Author | Cao Lin
Editor | Rao Feixia
Although the Olympic Games is closed, the wind of "the same nail art for Olympic champions" brought by Olympic champions is still blowing.
A manicurist who is engaged in manicure work near Guo Mao in Chaoyang District told Ran Caijing that "Yang Qian Manicure with the Same Style" has become the most popular style in the store recently. Before that, few consumers chose the same manicure. Even if there are, most of them are "rice circles". In order to get as close as possible to their favorite beans, two or three people do it together.
Mangosteen, who has been in contact with the nail industry since 20 13, told Ran Caijing that the reason why the nail art with the same style as the Olympic champion came out soon was related to the popularity of the Olympic Games on the one hand, but the more crucial reason was that the nail art industry has always been very popular with young people.
As mangosteen said, the professional edition data of Tianyancha shows that there are nearly 630,000 nail-related enterprises in China. As of August 9, 20021year, only this year, the number of nail-related enterprises (all enterprise status) in China was nearly 1.4 million, with an average of nearly 20,000 new related enterprises every month. The data further shows that in the past decade, the number of annual registrations of nail-related enterprises in China has shown a steady upward trend.
Source/visual inspection
In fact, the development or popularity of the nail industry is not a matter of nearly ten years. Jin Wei Manicure was founded in 200 1 and has a history of 20 years. According to its official WeChat official account, it has 2000+ stores nationwide. The number of its sub-brand Yilan Bell stores nationwide also exceeds 1000.
LILY NAILS, a nail brand established in the same year, started from a 5-square-meter shop in Yaxiu Street and positioned itself as a high-end nail eyelash brand in Beijing. According to its official WeChat, there are currently 20 lily nail shops that can be searched in public comments. A year later, Liu Juan Manicure Salon was established. The salon is known as "Hermes in the nail industry" and is also deeply loved by female stars. Angelababy, Tang Yan, Alyssa Chia and Gao Yuanyuan all had manicures.
As pioneers in the nail industry, these brands have also witnessed the progress of nail polish raw materials from the early nail polish to the present nail polish glue. With the improvement of materials, the unit price of manicure has also been significantly improved.
A bottle of nail polish of several yuan or ten yuan has long been buried in the history of nail art, replaced by the price of nearly one hundred yuan or even several hundred yuan. Among the top shops in public comment search for "manicure", the lowest unit price is 195 yuan/person, and the highest is 582 yuan/person.
Source/public comment screenshot of burning money
But even if the customer unit price is getting more and more expensive, it will not affect the enthusiasm of consumers at all. After 90, Wang Jia told Ran Caijing that his hand was his "second face". Usually, the maintenance of hand mask is not a small expense, and manicure is just needed. "The face-covering lens in the circle of friends reveals nails and mobile phone cases, which naturally needs to be embellished."
Wang Jia began to do manicure in college. "Wudaokou clothing market was a concentration camp for our nail art at that time. It seems that the fourth floor is almost full of nails and eyelashes. At that time, 60 yuan could make a solid color manicure, and my roommate and I did it almost once a month. " After work, Wang Jia is getting busier and busier, but the habit of regular manicure hasn't changed at all.
The rapid development of Internet social platforms has also brought new opportunities to manicure. "My roommate and I often plant different styles of grass in Tik Tok, Little Red Book, Weibo, or friends circle, and then make the same paragraph." The styles Wang Jia is making now are basically "so-and-so".
However, although manicure is becoming more and more popular, it is difficult to form a scale. At present, there are not many large-scale nail companies. In addition to the earlier nail companies such as Lily Nail and Liu Juan Nail Salon, the larger one is the Beaver House on the O2O platform, and there are more small independent studios.
"The main reason why nail art is difficult to form a scale is that the technical threshold is low and it is difficult to form barriers." Mangosteen bluntly said that the nail industry seems to be "profiteering", but it is not easy to "nugget" on a large scale.
Nowadays, manicure has long been one of the ways for young people to show themselves. Manicure with increasingly diversified shapes, colors and materials has also made many beauty lovers and practitioners call "the nail circle has also begun to involute".
During the Olympic Games, Xin Wei, born in 1995, watched several live events, was powdered by China's first gold winner, Yang Qian, and planted her sister's pink baroque manicure. "I had a premonition that this nail art was going to be on fire. Sure enough, the next day I searched the Internet for the same nail art of the Olympic champion. My sister has already sent an article about planting grass, and many nail shops have launched the same style. The price ranges from 160 yuan to 480 yuan."
Of course, Xin Wei, who loves beauty, cannot lag behind. She decided to do baroque retro manicure in the same style as Yang Qian. "I did it for an hour and a half and spent 299 yuan. Because my skin is yellow, it is not suitable to make pink as tender as my sister. I chose the right color under the recommendation of the manicurist, but the style is exactly the same as my sister. " Xin Wei said that the reason why we want to get the same model of the Olympic champion is not only because it looks really good, but also because we want to be happy with the Olympic champion.
Xin Wei's "manicure history" can be traced back to junior high school. However, at that time, due to school restrictions, it could only be done during the winter and summer vacations. "Around 20 16 years ago, French manicure was particularly popular. I deliberately saved pocket money, and as a result, my mother vomited like malnutrition. "
In Xin Wei's view, the styles in the nail industry are introduced quickly, because young people like to pursue novelty. "In addition to the French style, frosting, anti-French, gradient, laser, splicing, ink style, metal style and so on have also been popular. Aurora became popular again last year, and shell wind blew again this summer. " Whenever a new model comes out, Xin Wei can't help but try it.
Wang Jia told Ran Caijing that when she was in college, she learned about new nail art patterns through Weibo, or went directly to the store to see samples and choose styles. "Now there are many bloggers printing pictures on Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok. When I see the pattern I like, I will collect it first and send it to the manicurist, and then do it when the other party is convenient. "
In addition to choosing a nail salon near the office, sometimes she will make an appointment for on-site service according to her own schedule. "It is more and more convenient and quick to do manicure now. It used to take a minute to light the nail polish baking lamp, but now it can be done in 15 seconds. I feel that the materials used are more and more environmentally friendly, and there is no pungent taste at all. "
Xiaoyu, after 00, is full of imaginative thoughts every day. In her opinion, everything can be manicured, and nothing is difficult for a manicurist. "I never collect stars or online celebrities. My manicure is to have personality and be different. " She once came into the shop with a cup of milk tea and asked the manicurist to make the same milk tea. "That cup of milk tea has a high value, so I just want to make a beautiful manicure and take a photo with milk tea."
Xiaoyu said that the manicurist was very calm and started to do it when she communicated well, and the effect was exactly what she wanted. "Miss manicurist said that there are many consumers who like personalized customization like her, and they directly ask to buy the same clothes, the same pets and even the same notebooks."
As a manicurist who has worked for seven years, Xiao Min has personally felt the trend of personalized consumption demand. "For manicurists, technology is the foundation of settling down." Xiao Min told Burning Finance that on the one hand, a well-skilled manicurist can be recognized by consumers and bring passengers to nail shops; On the other hand, it is not easy to train talents in this industry, and the brain drain is serious. A mature manicurist can get a good salary.
Xiao Min said that in the past seven years, her biggest feeling is that the social status and salary of manicurists are gradually improving. "When I first entered the business, my salary was only 3,000 yuan, and now my monthly salary is over 10,000 yuan." Xiao Min is a child from the countryside. With only a junior high school education, she once worked as a waitress and nanny in order to survive in a big city like Beijing. "This business has a low threshold. When I entered the business, I found a training institution because I didn't understand the market. I spent 5000 yuan on the 10 day training course. In fact, some chain stores also have corresponding training courses, the price is cheaper, and some free training comes to school. "
Today, Xiao Min feels that his technology, capital and customers have accumulated almost. "I have been working for people for so many years and I plan to be a boss." Xiao Min said that opening her own nail salon has been put on the agenda.
From concept popularization, industry formation to market expansion, 1995 entered the nail industry in China. Although it has been 26 years in China, it is still a potential growth point in the whole beauty industry.
China Life Beauty Industry Development Report 2020 released by Meituan pointed out that as an important service industry of "her economy" and "Yan value economy", the scale of consumers in the life beauty service industry continued to expand, supporting the development of the whole industry. According to the consumption data of active users of Meituan Beauty Cosmetics, hairdressing, beauty cosmetics and manicure account for the top three online consumption, accounting for 57.2%, 2 1% and 17.5% respectively. In 2020, female users will account for 73%, and people aged 2 1-30 will account for the highest proportion.
For a long time, the main scene of nail service is that consumers enter the store to receive services. Many small shops rely on consumers to pre-store cards to obtain cash flow and maintain the repurchase rate.
"Around 20 15, nail shops in Beijing were particularly popular. The nail salon next to a supermarket is only a few square meters, but every day there are many people waiting in line to do nails. " Xiao Ran is a nail salon opened on 20 15, which is a typical "shop-in-shop" model. She and her friends rented a bottom bunk in a high-end residential area in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road. A self-built attic costs 8,000 yuan per month, with a friend's clothing store on the first floor and a nail salon in Xiao Ran on the second floor.
Xiao Ran introduced to Burning Finance that the cost of setting up a nail salon is relatively low, and its own start-up capital is less than 60,000 yuan. "zhushikou has a beauty salon wholesale market. As long as you open a nail salon, the clerk will give you a complete set of equipment immediately, and there is basically nothing expensive from equipment to materials. Pay half a year's rent, hire a manicurist, and the shop will open. " In order to get the money back as soon as possible, the store in Xiao Ran has also launched a membership card, with a deposit of 2,000 yuan, which can get a 20% discount every time.
With the continuous development and progress of the nail industry, nail shops began to develop from a single nail service to a diversified comprehensive service including manicure, hand and foot care, makeup, image design and clothing matching. Xiao Ran also discussed changing his mind with his friends and called a photographer friend to upgrade the store to a diversified comprehensive store. However, due to problems such as site selection, we failed to continue our business.
At the same time, the rise of a number of nail platforms providing on-site services has extended the consumption scene of nails. In 20 14, a number of O2O brands represented by Beaver House were born. As the first home beauty industry platform in China, Beaver House has changed the mode of people looking for services in the past, allowing services to find people, and redefined the industrial mode of beauty industry in the era of mobile Internet. Now the business has expanded to beauty, eyelashes, hand and foot care, makeup modeling, hairdressing, fitness and other fields.
An insider in the nail industry told Burning Finance that before the Beaver House was founded, manicurists were attached to shops, and the money paid by customers had to go through the boss first, and then flowed into the manicurist's pocket after deducting the cost of shop rent. From the very beginning, Beaver House promised never to charge manicurists' commission, which triggered a wave of manicurists' resignation in a short time and turned to Beaver House to register as an independent manicurist.
Mangosteen is a member of the wave of resignation. It told burning finance that around 20 15, she quit her job as a manicurist in the shop, registered the beaver house, and then began to run around various cities in Beijing every day. "At that time, there were a lot of orders for this kind of on-site nail service, and it was full almost every day." Mangosteen said that she earned more than 20,000 yuan a month at that time, but it was also because she was too busy and needed to keep her head down when getting a manicure. Mangosteen fell into cervical spondylosis, and had to give up his favorite industry when his condition became more and more serious.
Figure/Weibo @ Beaver House
While mangosteen became an independent manicurist, deer also entered this industry at the same time. But the biggest reason why the deer chose this industry is that "the working hours are relatively free and unconstrained". Lu Xiao told Burning Finance that he also registered the account of Beaver House, and released some nail styles on the platform for consumers to choose from. But slowly, as more and more people share their nails on social platforms, simple styles can no longer satisfy consumers. More consumers begin to take a fancy to nail art and take the initiative to ask for the same style, so it is easy to have differences simply by relying on the platform or online communication. In order to avoid this problem better, Xiaolu set up her own manicure studio.
Lu Xiao said that the nail industry is actually a one-time investment, especially in equipment. Subsequent product procurement, in fact, is mainly to buy some accessories needed by current popular styles, and it does not cost too much. "Although the cost is not high, manicurists spend a lot of time and energy and need to constantly improve their skills."
Lu bluntly said that if the biggest change in the whole industry in the past seven years is really said, it is that "there are fewer and fewer craftsmen." Deer added that in the past, nails were basically made by hand, and now there are many nail AIDS on the market. But if you really want to keep your consumers, you still need exquisite nails.
As the deer said, for shopkeepers, the high mobility of manicurists and rising labor costs have become important problems to be solved in business. As a result, digital equipment such as intelligent nail polisher came into being and became an effective tool in nail industry. Compared with traditional artificial manicure, use machines. First, the time of nail painting is shortened from 2-3 hours to about 20 seconds, which reduces the experience cost of users and improves the efficiency of nail shops. At the same time, it is no longer limited by the level of manicurists, which can help consumers realize personalized manicure and make the expansion of nail shops not limited by talents.
In addition to the evolution of equipment, driven by the increasing consumer demand, the nail industry has also produced derivative formats such as stickers and customized nails.
In April last year, the Forbidden City Wenchuang launched the "Finger-wrapped Nail Sticker for Cats in Haitang Palace". The pattern is designed around the "Royal Cat Sky Group" in the Forbidden City. Soon after the product was launched, it was robbed by a group of exquisite girls. Li Jiaqi and Viya Taobao head anchor also brought goods.
Another derivative, "armor-piercing", is not strictly a new species. Once in a famous shop, 10-20 yuan could buy a set of armor-piercing bullets. Nowadays, with the upgrading of consumption, customized nail art is on fire again. Searching for "nail art" in Little Red Book has more than 1 10000 related comments.
Different from the plastic nail plates produced by assembly line, shopkeepers who customize nail plates will ask consumers to provide nail size data, which will be drawn according to consumers' needs, with prices ranging from 60 yuan to several hundred yuan.
"Because the armor can be reused and easily matched with different clothing styles, the customized armor solves the problems of wearing comfort and fit and meets the needs of consumers, so it is very popular among consumers." A Hua, who used to be a manicurist, quit her job as a manicurist to take care of her young children, and made her own nails and sold them herself. "The pricing of custom A is generally not too high, because the cost of rent, water and electricity is less. Generally, sellers sell on Xiaohongshu, Taobao, Tik Tok, Aauto faster and idle fish. "
Although she earns money by craft, Ahua still feels that the threshold for wearing armor is relatively low. "Most novices in this line dare to call themselves manicurists because they are not face-to-face craft shows." Ahua is not optimistic about the future development of the armor industry. "At present, the price war is more serious, mostly in the form of personal workshops, and it is difficult to form a scale."
If Weibo is the birthplace of nail lovers, today's social platforms such as Little Red Books and short videos give these lovers and businesses more space to share.
Searching for "nail art" in the little red book has over 4.32 million related comments. Just searching for "nail polish glue", there are more than 90,000+related notes. In addition, when searching for the keyword "nail art", more than 1 180000 comments pop up, almost all of which are the sharing and collocation of nail art color and nail art.
In Tik Tok, there are nail-related bloggers with hundreds of thousands of users and millions of users everywhere. Burning Finance looked through the videos released by bloggers before, and found that the contents were similar, basically around "manicure tutorial", "holiday manicure" and "bare manicure".
The "2065438+09Aauto quickers Live Ecological Report" released by A Auto Quickers Big Data Research Institute directly pointed out that the four major contents of fashion live broadcast are skin care, beauty, hairdressing and manicure, with the largest number of anchors and total comments and the largest total amount of gifts.
Luo, the manager of a chain nail salon who has been engaged in nail work for many years, told Dye Caijing that it is not an exaggeration to describe the nail industry today with "ubiquitous" for both nail lovers and nail shops. There are not a few nail brands with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of stores. But even in such a seemingly mature market, there is still no nail brand that is unique or out of the circle.
According to the survey of Tianyan, there are 12 listed companies in China whose business scope or enterprise names include nail art business, but these 12 companies are basically comprehensive companies that include nail art business, and they are not as familiar as "Jin Baihe Nail Art", "Happy Fingertips", "Love Eyelid Story" and "Liu Juan".
According to Luo Xi, the nail industry is difficult to grow up because although the skills and crafts of manicurists are very important, the design and technology of nail itself cannot become a competitive barrier for a brand.
On the contrary, the manicurist's mobility increases the cost of brand operation and management, but this seemingly basic "personnel management" is difficult to solve to a great extent. The store manager said that looking at the development of the nail industry in the past 20 years, in fact, most of the practitioners are young women. The biggest reason why they choose this industry is their pursuit of beauty and the freedom of the industry. But it is this freedom that causes the loss of personnel.
Figure/Weibo @ Beaver House
Luo added that another big problem in the nail industry that is difficult to scale is standardization. Whether it is the personnel or the style of manicure, this is almost an industry that cannot be standardized and managed. This can also be seen from the fate of DuDu Manicure and Beaver House on the nail O2O platform.
According to the survey data, Dudu Manicure is affiliated to Beijing Dwarf Technology Co., Ltd., which was established on June 23, 2004. Within four months of its establishment, Dudu Manicure has completed two rounds of financing, namely Angel Round and A Round, and the financing parties are Sequoia Capital China, Meihua Venture Capital and many other star investment institutions. However, only two years later, DuDu Manicure was acquired by 58 companies in the 20 16 Ye Mei O2O accelerated reshuffle.
"Manicure shop violent profiteering? The whole case analyzes the article Clarina, Jin Wei, Beaver Family, InNail, Manicure Gang ... Revealing the chaos in the nail industry for you. According to analysis, the most important innovation of DuDu Manicure is to standardize the management of manicurists, but unified pricing and management make it impossible for excellent manicurists to have a premium, and DuDu Manicure will soon decline.
Beaver House, which is also an O2O platform but adheres to the C2C model, avoids the reshuffle of the industry. According to the data of Tianyancha, Beaver House, which was established two months earlier than Dudu Manicure, has completed six rounds of RMB financing, with a cumulative amount of several hundred million yuan. Its latest financing took place on August 25, 2020, and it came from Alibaba's strategic financing of hundreds of millions of yuan.
Zhong Ping, CEO of Beaver House, once said: "The introduction of Ali investment has undoubtedly deepened the cooperative relationship between the two parties. More importantly, the strategy of Beaver House has the opportunity to extend beyond door-to-door service, in line with Ali's new retail strategy. Both sides welcome new development opportunities in the US service sector. "
It is worth noting that the Beaver House has long been a comprehensive platform for beauty and manicure, which further proves the argument that "a single nail brand is difficult to be big" mentioned in the above article. In fact, as early as 20 19, Beaver Family has cooperated with Box Horse Store under Alibaba to launch offline experience activities to attract customers around the store.
Figure/vision china
Luo Xi told Burning Finance that the reason behind the cooperation between Beaver House and Box Horse is easy to understand. It said that although the skill of the manicurist is very important, the reason why consumers finally decide to enter the nail shop is actually the distance, that is, the "proximity principle". It's nothing more than looking for some ornaments or nail shops in your residence near where you work and study.
Of course, the uniqueness of the nail industry has also won it a place in the battle for local life of Internet giants. According to public information, as early as 20 15, Meituan launched the beauty business of 12 sub-category, including hairdressing, beauty, manicure and medical beauty.
Today, "Manicure Eyelashes" still ranks second in the beauty/hairdressing section of Meituan. In the "Public Comment List" published by Meituan Public Comment, "Eyelash Manicure" has an independent list.
Luo Xi told Burning Finance that although it is not uncommon for nail chain brands to have hundreds of stores and nearly a thousand stores, most of them are based on franchise mode. Although there are also direct stores, there are relatively few. The biggest drawback of the franchise model is the chaotic management and uneven level of employees. After Generation Z has gradually become the main force of nail consumers and social media has become the carrier of nail style, brands, stores and manicurists will undoubtedly face greater challenges.
References:
The beaver family received hundreds of millions of strategic investments from Ali, and Huaxing Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor | Huaxing Trading, source: Huaxing Capital.
"Manicure shop violent profiteering? The whole case analyzes Christina, Jin Wei, beaver family, Nair and nail gang ... to reveal the chaos in the nail industry, the source and the egg liquid merchants.
* The title map and some pictures are from unsplash. Xin Wei, Wang Jia, Xiaoyu, Xiao Ran, Mangosteen, Deer and Luoxi are all pseudonyms.