2024 has become the first year of wearing nails.
"Young people wear armor and earn 80,000 yuan a month. A similar story has made the low-threshold, low-cost wearable nail industry quickly become a hot emerging industry, attracting many young people to invest in it, hoping to realize their entrepreneurial dreams.
Xiaojia has made a big "article", but not everyone can "take off on the tuyere". Low-price competition and lack of standards have become the pain points of this "blue ocean", how can the industry get rid of barbaric growth?
Courtesy of Visual China
It's been the first year of wearing armor
Cat's eye flashing style, Maillard style, cute style, and nude colors suitable for summer, in a nail art shop in Yiwu International Trade City, various styles of wearing nail pieces are full of containers.
With the posture of "nail art replacement", women can realize the "freedom of nail art" to change once a day, and wearing nails quickly swept the market with the advantages of low price and convenience, and was favored by female friends. According to a person in charge of a nail salon, the wholesale price of a pair of wearing nails ranges from a few yuan to dozens of yuan, and the retail price ranges from 20 yuan to hundreds of yuan.
In addition to the offline market, many orders this year come from online, and in the past six months, the number of merchants selling nail pieces and glue has also increased significantly. Xu Chunyan, an employee of a nail company in Yiwu, Zhejiang, said that the company's online monthly sales reached nearly one million yuan, and the daily sales volume of the cross-border platform was 7,000 to 8,000 orders.
On the e-commerce platform, thousands of anchors bring goods and wear armor every day, and the transaction volume of a live broadcast can even be as high as hundreds of thousands of yuan.
Wearable nails are also "very fragrant" in overseas markets: "Last month, our company participated in the Italian exhibition, and some European customers opened orders on the spot, and sold 50,000 US dollars of wearable nails at the exhibition alone. There are also many foreign businessmen who chased them to the factory to see the goods directly. Yang Yan, sales director of Yiwu International Trade City, introduced.
The hot sales have also driven the production side, and many wearable nail manufacturers have also stepped up their efforts to catch up with orders.
In a nail wearing workshop in Hongzhuang Town, Donghai County, Lianyungang City, more than 40 female workers are making different styles of wearing armor according to requirements. A pair of ordinary ABS resin nails, after the workers carefully polished, glued and colored, and then embellished, as if they have been "reborn", showing a gorgeous and dazzling color. "The company's annual output of wearable nails is about 2 million pieces. Shi Zengyi, the person in charge, said that the company ships about 2,000 to 5,000 pieces a day.
The little wearing armor has become a new world for the common people to get rich. It is reported that Donghai County, Lianyungang City, has become the largest gathering place for wearable nail production in China. In Baitabu Town, the wearing nail and small bracelet industry has driven more than 4,500 people to start businesses and employment, which can generate nearly 300 million yuan of income for local villagers every year. According to the statistics of Donghai County at the end of last year, the county's daily output of finished wearable nails is about 400,000 pairs, e-commerce sales and shipments are more than 300,000 pairs, and the annual sales of e-commerce are 2.5 billion yuan, accounting for more than 70% of the national wearable nail market.
"2024 is the first year of wearing armor. In Tokai, every owner of a nail shop said so.
Courtesy of Visual China
The "volume" is low-priced, and the "volume" is also after-sales
Due to the characteristics of light investment, high returns, decentralization and flexibility, selling clothes has also become a choice for many young people to start a business or side business.
Li Yan, the owner of a wearable nail shop in Donghai County, Lianyungang City, said that making wearable nails does not require much investment, and he only spent two or three thousand yuan to buy a little raw material to make it at home. Later, as it got bigger and bigger, she rented a shop on the street to facilitate the sending and receiving of express delivery and Taobao online sales. "In a year, the profit is 150,000 to 200,000 yuan. ”。
But a low barrier to entry also means reproducibility. It is reported that many neighboring counties have sent inspection delegations to the East China Sea to investigate successful experiences. On the Taobao Wearable Nail Hot List, a store called "FALLINFALL" ranked second and has accumulated nearly 50,000 followers. The person in charge of the store said 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. ”
Young entrepreneurs are pouring into the wearable nail industry, but not all of them can "take off" as expected. After months of enthusiastic experimentation, many left in disgrace.
"Wearing armor, there are now more people who start businesses than people who buy them. Fu Er, who has left the nail industry, concluded.
Many entrepreneurs lose out to low-price competition. The owner of a handmade nail shop said that when they entered the nail industry in 2019, the price was about 60 yuan per pair, but now it has dropped to 15 to 25 yuan. Mr. Ma, who does a live broadcast of wearing armor on an e-commerce platform, said that some merchants sell almost without making money in order to run the volume in the early stage. Xiao Yu, who specializes in hand-wearing nails, also said that she lowered the price to 29.9 yuan, and the sales volume still did not improve much.
In addition to the low price of "volume", there is also after-sales of "volume". Yun Yun, a young entrepreneur in Donghai, said that he did not expect the biggest problem of entrepreneurship to appear in after-sales. It is reported that in the "drop shipping" service of some East China Sea manufacturers, the proportion of damaged goods is large. In addition, it is common for customers to be dissatisfied with the product by hand. Even due to the reusable nature of the wearable armor, some people choose to return it after a few try-ons. Faced with the accumulation of returns and more and more bad reviews, Yunyun had to choose to close the store.
"In fact, wearing nails is a good product, but now the market is not standardized, the surface is bright, the foam is very large, and if the anti-risk ability of the merchants is low, they will 'die' quickly. Mr. Ma reminded entrepreneurs not to invest blindly.
Courtesy of Visual China
How the industry can get rid of wild growth
In the face of such a market situation, how can the industry get rid of wild growth and achieve sustainable development?
In addition to improving production capacity, many companies are also making continuous efforts in scientific and technological innovation and new product research and development.
As the first batch of local entrepreneurs engaged in the wearable nail industry, after 3 years of hard work, Shi Zengyi has summed up the "combination boxing" style that is conducive to long-term development. From registering a company to building a brand, a set of R&D, design, production, warehousing, and sales as one of the operating modes have been basically formed. Especially in terms of R&D and design, Shi Zengyi has invested a lot of energy, as the founder of "hand-kneaded style", he has integrated elements such as ink and zodiac signs rich in traditional culture into it, further enhancing the artistry and uniqueness of the product. At present, the company's R&D team has designed more than 1,200 wearable nail styles, ranging from simple and classic models to gorgeous fashion models, to popular Internet celebrity models, daily light luxury models, etc., to a certain extent, to meet the needs of different groups of people.
Mao Junrong, head of a nail art company in Yiwu, Zhejiang, said that while receiving orders, the company also continued to develop new products. He introduced that it took the company 7 months to develop a wearable armor made of renewable and degradable materials. Because it is an environmentally friendly product, it has been loved by customers as soon as it was launched.
Yang Yan also said that Fashion Nail Art will launch 10 to 15 new products every time, and tens of thousands of products with more than 100 nail types have been developed. It is reported that the gel nail sticker developed by Fashion Nail Art has been welcomed by overseas merchants because it is more flexible and realistic to wear than ordinary nails, and it only takes 10 minutes to paste and can be maintained for up to a month. ”
Chen Lingling, store manager of Zhejiang New Air Arts and Crafts Co., Ltd., said that the choices offered to consumers are becoming more and more. "The company can also customize the customer's drawings. ”
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. Industry insiders said that because there is no industry standard for hand-worn nails, most of the head anchors and offline shopping malls have retained them, and they are willing to sell mechanical armor with lower costs but standards.
In response to the current situation, Li Zheng, secretary general of the Donghai County Wearable Nail Industry Association, revealed that the association is preparing a three-year plan for the development of the handmade wearable nail industry in Donghai County, and promote the standardization of the industry as soon as possible to help the orderly development of the industry.
Zhang Liya tidying up