry in mainland China will be 386.3 billion yuan, and the number of registered enterprises has exceeded 840,000.
However, while barbershops are mushrooming, there are also a large number of barbershops that are closing, and in fact, the business of this profiteering industry is not easy to do.
While making huge profits, it is difficult to do business, how is this strange phenomenon caused?
The surface is huge profiteering, and the cost behind it is high
On the one hand, the cost of equipment in barbershops today is different from before. Think back to the barbershop more than a decade ago, or even twenty years ago, to say that the hardware that needs to be purchased in the store is nothing more than a few mirrors, shampoo loungers, hair dryers, and perm equipment.
But now in barbershops, the recliner has a massage function, the hair dryer is replaced by Dyson's, and the perm equipment is more diverse and not cheap. These equipment plus the related supplies used in the store, a small shop only equipment investment is more than 100,000.
On the other hand, rent and decoration are also a big expense. No matter what kind of business you are in, location is very important, and so is barbershops.
Whether there are large shopping malls around the site, and what is the consumption level of the nearby mobile crowds, these are all factors to be considered.
If the surrounding environment is relatively "tall", then the spending power of the customer group is naturally high, and the barbershop can also raise the price appropriately when charging.
Everyone wants to choose such a location, but the high rent is a "hard wound". For better stores, the annual rent will reach 300,000 to 400,000. In order to meet the positioning of high-end hairdressing clubs, the decoration of the store naturally costs a lot of money.
In other words, if you want to build a high-end hairdresser, before opening, the upfront investment will cost at least seven or eight hundred thousand.
This kind of cost of investment, want to return the cost, in fact, is really not so fast, coupled with the current population cost rises hugely, hiring a barber is not cheap, so it has caused this strange phenomenon: from the consumer's point of view is very profitable, think is not to cut a head? One or twenty minutes at a time tens of hundreds of dollars, not worth it; However, from the perspective of the operator, it is not profiteering at all, the investment is large, the cost is high, and it is difficult to return to the original.
To put it bluntly, there are too many unnecessary value-added services in the industry, and consumers spend their money in places that they "can't see or need to see".
From an economic point of view, the normal result of excessive competition is a price drop, but it is also possible to cause this "barbershop phenomenon" within a certain stage: competitors fight each other for concepts and gimmicks, but push up prices.
Sales office with bad industry reputation
In addition to the conflict between price and cost, excessive competition has also created a phenomenon in barbershops - the promotion of cards.
Almost all consumers have experienced the annoyance of being sold for cards during the haircut process, but almost all operators have tried to tie consumers in this way, and of course, some people have used this to fish in muddy waters.
Many times we just want to spend 40 yuan to cut a head, but now the price discrimination of many barbershops makes consumers have to apply for a card. For example, non-members will burn and dye for 888 yuan, but if you recharge 1,000 yuan to become a member, you can enjoy the membership price, and on top of this 40% discount, it is only more than 300 yuan.
This kind of price setting, whether it is recharged or not recharged, makes consumers feel very annoyed, and there is always a feeling that they have done "wronged the big head".
But because of the fierce competition, barbershops have almost no competitive barriers, and more importantly, in order to quickly return funds, barbershop operators still have no one to refuse the temptation to sell cards to customers when they know that the consumer experience is not good.
This has also triggered a bigger side effect, that is, some barbershops have run away after attracting consumers to apply for cards, and then waiting for the opportunity to reopen stores in other places, resulting in a worse reputation in the entire industry.
In turn, consumers are more inclined to choose the kind of storefront that looks "tall" and more reassuring when dealing with cards, which further pushes up the input cost of barbershops and falls into a vicious circle.
Write at the end:
In the final analysis, the business of barbershops is getting worse and worse, in fact, it is mainly because of the development model of barbershops that there is a problem. Doing business should still be guided by customer needs, think more from the perspective of customers, meet customers through their own excellent technology and intimate service, and do a good job of word of mouth, rather than achieving the purpose of making quick money through fancy additional projects.
In addition, when the industry itself is deeply ill, do not always take others as a shield, barbershop is just a microcosm, now many offline business downturn, people are naturally considered to be harmed by e-commerce, but if you can go to carefully examine, often will find that it is the industry itself, or is to be eliminated in the era.