Interface News Reporter | Huang Shan
Interface News Editor | Lou Wanqin
Xu Yixuan, who is engaged in marketing, told Interface News that from 2021 to now, the money she spent on freshwater pearls has been "thousands or even tens of thousands." ”
Most of Xu's pearl products are bought from the Taobao live broadcast room. Due to frequent purchases, Xu Yixuan has now become a familiar customer in some live broadcast rooms. She told Interface News, "Later, she got acquainted with the anchor's sister, and she directly gave the channel price, added dozens of middlemen to the difference, and focused on a bargain." ”
Xu Yixuan clearly knows that the freshwater pearls he bought in the past two years are all produced in Zhuji, Zhejiang.
Shanxia Lake Town in Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province is the world's largest freshwater pearl production and marketing base. According to official data from Zhuji City, this small town in East China, which is less than 50 square meters, produces 80% of the country's and more than 70% of the world's freshwater pearls. According to data cited by People's Daily, Xinhuanet and other media, the sales of Zhuji pearl products will exceed 40 billion yuan in 2022.
Freshwater pearls produced in Zhuji have been popular among domestic consumers in the past two years, and this situation has continued in 2023. According to Shanghai Securities News, as of the end of May 2023, the pearl turnover of East China International Jewelry City, the largest pearl trading mall in Zhuji, has reached about 23.2 billion yuan. Chinanews.com cited official statistics from Zhuji that by the end of 2023, the total online and offline sales of Zhuji Pearl had reached 25 billion yuan, exceeding 60% of the whole year of 2022.
The rise of live streaming e-commerce has brought the Zhuji freshwater pearl industry to a new stage of development. In the past three years, the freshwater pearl business has revived, which may be due to the popularity of live broadcast mussels in the live broadcast room.
Xu Yixuan "entered the pit" of freshwater pearls after seeing the live broadcast of the mussels. She told the interface news reporter, "(before) I have always been a little curious about pearls, and the opportunity to buy it was because I saw pearl mussels on Taobao, which is very top, because it is very similar to opening a blind box." ”
There are many new generation pearl consumers like Xu Yixuan. Zhang Yifei, who works in programming in the construction industry, told Interface News, "I liked to watch the live broadcast of mussels or buying beads before going to bed. In her opinion, "In fact, opening a mussel is to see a pleasure, and the merchant knows what kind of pearls are in it." ”
Live broadcast mussel opening satisfies consumers' curiosity like "opening blind boxes", and also sets off the latest round of pearl fever.
According to the "Douyin Jewelry and Accessories Industry Report" released in June 2022, from January 2021 to May 2022 alone, the pearl industry grew by 18.71% month-on-month, second only to the gold category with a month-on-month growth rate of 50.12%, and was the second fastest growing category in the entire gold jewelry industry. Among them, freshwater pearls and saltwater pearls account for 72% and 28% of the market respectively, and pearl necklaces and pearl earrings are the most popular.
Young people have driven this wave of rapid growth in pearl consumption. Young people are one of the main consumers in the live broadcast rooms of Douyin, Kuaishou and Taobao. The public account "Value Planet" cited Douyin live broadcast room consumption data, and the proportion of young people aged 25-30 who placed orders for pearls in the live broadcast room has exceeded 50%, nearly double that of previous years.
CCTV Finance recently reported that Yuan Xiaopeng, manager of the innovation and development department of East China International Jewelry City, believes that "more and more consumers are now willing to accept pearls as entry-level products in the jewelry category, and the audience of pearls is constantly getting younger." ”
The younger generation of pearl consumers shows higher demand for pearl jewelry design sense and fashion.
Xu Yixuan told Interface News that after being "put into the pit" by the pearl mussel live broadcast, she soon began to look for merchants with good pearl products and jewelry design to shop. "I don't have much gambler mentality, so I directly touched the pearl live broadcast room with a good design and chose one that I think has the best aesthetics."
The reason why freshwater pearls are now sought after is that their products have made great progress compared to freshwater cultured pearls and can compete with many high-priced saltwater pearls.
At the beginning of 2023, the Zhuji Municipal Government led more than 300 local pearl enterprises and merchants to charter a flight to the Hong Kong SAR to participate in the 39th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show. People's Daily reported that many exhibitors felt at the exhibition that "Zhuji Shanxia Lake pearls have more and more say in the international pearl market." ”
It depends on the transformation of Zhuji cultured freshwater pearls with technological innovation and design achievements, which solved the problems of small bead diameter, low roundness and single color that were common in freshwater pearls 10 years ago. In Zhuji, Zhejiang Oriental Shenzhou Pearl Group, Zhejiang Qinghu Holding Group and other enterprises are among the representative freshwater pearl cultivation and cultivation technology innovation enterprises.
In the global pearl market, Akoya pearls, Tahitian pearls, Australian white pearls and South Sea gold pearls from Japan are all representative high-quality saltwater pearls. Japan's well-known pearl brands Tasaki, Mikimoto, etc. have adopted Akoya pearls, and their jewelry prices are very high.
With the continuous improvement of the quality of artificially cultivated freshwater pearls, Zhuji is reported to now be able to produce freshwater pearls comparable to the quality of Akoya pearls.
Under this premise, compared with Aguya pearls, which cost thousands or tens of thousands of yuan, domestic high-quality freshwater pearls have become a "replacement" choice for young pearl consumers.
"Sometimes 300 can buy a freshwater pearl necklace with great pearl light." Xu Yixuan told Interface News that on the contrary, the price of already expensive seawater pearls is still climbing. "A string of seawater pearls that I fancy last year (2022), when 7,000 yuan could be won, this year (2023) it has risen to 25,000."
According to a July 2023 analysis by the AGTA American Gem Trade Association, pearl industry practitioners said that the price of Akoya pearls has increased by 40% to 50% compared with the same period in 2022, or even higher. This is largely due to the decline in Akoya pearl production. Statistics show that Japan's Akoya pearl production has fallen by 80% in 30 years.
At the same time, the American Gem Trade Association also pointed out that the strong demand for high-quality saltwater pearls in China has further pushed up the price of saltwater pearls in the market. "Chinese buyers are offering high prices, and Western customers can't keep up."
In fact, the production of freshwater pearls is also declining year by year. According to the Zhejiang Pearl Industry Association, mainland freshwater pearl production has declined from about 1.2 million kilograms in 2019 to about 700,000 kilograms in 2022.
Coupled with the boom in domestic freshwater pearl consumption, the price of freshwater pearls has actually risen in just a few years. The above-mentioned CCTV financial report pointed out that the interviewed merchants in Zhuji East China International Jewelry City said that "the price of (freshwater) pearls (until September 2023) has doubled (compared with 2022)." ”
Nevertheless, freshwater pearls are still a cost-effective choice for current domestic consumers.
Since 2023, Baroque pearls have become the latest sought-after freshwater pearl jewelry item. As of the press time of Interface News, there were more than 401,000 Little Red Book notes related to the "Baroque Pearl". More than 69,000 items labeled "Baroque Pearls" are on sale on the Xiaohongshu platform. On various e-commerce platforms such as Douyin and Taobao, there are a variety of baroque style pearl jewelry products for sale.
Xu Yixuan said, "Baroque is generally freshwater pearls. Zhang Yifei added, "Seawater beads are generally not made of baroque because they are expensive because of the thick bead layer. ”
The so-called baroque pearl refers to special-shaped pearls, including heart-shaped beads, crescent beads, star beads, square beads, etc. Different from the traditionally sought after rounded pearls, baroque pearls can extend a variety of unique pearl jewelry designs because of their irregular shape, but are loved by young people who seek personalization and stylization.
For example, a baroque pearl jewelry called "A Piao" is usually a cute little ghost image item designed and produced by merchants with irregular freshwater pearls as the base, plus gold-clad and copper gold-plated materials and colored gemstones, which can be used as brooches, mobile phone pendants and other scenes.
Baroque freshwater pearls produced in Zhuji are also popular in overseas markets. A Zhuji merchant who exports through live streaming e-commerce told People's Daily, "Irregularly shaped, colorful baroque pearls sell well overseas." ”
Therefore, since the second half of 2020, this merchant has set up a live broadcast team of more than 10 people to sell Zhuji's freshwater pearls to foreign consumers through overseas social media.
In fact, Zhuji Shanxiahu Town is accelerating the preparation of a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive service base, introducing cross-border e-commerce platforms such as TikTok and Amazon on Douyin, as well as overseas logistics companies such as DHL, to build cross-border platforms to share overseas warehouses to help local pearl companies lay out the international jewelry market.
The popularity of pearl business and the further upgrading and improvement of Zhuji industrial supporting facilities have attracted more entrepreneurs to join. According to public data, as of the end of 2022, a total of 25,000 entrepreneurs have gone to Shanxia Lake Town, including more than 3,000 anchors with goods based in Shanxia Lake.
In HKTDC Trade's August 2023 "Overview of China's Jewellery Market", Xinchangle Village in Zhuji Shanxiahu Town has cultivated a group of professional e-commerce teams, and the village's online sales exceeded 4 billion yuan in 2022.