It's fashion, but it's also a business opportunity.
Text/Cheng is like a dream
Editor/Jiang Xuefen
The most popular fashion item this spring is none other than fart curtains.
A translucent lace skirt curtain to wear with trousers to cover the awkward zone and add a sense of style. On major social media platforms, the discussion and sharing of fart curtains has continued to rise.
Netizens who like it think, "The fart curtain is really fashionable, layered with jeans, the sense of hierarchy is all at once, the whole outfit has a casual sense of delicacy, and the photos are also very good." Netizens who didn't like it complained that "the fart curtain has made the legs that are not long longer shorter, and the already uncoordinated ratio has become five or five open, which is ugly, so ordinary people don't follow this kind of outfit."
It's fashion, but it's also a business opportunity.
In the world of fashion, the constant pursuit of novelty, unique design is a constant theme. As a novel and unique fashion item, although the evaluation is mixed, it has not prevented it from becoming the top of the fashion circle this year.
With the rise of a style comes a myriad of business opportunities.
This spring, the lace fart curtain has also become the most popular item in the store run by the boy Shao Chonglu in 99, and at the craziest time, more than 1,000 pieces can be sold in a day, and the monthly sales of a single product can reach more than 100,000 yuan.
Some people choose to pursue trends, and some people choose to seize business opportunities. Since 2024, the search volume of Taobao clothing "fart curtain" has increased by 150% year-on-year, and the transaction volume on the platform has exceeded 15 million in March this year.
It's fashion, but it's also a business opportunity
When ordinary people don't know how the fart curtain became popular, it has become an item in the hands of bloggers and many celebrities in the fashion district.
The most common way to wear a fart curtain is skirt + pants, adding a layer of lace to the outside of ordinary jeans, which looks both layered and has a unique visual effect. Of course, you can also put it on the outside of the skirt and add a layer of lace, and the original skirt worn alone looks like a different taste.
If you are tired of wearing a cabinet of clothes, you only need to spend dozens of yuan to buy a fart curtain, and you can wear the original clothes with a new effect, and rounding is equal to all new clothes. Some netizens shouted, "One outfit with more than one piece, you don't want to wear a fart curtain."
Source: Xiaohongshu blogger "Very Han Han"
Xia Weiwei, a post-95 generation, joined the fart curtain army last year, and under the Amway of major clothing bloggers on social platforms, she bought a mid-length fart curtain in November last year, "just above the knee, specially bought for the concave shape".
"Although it is less worn in the workplace, the fart curtain is very suitable for traveling, leisure vacations and concerts, and can be worn with pants and skirts, not too many ways. Xia Weiwei told reporters.
Also who seized this fashion trend early was Shao Chonglu. He runs a shop called "Zheng Baiwan" that specializes in selling clothing accessories. At the end of 2023, his boss saw on social networking sites that many Korean bloggers were drying fart curtains and outfits, speculating that this product might explode, so he quickly asked Shao Chonglu to put the link of the fart curtain on the store.
At first, Shao Chonglu only felt that he couldn't understand it and was not optimistic about this product. But the boss firmly believed that the fart curtain would be on fire, and asked Shao Chonglu to push it with his heart. In January 2024, the fart curtain was officially put on the shelves in the store operated by Shao Chonglu, and the price was 19 yuan a piece, and more than 300 pieces could be sold in a day, and the sales continued to rise. Shao Chonglu was glad to have listened to the advice and carefully operated the link of the fart curtain.
A new fart curtain on the store
After the Spring Festival, there are more and more styles of fart curtains on the market. In addition to the most popular lace models, there are also fart curtains made of various materials such as organza, mesh pattern cotton thread, polka dot polyester fiber, etc., and there are all kinds of long, short, and mid-length models. Some special styles of fart curtains, if you want to buy them, you have to queue up to make a reservation, and you can wait for half a month to get the goods.
By selling accessories, the annual sales exceed 10 million yuan
"In recent years, I've seen an increase in demand for clothing and accessories. Shao Chonglu told reporters.
On the one hand, with the improvement of people's living standards and the diversification of aesthetic concepts, people are more and more inclined to use accessories to match and highlight their unique aesthetics and styles. On the other hand, general accessories require fewer materials and processes, and the price is lower than clothing, so there is little pressure on consumers to buy.
The increase in consumer demand has also brought many opportunities to merchants. "In the past, in the store, our products were mainly silk scarves, but then we slowly began to add many other configurations, including hats, masks, sunglasses, and this time, fart curtains, among which there are many popular models. These are slowly changing, and now there are more and more merchants making accessories. Shao Chonglu said.
Some of the accessories in the shop
This year, the fart curtain is on fire. Shao Chonglu saw the "entrants" sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, "Most of the merchants who do clothing categories have new links to fart curtains. "According to reports, many merchants pick up goods in the same factory. In February, when the fart curtain was the hottest, there was a shortage on the market, and if you want to get the goods in advance, you have to increase the price by 1-2 yuan on the original basis.
The popularity of the market is also reflected in the supply chain. "In order to take advantage of this wave of popularity, almost all the factories that can produce fart curtains on the market are now entered. This also led to the fact that after February, the price of the fart curtain almost plummeted. ”
By April, the fart curtain was completely out of the circle in the market, which seemed to be hot, but in fact, it was already half out of gas on the merchant side.
On the one hand, most of the people who like fart curtains have already started it, and there are more and more lightning protection posts on the market, and there is not much market demand left. On the other hand, almost all factories are producing fart curtains, and all merchants are putting on new fart curtains, the supply is increasing, the price is getting lower and lower, and there is no money to be made in the middle.
From January to the present, in the store operated by Shao Chonglu, tens of thousands of orders have been sold, and the sales volume has reached hundreds of thousands of yuan, but now the competition is becoming more and more fierce, and the profit margin in the middle is getting less and less.
In fact, this is not the first time that Shao Chonglu's store has seized the "outlet". Ice sleeves in summer and scarves in winter have become popular items in his shop. By selling these basic accessories, the store's annual sales have reached 10 million yuan. "You have to go with the trend, not follow the trend," he said.
Always one step ahead of the trend
"If you look at the data, when the trend of a certain category rises, it means that there are a lot of people on the shelves of this single product, and there is no room for this product to make money. It is still necessary to choose products with vision and aesthetics, rather than just looking at market trends. Shao Chonglu told reporters.
Therefore, in their daily lives, the team members will always follow the bloggers on major social platforms to understand which products are more liked by users, and will also participate in some fashion events and exhibitions to communicate with industry insiders to understand the reasons behind the trends. In addition, they also keep an eye out for new products in the accessories market, analysing product sales data, search volume, consumer reviews, etc.
"The most important thing is to adjust your strategy in time to keep up with the pace of the market when you discover new trends. Shao Chonglu said.
In January this year, Shao Chonglu's boss seized the trend of the fart curtain, and quickly arranged the team to launch new products on the eve of the Spring Festival, and communicated with familiar factories to stock up, so he naturally ate the dividends of the fart curtain, "The first batch of goods sold is the most profitable." In April, the fart curtain seems to be hot, but in fact there is no profit margin, Shao Chonglu led the team to shift the focus to the next summer products, "I don't pay much attention to the fart curtain recently."
It's not summer yet, but it's almost instantaneous when the weather gets hot. The most popular categories of accessories in summer are generally related to sunscreen, so recently, Shao Chonglu's attention has shifted from fart curtains to sunscreens.
The store has started to introduce new sunscreens
Nowadays, more and more people are making sunscreen products. In order to cope with the competition in the market, Shao Chonglu will focus on innovation, will pay attention to the best products sold in previous years, add this year's popular elements or patterns on this basis, and will also innovate some new accessories suitable for summer.
In addition to product selection, he also realized that stable cooperation with factories was also important. In February, when the fart curtain market broke out, merchants were grabbing goods, and Shao Chonglu once needed to increase the price to get the goods. Stable cooperation with the factory can ensure the stability of the supply of goods, and it is also convenient to negotiate the price with the factory.
Shao Chonglu didn't know where the next outlet was, but he felt that he could do well, as long as he waited patiently, the next opportunity would definitely come. Before that, he only needs to maintain market insight at the front end, and maintain stable cooperation with the factory at the back end, and be ready at all times, which is enough.