Produced by Ran Finance
Author | Cao Yang Zhang Lin
Editor | Rao Xiafei
Although the Olympic Games have ended, the Olympic champion The trend of "Olympic champions' same manicure" that they made popular continues to blow.
A manicurist who works in manicure near Guomao, Chaoyang District, Beijing, told Rancaijing that "Yang Qian's same manicure" has become the most popular style in the store in recent times. Before this, it was rare for multiple consumers to choose the same manicure at the same time. Even if there are, most of them are done by two or three young people in the "fan circle" in order to get as close as possible to their idols.
The nail art industry has always been very popular among young people.
As Mangkhut said, data from Tianyancha Professional Edition shows that there are currently nearly 630,000 "manicure" related companies in my country. As of August 9, 2021, the number of new nail art-related companies in my country this year alone (all company status) is nearly 140,000, with an average of nearly 20,000 new related companies added every month. The data also further shows that in the past ten years, the annual registration number of nail art-related companies in my country has shown a steady upward trend.
Source / Tianyancha
In fact, the development or popularity of the nail art industry has not happened in the past ten years. Jinwei Nail Art was established in 2001 and has a history of 20 years. According to its official WeChat public account, it currently has 2,000 stores across the country. Its sub-brand Yilan Bell also has more than 1,000 stores nationwide.
Also established in the same year is LILY NAILS, a nail art brand. Starting from a small store of 5 square meters on Yaxiu Street, it is positioned as a high-end nail and eyelash brand in Beijing. According to its official WeChat account, there are currently 20 LILY NAILS stores that can be searched in Dianping. A year later, Liu Juan Nail Salon was established. Known as the "Hermès of the Nail Art World", the salon was also loved by female celebrities. Angelababy, Tang Yan, Alyssa Chia, Gao Yuanyuan, etc. have all had nail care.
As pioneers in the nail art industry, these brands have also witnessed the progress of nail art raw materials from early nail polish to current nail polish glue. While materials have improved, the unit price of manicure has also increased significantly.
Nail polishes that cost a few or more than ten yuan a bottle have long been buried in the history of manicure, replaced by prices of nearly a hundred or even hundreds of yuan. When searching for "manicure" on Dianping, among the stores with higher popularity rankings, the lowest price per customer is 195 yuan per person, and the highest is 582 yuan per person.
Source / Dianping Ran Finance Screenshot
But even if the unit price becomes more and more expensive, it will not affect the enthusiasm of consumers at all. Wang Jia, who was born in the 1990s, told Rancaijing that her hands are her "second face". Daily maintenance such as hand mask is already a big expense, and manicure is even more urgent. "When you post photos on social media with your face hidden, what's exposed is your manicure and mobile phone case, so it's natural to embellish it."
Wang Jia started doing manicure in college. "Wudaokou Clothing Market was our concentration camp for manicures at that time. It seemed that almost all the people on the fourth floor were doing manicures and eyelashes. At that time, you could get a solid-color manicure for 60 yuan. My roommate and I had to do it almost every month." After working, Wang Jia became busier and busier, but her habit of regular manicures did not change at all.
The rapid development of Internet social platforms has also brought new opportunities to manicure. "My roommates and I often plant different styles on Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, or in WeChat Moments, and then make the same style." The styles Wang Jia makes now are basically "the same style as so and so."
However, although nail art is becoming more and more popular, it is difficult to achieve scale. At present, there are not many large-scale nail art companies. Except for earlier established nail companies such as Lily Nails and Liu Juan Nail Salon, the larger one is the O2O platform Helijia. In addition, there are more small-scale nail art companies. Independent studio.
"The main reason why it is difficult for manicure to achieve scale is that the technical threshold is low and it is difficult to form barriers." Mangkhut bluntly said that the manicure industry seems to be "huge profits", but if you want to "nudge gold" on a large scale, it is not easy.
Today, manicure has long become one of the ways for young people to express themselves. The increasingly diverse styles, colors and materials of manicure have also led many beauty lovers and practitioners to say that "the manicure circle has begun to 'involve'."
During the Olympic Games, the post-95 generation Miao watched several live events and became a fan of Yang Qian, who won China's first gold medal. She even adopted her sister's pink baroque manicure. “I had a hunch that this manicure was going to be popular, and sure enough, the next day I went online to search for the same manicure of the Olympic champion, and there was already a young lady who had posted about it, and many nail salons had launched the same style, and the price ranged from The price ranges from 160 yuan to 480 yuan.”
Of course, Miaomiao, who loves beauty, can’t lag behind and decided to get the same baroque retro manicure as Yang Qian. "It took one and a half hours and cost 299 yuan. Because my skin is yellow and I am not suitable for the same soft pink color as my sister. I chose a suitable color based on the manicurist's recommendation, but the style is exactly the same as my sister's. "Miao Miao said that the reason why she wanted to get the same style as the Olympic champion was not only that it looked really good, but also because she also wanted to be blessed by the Olympic champion.
Miaomiao’s “nail art history” can be traced back to her junior high school days. However, due to school restrictions at that time, I could only do it during the winter and summer vacations. "Around 2016, French manicure became very popular. I specially saved my pocket money to have French manicure, but my mother complained that I was malnourished."
In Miao Miao's view, the manicure industry is constantly evolving with new styles. Soon, because young people like to chase new things. "In addition to the French style that has always been popular, frosted, reverse French, gradient, laser, splicing, ink style, metal style, etc. have also been popular. Last year, aurora became popular again, and this summer the shell style is blowing again." Whenever a new style is released, Miao Miao Mr. Miao couldn't help but try something new.
Wang Jia told Rancaijing that when he was doing manicures in college, he mostly learned about new manicure patterns through Weibo, or went directly to the store to look at samples and choose styles. "Nowadays, there are many bloggers posting pictures on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. When I see a pattern I like, I will save it first, send it to the manicurist at the right time, and then make an appointment to do it at a time that is convenient for both of us."
In addition to choosing a nail salon close to her office, she sometimes also books door-to-door services according to her own schedule. "Nowadays, doing manicure is becoming more and more convenient and faster. It used to take a minute to shine the nail polish baking lamp, but now it can be done in 15 seconds. I feel that the materials used are becoming more and more environmentally friendly, and there is no irritation at all. The smell in my nose is gone.”
Xiaoyu, who was born in the 2000s, is full of wild ideas every day. In her opinion, everything can be manicured, and there is nothing that can’t beat a manicurist. "I never collect the same styles from celebrities or Internet celebrities. My manicures have to be personalized and unique." She once brought a cup of milk tea into the store and asked the manicurist to make a style matching the milk tea. "That cup of milk tea looks very good, so I just wanted to do a good-looking manicure and take pictures with the milk tea to post pictures."
Xiaoyu said that the manicurist was very calm, communicated the style and started doing it, and the effect was positive. It's what she wants.
"The manicurist said that there are many consumers who like personalization like her. Some directly request the same style of clothes, the same style of pets, and even the same style of notepads."
As a manicurist who has been in the industry for seven years As a manicurist, Xiao Min has personally experienced the trend of personalized consumer demands. "For manicurists, technology is the foundation for their livelihood." Xiao Min said to Ran Finance. On the one hand, manicurists with good skills can be recognized by consumers and bring customer flow to nail salons; on the other hand, this industry cultivates people who are not Easy, there is a serious brain drain, and mature manicurists 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 have gradually improved. "When I first entered the industry, my salary was only 3,000 yuan, and now my monthly salary is over 10,000 yuan." Xiao Min is a child from a rural area. With only a junior high school education, she worked as a waiter and a nanny in order to survive in a big city like Beijing. . "The threshold for this industry is low. When I entered the industry, because I didn't understand the market, I found a training institution and spent 5,000 yuan on a 10-day training course. In fact, some chain stores also have corresponding training courses, which are cheaper and some are free. Training is a work-for-study approach.”
Now, Xiao Min feels that she has almost accumulated enough skills, capital and customers. "After working for so many years, I am also planning to be the boss." Xiao Min said that opening a nail salon of her own has been put on the agenda.
From the popularization of the concept, the formation of the industry to the continuous expansion of the market, it entered China's nail art industry in 1995. Although it has been in the country for 26 years, it still has the most potential for growth in the entire beauty industry. point.
Meituan released the "China Lifestyle Beauty Industry Development Report 2020" and pointed out that as an important service industry in the "her economy" and "appearance economy", the scale of consumer groups in the lifestyle beauty service industry continues to expand, supporting the development of the entire industry. Meituan Beauty’s active user consumption data shows that hairdressing, beauty and body care, and manicure occupy the top three online purchases, accounting for 57.2, 21, and 17.5 respectively. Female users accounted for 73 in 2020, and people aged 21-30 accounted for 73. Highest.
For a long time, the main scenario for manicure services was for consumers to enter the store to receive services. Many small stores relied on consumers to apply for pre-deposit cards to obtain cash flow and maintain repurchase rates.
"Around 2015, nail salons in Beijing were very popular. The nail salon next to a supermarket only had a few square meters, but there were many people queuing up to get manicures every day." Xiao Ran is the nail salon that opened in 2015 , a typical "store-in-store" model. She and her friends rented a shop at the bottom of a high-end community in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road. The monthly rent for a small self-built loft was 8,000 yuan. The first floor was a friend's clothing store, and the second floor was Xiaoran's nail salon.
Xiaoran told Ran Finance that the cost of opening a nail salon is low, with his own start-up capital of less than 60,000 yuan. "There is a beauty and hair wholesale market in Zhushikou. You just need to open a nail salon, and the clerk will immediately equip you with a complete set of equipment. From equipment to materials, there is basically nothing expensive. Pay half a year's rent, hire a manicurist, and the store will be open. "In order to get back the money as soon as possible, Xiaoran's store also launched a membership card. If you deposit 2,000 yuan in advance, you can get a 20% discount every time.
With the continuous development and progress of the nail art industry, nail salons have begun to develop from a single nail service to a diversified comprehensive service including manicure, hand and foot care, makeup, image design, clothing matching, etc. Xiaoran also discussed changing ideas with friends, and called a friend who was a photographer to upgrade the small store into a diversified comprehensive store. However, due to problems such as location selection, he was unable to continue operating.
At the same time, a number of manicure platforms that provide door-to-door services have emerged, extending the consumption scene of manicure. In 2014, a number of O2O brands represented by Helijia were born.
As the first door-to-door beauty industry platform in China, Helijia takes door-to-door manicure as an entry point, changing the past model of people looking for services and letting services find people, redefining the industry model of the beauty industry in the mobile Internet era. Today, the business has expanded to the "Pan American Industry" fields such as beauty, eyelashes, hand and foot care, makeup styling, hairdressing, and fitness.
An insider in the nail art industry told Rancaijing that before the establishment of Helijia, manicurists were attached to the store, and the money paid by customers had to go through the boss first, and only after deducting costs such as store rent, could it flow to the manicurists. pocket. Helijia promised from the beginning to "never charge commissions from manicurists," which triggered a wave of resignations of manicurists in a short period of time. They then turned to Helijia and registered as independent manicurists.
Mangosteen is part of the wave of resignations. She told Rancaijing that around 2015, she quit her job as a manicurist in a store, registered at Helijia, and then started traveling around various urban areas in Beijing every day. "At that time, there were so many orders for door-to-door manicure services, and I was fully booked almost every day." Shengzhu said that his monthly income at that time also exceeded 20,000 yuan, but it was also because he was too busy and needed to do manicures. Keeping his head down, Mangkhut suffered from cervical spondylosis. When his condition became increasingly serious, he had to give up his favorite industry.
Picture / Weibo @河里家
When Mangkhut became an independent manicurist, Xiaolu also entered the industry at the same time. But Xiaolu’s biggest reason for choosing this industry is that “working hours are relatively free and unrestricted.” Xiaolu told Rancaijing that he had also registered an account for Helijia. At that time, he was publishing some manicure styles on the platform for consumers to choose from. But slowly, as more and more people share nail art on social platforms, a few simple styles can no longer satisfy consumers. More consumers began to take the initiative to ask for the same style of nail art. In this way, it is easy to have disagreements simply relying on the platform or online communication. In order to better avoid this problem, Xiaolu established Owned a manicure studio.
Xiaolu said that the nail art industry is actually a one-time investment, especially equipment. The subsequent purchase of products is actually mainly to purchase accessories needed for current popular styles, which does not require a large expenditure. "Although the cost investment is not high, manicurists spend a lot of time and energy, and they also need to constantly improve their skills."
Xiaolu said bluntly that in the 7 years since he has been in the industry, if he really talks about the entire industry The biggest change is that "there are fewer and fewer craftsmen." Xiaolu added that in the past, manicures were basically purely handmade, but now there are many auxiliary tools for manicures on the market. But if you really want to retain your customers, you still need superb nail art skills.
As Xiaolu said, for shop owners, the high turnover of manicurists and the rising labor costs have become important problems that need to be solved in operations. As a result, digital devices such as smart nail machines emerged and became efficiency-improving tools for the nail industry. Compared with traditional manual manicure, using machines, firstly, the nail painting process is shortened from 2-3 hours to about 20 seconds, which reduces the user experience cost and improves the efficiency of the nail salon; at the same time, it is no longer subject to nail art. Limiting the level of technicians can help consumers achieve personalized manicures, and at the same time, the expansion of nail salons does not need to be restricted by talents.
In addition to the evolution of equipment, driven by the continued increase in consumer demand, the nail art industry has also given birth to derivative businesses such as stickers and customized nails.
In April last year, the Forbidden City Cultural and Creative Industries launched a "Begonia Palace Cat Finger Wrap Nail Sticker" with a pattern designed around the "Royal Cat Group" in the Forbidden City. Shortly after the product was launched, it received a lot of attention A group of exquisite girls robbed. Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, Taobao’s top anchors, have also brought A-films.
Another derivative, "wearing armor", is not strictly a new species. Once in a small store like Miniso, you could buy a set of wearing armor for 10-20 yuan. Nowadays, with the consumption upgrade, customized armor pieces have become popular again. Searching for "wear armor" on Xiaohongshu, there are more than 110,000 related notes.
Different from plastic nails made on the assembly line, shop owners who customize nail nails will ask consumers to provide nail size data and will draw it according to the consumer's needs. The price ranges from 60 yuan to several hundred yuan. wait.
“Because the armor can be reused and is easy to match with different clothing styles, customized armor solves the problems of wearing comfort and fit and meets consumer needs, so it is very popular among consumers. "A-Hua, who used to be a manicurist, quit her job in a nail salon to take care of her young children and started selling her own handmade nails. "The pricing of customized armor is generally not too high because there are less costs such as rent, water and electricity. Generally, sellers sell on Xiaohongshu, Taobao, Douyin, Kuaishou and Xianyu."
Although it depends on Craftsmanship makes money, but Ahua still feels that the threshold for wearing manicure is relatively low. "There are mostly novices in this industry, because it is not a face-to-face craft demonstration, and everyone dares to call themselves a manicurist." Regarding the future development of the nail industry, Ahua does not Not very optimistic, "The price war is quite serious at present, and most of them exist in the form of personal workshops, which are difficult to scale."
If Weibo is the birthplace of nail art enthusiasts "showing off" their nails, Today's social platforms such as Xiaohongshu and short videos give these enthusiasts and businesses greater space to share.
A search for "nail art" on Xiaohongshu yielded more than 4.32 million related notes. Just searching for "nail polish" as a category of nail art yielded more than 90,000 related notes. In addition, when searching for the keyword "nails", more than 1.18 million notes popped up, almost all of which shared and matched nail art colors and styles.
On Douyin, there are many nail art-related bloggers with hundreds of thousands or more than one million followers. After looking through the videos posted by several previous bloggers, Ran Finance found that the contents were similar, basically focusing on "nail art tutorials", "holiday manicure", "showing white manicure" and so on.
The "2019 Kuaishou Live Broadcasting Ecosystem Report" released by Kuaishou Big Data Research Institute directly pointed out that the four major contents of fashion live broadcasts are skin care, beauty makeup, hairdressing, and manicure. Their number of anchors and total comments The one with the largest number will also receive the largest total amount of gifts.
Luo Xi, a manager of a chain of manicure brand stores who has been engaged in manicure work for many years, told Rancaijing that whether it is people who like manicures or nail art stores, the word "ubiquitous" is used to describe today's manicure industry. This is not an exaggeration. There are many nail brands with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of stores. But even in such a seemingly mature market, there is still no single dominant or out-of-the-box nail brand.
Tianyancha shows that there are 12 listed companies in the country whose business scope or company name includes nail art, but among these 12 companies, they are basically comprehensive companies that include nail art business. There are no brands that we are familiar with every day, such as "Jinwei Nails", "Lily Nails", "Yue·Zhitips", "Love Eyelash Story", "Liu Juan Nails" and other brands.
Luo Xi analyzed that the reason why it is difficult for the simple nail art industry to expand is that although the technology and craftsmanship of manicurists are very important, the design and technology of nail art itself cannot become a competitive barrier for a brand.
On the contrary, the mobility of manicurists is very high, which increases the cost of brand operation and management, but this seemingly basic "personnel management" is difficult to solve to a large extent. .
The store manager said that looking at the development of the nail art 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 precisely this freedom that causes the loss of personnel.
Picture / Weibo@河里家
Luo Xi added that another major problem that hinders the scale of the nail art industry is standardization. Whether it is personnel or nail art styles, this is an industry that is almost impossible to standardize and manage. This can be seen from the fate of the nail art O2O platforms Dudu Nail Art and Helijia.
Tianyancha data shows that Dudu Nail Art is affiliated to Beijing Dwarf Technology Co., Ltd. and was founded on June 23, 2014. Within four months of its establishment, Dudu Nail Art completed the Angel Wheel and A-round financing, and the financiers include many star investment institutions such as Sequoia Capital China and Plum Blossom Venture Capital. However, just 2 years later, Dudu Nail Art was acquired by 58 Daojia in the accelerated O2O reshuffle of the beauty industry in 2016.
"Nail salon is making huge profits? Analysis of the whole case: Christina, Jinwei, Helijia, InNail, Nail Gang... to reveal the cross-industry war in nail art for you. The article analyzes that the most important innovation of Dudu Nail Art is to standardize the management of manicurists, but to unify pricing and management. , which leaves no possibility for excellent manicurists to pay a premium, and Dudu Manicure quickly fell.
Helijia, which is also an O2O platform but adheres to the C2C model, has avoided the reshuffle of the industry. Tianyancha data shows that Helijia, which was established 2 months earlier than Dudu Nail Art, has completed 6 rounds of RMB financing accumulating hundreds of millions of yuan. Its most recent financing occurred on August 25, 2020, with hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic financing from Alibaba.
Helijia CEO Zhong Ping once said: "The introduction of Alibaba investment this time will undoubtedly deepen the cooperative relationship between the two parties. More importantly, Helijia's strategy has the opportunity to extend beyond door-to-door services and In synergy with Alibaba’s new retail strategy, both parties will usher in new development opportunities in the field of beauty services.”
It is worth noting that Helijia is already a beauty and nail salon. Sexual platform, which further supports the statement mentioned in the above article that "it is difficult for a single nail brand to become bigger". In fact, as early as 2019, Helijia has cooperated with Alibaba’s Hema store to launch offline experience activities to attract customers around the store.
Picture / Visual China
Luo Xi told Ran Finance that the reasons behind the cooperation between Helijia and Hema are easy to understand. He said that although the skills of manicurists are very important, the final reason that determines consumers to enter a certain nail salon is distance, that is, the "nearby principle." It's nothing more than finding some nail salons near your residence or near your place of work or study.
Of course, this uniqueness of the nail art industry also allows it to win a place in the struggle for local life among major Internet companies. Public information shows that as early as 2015, Meituan launched beauty business in 12 sub-categories including hairdressing, beauty, manicure, medical beauty and cosmetics.
Today, “manicure and eyelashes” still ranks second in Meituan Beauty/Hairdressing section. In the "Dianping List" released by Dianping, a subsidiary of Meituan, "lashes and manicure" has an independent list.
Luo Xi told Rancaijing that although it is not uncommon for nail art chain brands to have hundreds or nearly a thousand stores now, most of them are based on the franchise model. Although there are also direct-operated stores, Relatively speaking less. The biggest drawback of the franchise model is chaotic management and uneven levels of employees. As Generation Z gradually becomes the main force of nail art consumers and social media becomes the carrier of nail art styles, brands, stores, and manicurists will undoubtedly face greater challenges.
References:
"Heli Family received hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic investment from Alibaba, and China Renaissance served as the exclusive financial advisor | China Renaissance Transaction", source, China Renaissance.
"Nail salon is making huge profits? Analysis of the whole case: Christina, Jinwei, Helijia, InNail, Nail Art Gang... to reveal the cross-industry war of nail art for you. Source: Danjie Entrepreneurship.
*The title picture and some of the matching pictures are from unsplash. Miao Miao, Wang Jia, Xiao Yu, Xiao Ran, Mang Zhu, Xiao Lu and Luo Xi are all pseudonyms in the article.