Text丨Zhao Heng
出品丨牛刀财经(niudaocaijing)
Recently, a post-00s college student bought inferior copycat sunscreen clothing, which resulted in a rash on his arm, which attracted the attention of a large number of netizens and appeared on the hot search list.
In the video, dermatologists even said that remember not to blindly choose low-quality sunscreen clothing, and should choose sunscreen clothing with protection and test report when buying to prevent related skin problems such as ultraviolet radiation allergies due to insufficient sunscreen performance.
In fact, in recent years, as sunscreen clothing has gradually become a rigid demand of the whole people, the industry market chaos has also arisen. For example, there are a large number of bad white labels, which have become the "Li Ghost" of the brands.
1. The white card "Li Ghost" is impossible to prevent
Early modern sunscreen clothing, mainly to cater to the lifestyle of outdoor sports groups, belongs to the niche consumer demand. However, with the explosion of public demand for sunscreen, consumers' expectations for sunscreen clothing are not only sunscreen, but also the desired demand performance is more comprehensive, so it has attracted many brands to enter the game.
For a long time in the past, sun-protective clothing was the main battlefield of outdoor brands, including Jiaoxia, which was the first to invent the sun-protective clothing category, and foreign professional outdoor/sports brands Beimian and Decathlon.
In addition, sports brands such as Bosideng, Uniqlo, Anta, Li Ning and other sports brands and regular wear brands have also joined the army of sunscreen clothing manufacturers.
On sinking e-commerce platforms such as 1688 and Pinduoduo, a large number of non-brand sunscreen clothing products have emerged. According to the statistics of "DT Business Observer", there are many white-label sunscreen clothing on 1688, and the sales volume exceeds 100,000.
These white-label sunscreen clothing can basically be divided into two categories: the first category, the private brand of regular manufacturers, such products are often of good quality, but because the cost is there, the price and brand sunscreen clothing will not be too different, both at the price of 100 yuan.
The second category is the bad white label that wants to compete with the brand for the sunscreen cake, but is unwilling to spend time and cost on product research and development. These bad white labels basically rely on low-cost "copycat brands" to harvest consumers.
To put it mildly, he will describe himself as "a brand of the same factory and the same origin" on the details page, and more directly, he directly played the brand homophonic stalk of "Banana Fear", "Xun Mo" and "Splash Steng" in the title, which is known as "big brand replacement", but the price is as low as 29.9 pieces.
"Li Ghost" not only focuses on local brands, but also does not let go of international brands. Some unscrupulous white-label merchants sell under the name of "Archaeopteryx with the same sunscreen", but forget that Archaeopteryx does not seem to have any sunscreen clothing at all.
As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. Can the 29.9 big-name replacement really be compared to the 299's big-name products?
A careful study of the product detail page is not difficult to find that brand merchants will basically publish the ultraviolet protection coefficient test report on the detail page, which lists in detail the values that can isolate ultraviolet rays, cooling feeling, air permeability and other parameters. A more reliable brand will announce dimensions and parameters other than sunscreen, such as breathability, coolness, gram weight, washing resistance, etc.
However, the parameter standards of copycat sunscreen clothing are very vague, most of them are perceptual descriptions, full of black technology, such as "cool body feeling that can cool down" and "hyaluronic acid fabric comparable to medical beauty". As for the test reports, including UV protection, either there are none, or the relevant certificates are incomplete and not really convincing.
In July 2023, Chengdu Business Daily reported that it was found on the 1688 platform that the retail price of a loose sunscreen clothing labeled "Bananaxia with the same loose sunscreen clothing" was 29 yuan, and more than 2,000 pieces were traded within 90 days.
However, the merchant did not admit that he was the foundry under the banana, and only said that he could make the same product. At the same time, it is unashamed to say that it can provide one-stop services including printing, packaging, tags, etc., and buyers can print whatever logo they want.
In the Jiaoxia flagship store, products similar to the above-mentioned sunscreen clothing are priced at 199 yuan, with monthly sales of more than 100,000 pieces. The price difference between the two is nearly 7 times. Although both parties provided ultraviolet protection coefficient test reports, the products under the banana also showed test reports that were not easy to snag, shrink, and pilling.
These counterfeit and shoddy products, although the price is low, but from the sunscreen ability to the fabric itself, most of them are not up to par, they not only destroy consumers' trust in sunscreen clothing, but also have a bad impact on honest brands and white labels, and even the e-commerce platform behind them.
Second, it seems to save money, but in fact it suffers
So, why is there still a market for "Li Ghost" sunscreen clothing?
In recent years, with the establishment of sunscreen awareness and the continuous enrichment of sunscreen scenes, the demand for sunscreen of Chinese people has also increased day by day, and the scale of the sunscreen market has been increasing.
According to the "White Paper on China's Sunscreen Clothing Industry Standard", it is expected that by 2026, the size of China's sunscreen clothing market will reach 95.8 billion, of which sunscreen clothing will account for more than 50% of the sunscreen clothing market, and China's sunscreen clothing market will reach the level of 55.4 billion.
The sunscreen clothing market continues to expand, but as an emerging category, there is no corresponding national standard group standard as a category specification, and most brands on the market have not yet disclosed the awareness of the standards and values of sunscreen clothing, which just gives bad white labels an opportunity to take advantage of.
For consumers who do not understand the purchase standards of sunscreen clothing and do not understand various high-tech concepts, buying in the sunscreen clothing market is basically equivalent to running naked consumption. In the face of such an "attractive" price, it is not uncommon for it to be difficult to resist.
As a result, there are "disposable sunscreen clothing" that wears several times and fades with open threads and a plummeting sunscreen after washing, and many consumers have suffered physical damage after wearing low-cost and low-quality "flat replacement".
On Xiaohongshu, there are a large number of bloggers who complain that after trying the replacement product, they get sunburn and even allergies and rashes. A young mother bought a sunscreen clothing for 20 yuan at the night market, but her son not only did not have sun protection, but also went to the hospital with a rash.
After these consumers stepped on the thunder for the first time, they inevitably had a very poor psychological impression of sunscreen clothing, and this impression also brought damage to the entire industry.
These consumers may think that sunscreen clothing is an IQ tax and has a poor effect, but as everyone knows, this is because the "Li ghosts" are making trouble.
There is no doubt that if the sunscreen clothing industry wants to truly develop, it is necessary to establish the purchase standards and numerical system of qualified sunscreen clothing, so that consumers can know what is a good sunscreen clothing and what is the "copycat IQ tax".
3. Where is the way out of the pain of cottages?
In the process of industry development, it is inevitable to experience labor pains. Industry chaos is actually an inevitable stage problem for the growth of the sunscreen clothing market, and the key lies in how to make the industry no longer deviate and move towards regularization.
For example, in the early days of the smartphone industry, there were also a large number of copycat products, which disrupted the market by low prices for a period of time. But with the rise and growth of domestic mobile phone brands, copycat mobile phones have gradually become history.
Perhaps the "price war" is a kind of commercial competition behavior for brands to seize market share, but low prices are absolutely impossible to become the main direction of industry development. In the long run, the cost performance on top of quality and innovation is the driving force for the development of the industry.
In 2023, Tmall will launch the "Standard Hexagon for Sunscreen Clothing", and this year, Jiaoxia, which has the largest market share of sunscreen clothing, will push the standard of sunscreen clothing to a new stage of open standards, transparent values, and functional balance around the national standard of "Outdoor Sunscreen Skin Clothing" and "Evaluation of Ultraviolet Protection Performance of Textiles", based on consumers' basic needs for a qualified sunscreen clothing.
In Jiaoxia's view, a qualified sunscreen clothing is the foundation, but the qualification of breathability, coolness, gram weight, washing resistance and other functions is equally important.
For example, on the basis of the ultraviolet blocking rate of >99%, the air permeability rate > 180mm/s not only ensures the breathability of the clothes, but also ensures that the skin is dry for a long time. To ensure that the sun protection performance does not change after multiple washes. In terms of technology, Banana uses raw yarn type sunscreen, even after 30 washes, it can also ensure the sunscreen effect of UPF50+.
However, according to relevant reports, only banana, sinsin, ohsunny and other sunscreen brands on the market have announced specific standards, values and professional test reports. In the face of the dazzling sunscreen clothing "Li Ghost", it is necessary to solve the problem of difficult purchase for consumers and difficult operation of honest merchants, and many parties need to work together.
In addition to taking the lead in announcing the numerical standards of sunscreen clothing and establishing category bottom line specifications, Jiaoxia has also launched an all-round crackdown on copycat infringements, including e-commerce platform complaints, industrial and commercial bureau reports, civil prosecutions, criminal cases, trademark invalidation, etc., covering all kinds of infringement of copyrights, trademarks and patents.
In 2023, Jiaoxia will work with the platform to actively protect the rights of the e-commerce platform on the whole network, and 90% of the complaints will be successfully removed, and the rights protection of various similar trademarks of "Jiaoxia XX" and imitations of competing products will be launched in an all-round way, and more than 50 copycat illegal stores will be closed in just one year.
The series of anti-infringement acts under Jiaoxia not only effectively protect the interests of consumers, but also set an example for the industry to clean up the source. Jiaoxia's parent company, Shenzhen Word Reduction Technology Co., Ltd., has also won the honor of "Advanced Unit of Anti-infringement and Counterfeiting Work" issued by CAASA of the Beijing Anti-Infringement and Counterfeiting Alliance.
On the one hand, relevant laws and regulations, platforms and responsible brands will stand up and take the initiative to regulate copycat behavior, and on the other hand, the formation of category norms will squeeze out the market space of copycat brands.
What sunscreen companies need to do is to unite to disclose the numerical standards, find out the industry ghosts, and bring consumers a really good sunscreen clothing, so that good money can drive out bad money and make the industry bigger and stronger.