The county town of northern Jiangsu is eyeing a business of 10 square centimeters: the cost is only 10 yuan, and some people rely on it to exchange for luxury cars to make millions
Source of this article: Times Weekly Author: Wang Chenting
"Either go out to work or make crystals. The people of the East Sea previously only had these two options. Now, there's an extra armor. ”
On the last working day of 2023, the inaugural meeting of the Donghai County Wearable Nail Industry Association was held in a conference room in Donghai Crystal City. Witnessed by local landmarks, this county town in northern Jiangsu, once famous for its crystals, seems to have completed the handover of its representative industries after a decade of banning crystal mining.
A dazzling array of wearing armor in the East China Sea (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
It's hard to say who was the first person in the East China Sea to wear armor.
Around 2019, Donghai County, Lianyungang, which was known as the "Crystal Capital of China", began to be exposed to wearing nails.
The saying "low threshold, easy to make money" has been spread to hundreds, and the shops selling crystals have hung signs wearing nails, and the mother, who can't find a job, has painted wearing armor at home. When the first local statistics were released, this county town in northern Jiangsu had already accounted for more than 7% of the national wearable armor market.
With the posture of "nail art replacement", wearing nails quickly swept the market with the advantages of low price and convenience, and even became a must-have for the trend of "North American hot girls". "2024 is the first year of wearing armor. The boss of the East China Sea swore an oath.
As a typical resource-based county, how does Donghai find a way to transform, how to take advantage of the east wind of wearing armor? What changes does wearing armor bring to this county? Recently, a reporter from Times Weekly visited Donghai County to explore the story behind the rise of the wearable nail industry.
The Donghai County high-speed rail station will be put into use in 2021. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Earn millions a year in the industry
"Eat sugar, eat sugar!
The boss who was carrying a big red bag and handing out candy in the clothing factory was not because he was married, but because he had just picked up a new car.
"This is our foundry partner, and we're making money. Mao Mao, the person in charge of Donghai County Enduo Beauty Co., Ltd., told a reporter from the Times Weekly.
Such a story is being played out repeatedly in the East China Sea: the owner of a certain store brought up a Bentley some time ago, the owner of this foundry has a monthly production capacity of more than one million, and the boss of that foundry has earned more than one million in one year after entering the industry.
Profile of nail art practitioner hanging on the wall. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Mao Mao has only been wearing armor for 22 months. At the end of last year, he moved out of his home office and rented a three-story building in a township on the edge of the county: the first floor for office exhibition and sales, the second floor for design and production, and the third floor for storage and packaging. More than 2,000 styles and different sizes are piled up on the shelves, "about 10,000 pairs are shipped every day." ”
On weekday afternoons, there are thirty or forty employees in the building, more than ninety percent of whom are women.
"We're all moms. Sister Liu, the nail technician in charge of processing on the second floor, told a reporter from Time Weekly. She took a very thin paintbrush and drew lines on the crimson nail piece.
She has only been in contact with wearing armor for a month, and she only makes basic models. Each pair can earn 5 yuan, and you can make thirty or forty pairs a day, and the processing fee is about 8 yuan for more complex styles.
Most of the nail technicians who wear nails are "treasure mothers" who live in the surrounding area. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
The person responsible for pattern making design is a senior nail technician who has been in the industry for nearly ten years. Mangkhut, a veteran nail technician, prefers today's design work to his own shop.
"I don't want to talk to people all the time, just stuff my head here. The monthly income is also relatively stable, and compared with the average level of the East China Sea, the overall income here is high. Those who do manual work are generally at least three or five thousand, and the high ones can get more than 10,000, and the basic pattern making can also be about a few thousand or ten thousand. ”
The personnel responsible for auditing and packaging do not need to engage in fine manual work, and work at fixed points on a regular basis, generally earning three or four thousand yuan per month.
"I used to do some farm work and grow vegetables. I can't find a job when I'm older, but it's good to have this job now. "Maomao's factory is gathering more and more young and middle-aged women in the surrounding area. At the workstation, Maomao's mother's Endo was also packing, dipping the nails in the bag into the box one by one.
"This business is very simple, just hire people, and you can get started in a day or two of training. Mao Mao emphasized several times.
Job advertisements can be seen everywhere in the East China Sea. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
People from the surrounding area came to work at the factory, and people from the East China Sea who had gone out to work began to return.
After delivering takeaways and running couriers in other cities, Chen Cheng heard that his cousin and cousin finally had a good livelihood in their hometown, and he also chose to return to the East China Sea and began to get in touch with wearing armor that he had never heard of. He is responsible for opening accounts on social media such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin to attract wholesalers across the country.
Many of the operators behind the hot posts on Xiaohongshu are wholesalers in the East China Sea. (Source: Network screenshot)
The cost of mechanical armor is less than 1 yuan
There are more than 200 teams like Maomao in the East China Sea, which integrate basic production and marketing, mainly manual and wholesale.
The area where the armor is more concentrated, on the edge of the East China Sea Crystal City. At four o'clock in the afternoon, the sound of packing was endless, and almost every store was piled up with several boxes of express delivery ready to be shipped at the door.
This road, which is less than 800 meters long and 4 meters wide, and has no name even on the map, is home to dozens of armor shops, making it almost the world's largest source of armor.
Goods ready to be shipped in front of the store (Times Weekly Wang Chenting/photo)
According to the statistics of Donghai County at the end of last year, there were about 400,000 pairs of finished wearable nails in Donghai County, and more than 300,000 pairs of e-commerce sales and shipments, accounting for more than 70% of the national wearable nails market.
In fact, it's a category that has exploded out of nowhere.
Many people have calculated that the size of a fingernail cover is 1 square centimeter, and the sum of ten fingernails is 10 square centimeters. In an offline nail salon, the cost of a basic solid color nail art is about 120 yuan. Converted, it is 120,000 yuan per square meter - the price even exceeds the housing prices in first-tier cities.
Wearing nails, with the posture of nail art, quickly entered the field of vision of consumers.
Jia Jia, a nail art enthusiast, heard about wearing nails for the first time during the Spring Festival this year. Almost also around the Spring Festival, wearing nail offline stores appeared in Shanghai, Hangzhou and other places, the head anchor brought goods, but also further heated up the market, on the e-commerce platform, every day there are thousands of anchors with goods to wear nails, a live broadcast transaction volume can even be as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan.
13 yuan, which is the average wholesale price of hand-worn armor in the East China Sea today, and the price surge occurred at the back end.
In the online live broadcast room, the price tag has become 79.9 yuan, in the shopping mall in Shanghai, the price is 300 yuan, and the price tag of 40 dollars (about 290 yuan) can still attract hot girls to patronize when they come to North America.
At a stall in Shanghai's Korea Street, a handmade armor can even be sold for 688 yuan. The owner said that this is an independent designer model, purely handmade.
On the streets of Shanghai, the hand-worn armor priced at 688 yuan is priced at 688 yuan. (Source: Times Weekly intern Wang Qi/photo)
So, how much does it cost to wear armor?
Generally speaking, wearable armor is divided into manual armor, mechanical armor, and semi-mechanical armor. Mechanical armor only needs a machine to spray on the transparent nail sheet, which is less costly. According to the supply price on the "Wear A Street", the price of transparent nail pieces is 5 yuan for 300 pieces, that is, 0.17 yuan / pair.
Semi-mechanical armor is based on mechanical armor, simple gluing, sticking drills or sequins, and the supplier can also be found on the "Wear Nail Street". The wholesale price of the original nail is 5.8 yuan for 4 pairs, that is, 1.45 yuan per pair; the price of nail polish is 2.8 yuan per bottle and 90 yuan per kilogram, and a bottle of nail polish glue can complete about 30 pairs of wearing nails; the price of diamonds is about 20-200 pieces of 5 yuan according to different categories, that is, 0.025 yuan to 0.25 yuan per piece.
If calculated in this way, a pair of semi-mechanical armor with patterns, sealants, and 10 large and small diamonds will cost about 1.8 yuan.
Semi-mechanical armor, sticker drills, etc., sold wholesale on the "Wear A Street". (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
The cost of hand-wearing nails is relatively higher, and the main cost lies in the manual cost of OEM processing. Depending on the style, the manual cost ranges from 5 to 8 yuan. Coupled with the price of raw materials, storage costs, etc., the cost of each pair of hand-worn armor does not exceed 10 yuan.
This is roughly the price in Tokai Prefecture. The Times reporter met four mothers who came to the East China Sea from Rizhao, Shandong Province to investigate. They said that there are also bosses in Rizhao who hire people to do wearable nail processing, and their manual costs are lower, 3.5-5 yuan per pair. "I've done this one, and I've done this one. They pointed to a few styles on the shelves.
This is one of the most popular models in Donghai at present. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
The dual transformation of the "Land of Crystals".
Before touching the armor, Mao Mao was in the crystal business. This is actually a business card industry that is more representative of the East China Sea.
Quartz reserves of about 300 million tons, crystal reserves of about 300,000 tons, storage accounts for more than 70% of the country, the East China Sea is well-deserved "world crystal capital", has also been selected into the list of resource-based cities.
The entire county seems to be associated with crystals.
As soon as the high-speed train arrives at Donghai Station, the poster on the exit is crystal. The iconic attraction is the Crystal Tower, the park is called Crystal Park, and the road is called Jingdu Avenue...... Opened in 2016, Donghai Crystal City covers an area of more than 400 acres and is the world's largest crystal trading center, equivalent to 42 football fields, and a large crystal museum stands on the edge of the crystal city. Walking on the road, a large number of shops are named "XX crystal" and "XX inlay".
Many crystal shops have signs on the front of their doors that say "Wear Armor". (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
The Times reporter noticed that there were many crystal shops with signs on the doors of "wearing armor". Even under the name of some armor-wearing shops, the handwriting of the original "crystal" can be vaguely recognized.
I can vaguely make out the "crystal" handwriting that has been removed. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
"It must be because the crystal is in a recession that I came to wear armor. Mao Mao said bluntly.
In the four-storey Crystal City, the flow of people is indeed not large, and many shops on the third and fourth floors are not open. However, Li Zheng, deputy general manager of the Shoujing Company of Donghai Crystal Industry Development Group, explained to the Times Weekly reporter that this is related to the characteristics of the crystal industry. Some stores are "open for three years", do not need to open every day, and can be open when customers come to see the goods, and the current occupancy rate of Crystal City stores is 99%.
There are also a few shops in Crystal City that are crowded. In the small shop of about 20 square meters, there are more than a dozen clerks and about 20 customers. This small shop mainly sells crystal beads, and most of the bracelets are sold for a few yuan to dozens of yuan.
In Crystal City, some stores still have a large flow of customers. (Source: Times Weekly intern Wang Qi/photo)
"I really don't know why it became popular on the Internet, and I have never taken the initiative to promote it. "10 years ago, Xiaolan, who graduated from electronic information engineering, couldn't find a suitable job, so she went back to her hometown with her husband to start a crystal wholesale business.
"Actually, it started in the first year. In the past, the routine of making crystals was to bargain, but I don't like to engage in these, so I will clearly mark the price, and each price is the lowest, which may be more suitable for the shopping habits of young people now. ”
Judging from the overall data, the overall sales volume of Donghai Crystal City is still growing, and it has increased instead of decreasing during the three years of the epidemic. The biggest contributor is cross-border e-commerce.
In fact, although it is the hometown of crystal, the crystal products sold in the East China Sea are all imported from Brazil, Uruguay and other foreign countries, and the local crystal mines are no longer mined. Donghai County is also a famous county for the export of overseas labor, "all over the world, where there is crystal, there are Donghai people".
The amethyst in the Tokai Crystal Museum is made in Brazil. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Due to the epidemic, many overseas migrant workers have returned to their hometowns, and these "idle" Donghai people have begun to ponder the business of cross-border e-commerce. Knowing the language, having channels, and understanding the local market preferences, the business started quickly.
"Now, sixty percent of Crystal City's sales come from online, and three or four percent of online sales come from cross-border e-commerce. Every day, about 350,000 pieces of crystal products are sold from Tokai Prefecture to the world by express delivery. Li Zheng also serves as the secretary general of the Donghai County Wearable Nail Industry Association.
He told the Times Weekly reporter that the local government also quickly launched support for crystal cross-border e-commerce, including anchor training, private network special lines, offline selection of supermarkets, and the construction of bonded warehouses, etc., to try to lower the entrepreneurial threshold of cross-border e-commerce.
"The best selling thing is the crystal ball, as well as these small crystal pillars, and the demand of foreign buyers is very different from that of domestic buyers. Shen Weihua, the person in charge of Jingmaotong cross-border e-commerce supply supermarket (also known as "crystal supermarket"), told the Times Weekly reporter that the anchor can directly broadcast live in the "crystal supermarket", and go to the front desk to check out directly after the buyer places an order to avoid hoarding goods.
On the cross-border e-commerce platform, the best selling is this crystal pillar. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Not only is it broadcast live in the "Crystal Supermarket", but Wangyan Village in the west of Crystal City has also become a "live broadcast village", gathering a large number of cross-border anchors in the crystal industry. The signboard on the roof of the bungalow reads in large letters, "High-salary anchors, all platforms and all languages".
Industry insiders revealed to the Times reporter that "the sales volume of a night live broadcast can reach tens of thousands of dollars".
On the edge of the "live broadcast village", you can see recruitment advertisements of multilingual anchors from time to time. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Opportunities for transformation are coming to the county.
However, for some individuals in the industry, "doing business with the world" is still a bit beyond imagination, from language to logistics, payment is another system, and only a few have become "Internet celebrity stores". Stuck to the original business model, "Wangpu Rental" can only become the last choice.
Almost at the same time as the rise of cross-border e-commerce in the East China Sea, the trend of wearing armor has also blown to this county. The original manufacturer of crystal inlay and small accessories received orders from wearable nail stores such as Qingdao and Yiwu, and after a brief understanding, I felt that I could try it.
On the one hand, there is a lower threshold and simpler business model for wearing nails, and on the other hand, there is a crystal industry that has become more complex, which is not a difficult choice for most practitioners to make.
"It's easy to wear armor, and if you're lucky, you'll get up, it's very simple. There is no concentration on entrepreneurship or anything like that, you can do it with a little bit of business thinking, which is the business on the tuyere. Mao Mao told reporters that he has no experience to share as the first echelon of enterprises in the county and even in the entire industry, "just do it." ”
Workers packing on the "Wear a Street". (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
After the wild growth
As Mao Mao said, wearing armor is a simple business. Originally, it had accumulated experience in e-commerce through the crystal business, and there were all kinds of channels such as packaging and logistics, which could help Donghai take off by the east wind of wearing armor.
"It's never too late to start putting on armor, it's starting to erupt. 2024 is the first year of wearing armor. "In the East China Sea, every armor-wearing boss gives such an answer.
But a low barrier to entry also means reproducibility. Many neighboring counties have sent delegations to the East China Sea to investigate successful experiences. On the Taobao Wearable Nail Hot List, it shows that the store "FALLINFALL" that shipped from Lianyungang ranks second, and has accumulated nearly 50,000 fans.
The person in charge of the store told the Times reporter that he was not in the East China Sea, but in Guanyun County, next to the East China Sea. "Guanyun now also makes armor and processing points, but we only have warehouses here, unlike Donghai, which has offline stores for exhibition and sales. ”
In the stores that have transformed to wear armor, there are still a lot of crystal stockpiles. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
With the increase in foreign competitors, Donghai is still able to firmly occupy the ToB market by virtue of the advantage of concentrated supply. But now, for Tokai, the more critical problem comes from within.
"When we investigated last year, the average wholesale price of Donghai wearing nails was still about 17 or 18 yuan, and now it has fallen to 12 or 13 yuan. Li Zheng said.
Until core competitiveness is cultivated, low-price competition may be the only means.
The owner of a handmade nail shop told a Times reporter that when they began to enter the nail industry in 2019, the price was about 60 yuan per pair, but now it has dropped to 15-25 yuan, which is already a high price in the East China Sea. According to the reporter's understanding on the street of wearing armor, the wholesale pricing of most stores ranges from 8 to 20 yuan.
At present, the processing fee for each hand-worn nail is about 5-8 yuan, which is the main cost of hand-worn nails. If we want to further "involute", we can only compress the income and interests of ordinary practitioners. And the low-price competition of wholesalers will not be beneficial to consumers, once they leave the East China Sea, the price of wearing armor will only soar several times or dozens of times.
The picture above shows a wholesale Donghai wearing armor for more than ten yuan, and the picture below shows a shopping mall wearing armor priced at 359 yuan. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
"Do the hardest and most tiring work, make the least money. Li Zheng concluded that if the status quo is not changed, it may be difficult for the wearable nail industry in the East China Sea to develop sustainably.
In his opinion, there are three solutions. The first is to incubate its own brand and enhance its core competitiveness; the second is to open sales channels at the same time and invest the existing e-commerce resources of Donghai into the wearable nail industry; third, Donghai plans to build nearly 100,000 square meters of Crystal City Hall 3 into a wearable armor exhibition and sales experience center to attract the country's top sales enterprises to settle in.
Packing and shipping people wearing armor. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
In addition, from the perspective of the industry as a whole, hand-worn armor also faces the problem of lack of standards.
In this regard, the hand-worn armor with a "soul" is not even comparable to the mechanical armor. "We talked to a head anchor team before, but because there is no industry standard for hand-wearing armor now, most head anchors and offline shopping malls have reservations, and they are willing to sell mechanical armor with lower cost but standards. Therefore, we will also promote industry standardization as soon as possible. ”
Li Zheng revealed that the association is preparing a three-year plan for the development of the handmade nail industry in Donghai County to help the orderly development of the industry. Strive to use 3 years to achieve an annual production capacity of 300 million pairs of wearable nails in the East China Sea.
Next to the Crystal City is a wheat field. (Source: Times Weekly reporter Wang Chenting/photo)
Night is coming. Migrant workers in Crystal City got on battery bikes and drove to their homes not far away. Under the lamp at night, they may take out the transparent nail piece and draw the delicate pattern according to the order. Away from their brushes, these colorful pieces of armor will float across the ocean with the round crystal balls, decorating the fingertips of people from afar.
The huge signboard in the park reads "Do Business with the World". Investors from all over the world roam the streets of Wearer in search of the latest opportunities to make a fortune. Across the road, a large patch of green wheat was growing upward.
(Intern Qi Wang also contributed to this article)