The municipal party committee secretary also liked it, making 400,000 yuan a month? A county town in northern Jiangsu takes the nail art business to the extreme
In early May, Lianyungang Municipal Party Committee Secretary Ma Shiguang hosted a symposium in Donghai County to hear a report on the development of the wearable armor industry. He put forward a number of industry development suggestions at the meeting, such as industrial scale layout, improving product quality and technology, building well-known brands, using e-commerce to go global, etc., "cultivating the wearable armor industry into a 'shining' business card of Donghai County." .
What is wear armor? Is it a type of armor? Or is it a gaming device?
In fact, wearing nails is a fingertip business. The so-called wear-on nails are to stick pre-made manicure styles on the nails through jelly glue. They can be worn and removed repeatedly, and can be changed according to your own outfit and preferences. Rather than spending hundreds of dollars, sitting in a nail salon for an hour or two to get your nails done is cheaper and more convenient.
In the past two years, wearing armor has become really popular. According to data from an e-commerce platform, since March, sales of the wearable armor category have increased by 200% year-on-year, and are continuing to grow. As long as you pay attention, you will find that most of the places where armors are shipped are from Donghai, a county in Jiangsu.
Unknowingly, Donghai Wearing Armor has developed into an eye-catching emerging industry.
The previous label of Donghai County is the world's largest distribution center of natural crystal raw materials.
The most magnificent building in Donghai County is Crystal City. At the intersection of Xishuang Lake, Jingdu Avenue and Zhonghua Road, a venue covering an area of 452 acres and a construction area of 450,000 square meters has firmly attracted people's attention. China East China Sea Crystal City, with a total investment of 3.2 billion yuan, can accommodate tens of thousands of merchants.
In recent years, Donghai people have sold crystals to all parts of the world, and the annual transaction volume has exceeded 40 billion yuan. Even on a working day, Halls 1 and 2 of Crystal City are not deserted. Some stores are introducing products to customers, some are doing live broadcasts, and crystal bracelets and pendants fill the entire screen.
Not long ago, there were new changes in Crystal City. A new exhibition area has been set up in Hall 3 of Crystal City. Small boxes and bags contain colorful handmade nails. Gradient, cat-eye, and French-style nails are inlaid with shiny accessories. There are thousands of styles that make you dazzled as soon as you enter. Nowadays, the business owners of handmade armor are no less prosperous than the crystal merchants next door.
Wearing armor styles displayed in the store, photographed by Liu Chang
The first batch of 36 shops in Hall 3 of Crystal City has been opened. Merchants who sign up must first pay a deposit, and the shops of the same area will be drawn by lot to decide who can occupy them. Sun Wenfei applied, but was not selected. "I didn't expect it to be quite popular." Sun Wenfei was a little annoyed.
Sun Wenfei was one of the earliest people in Donghai County to engage in handmade armor business. "Buccellati and Somalia are the two most popular styles this year." He took reporters to visit his armor production base and was very familiar with the products on the shelves.
Almost all the people on the production line are women, and they call themselves "baby moms." "When the children go to school, we come to work, and when school is over, we pick up the children. Our home is nearby, so it is convenient and we can earn a lot." A mother told reporters.
The mothers sat under the fluorescent lamp at the workstation, each holding a pair of armor plates in their hands. First polish, then apply color glue and hook lines. For more complex styles like Buccellati and Somalia, iron magnets need to be tilted horizontally to absorb the cat-eye luster, and then rhinestones and accessories are inlaid. Ordinary workers can usually make 30-50 pairs of handmade armors a day, and the best skilled workers can make 100 pairs a day. In Donghai, the cost of putting beads on crystal jewelry and braiding a bracelet is only 0.5-2 yuan per pair, while making handmade armor costs 5-8 yuan per pair, and the monthly salary is even more substantial. "The most powerful mother here earned nearly 50,000 yuan in three months," said Sun Wenfei.
Bao's mother uses a ferromagnet to draw out the luster of cat's eyes, photographed by Liu Chang
The considerable income is an important reason for Sun Wenfei to start the armor-wearing business. In 2018, a friend came into contact with handmade armor. He mysteriously revealed to Sun Wenfei: If he does it for a month, he can earn 400,000 yuan.
This number was so astonishing that Sun Wenfei followed his friends into the industry.
If you want to do business, you must first understand the production process of handmade armor. Sun Wenfei and his sister learned from the workers of their friends for a while. At first, they were very slow and could only make seven or eight sets a day. Later, they became more and more skilled. Then they recruited more people, rented a small shop, and went to nearby places. The towns and villages hire mothers to work...
Not long after, Sun Wenfei’s products were launched for retail on an e-commerce platform. At first, the sales volume in the backend was not high, only a dozen orders were sold in a day. But the closer to the end of the year, the more different it became, four to five hundred orders, seven to eight hundred orders... Sun Wenfei stared at the screen for a long time and could not calm down: one day Actually sold 5,000 orders! "I realized at that time that the production capacity could not keep up with just a few of us workers." He quickly went to nearby towns and found several small OEM locations to expand production capacity.
However, the quality of the products at the OEM sites was uneven. Soon, Sun Wenfei's store received a large number of chargebacks. Because freight insurance was included, his losses were even greater. After a year of struggling, he lost some money.
However, Sun Wenfei was not discouraged. In this year's "frustration", he really saw the potential of the armor-wearing industry, and "there is definitely a head start." Summarizing experience and lessons, Sun Wenfei continuously optimizes the processing team, strengthens quality control, and then optimizes data by launching 10-15 styles at a time to improve the production ratio of popular styles. From September 2020 to the eve of the Spring Festival in 2021, Sun Wenfei's online store received nearly 200,000 visitors every day, and the conversion rate was also good, with a maximum of 10,000 orders sold in a day.
Sun Wenfei has good taste. In 2021, the trend of wearing armor has become fierce, and many popular styles were even out of stock. In 2023, during "Double Eleven", the sales of wearable armor on an e-commerce platform soared by 175%; in 2024, it was even more popular by some The boss of Wear Armor calls it "the first year of Wear Armor". Even Li Dan, who talks about talk shows, started selling Wear Armor on live broadcast.
The track is getting more and more crowded, but Donghai, a little-known town in northern Jiangsu County, and its small bosses wearing armor, have been on the forefront of the trend for a while.
When taking a taxi to Yigao Road, the driver will always say understandingly: Oh, let’s go to Daijia Street.
On this small street of just a few hundred meters, there are more than 20 armor shops, most of which are engaged in wholesale business. Recently, the rent of shops has soared, making it difficult to find a shop.
Yigao Road is only a few hundred meters away from Crystal City on foot. The owner of an armor-wearing shop on the street told reporters that the original armor-wearing shops were located here because they wanted to take advantage of Crystal City's momentum. When foreign guests come to Donghai, they must visit Crystal City. If you are not sure, you can also stop by to see the armor. But who was the first store in Donghai to sell armor? I asked over and over again, but no one could tell clearly.
Looking back, rather than geographical location, the real "power" that Wear Armor has borrowed is more from the e-commerce genes inherited from the Donghai crystal industry.
Initially, Donghai was rich in crystal mineral resources, and the industry naturally relied on the resources to gather. However, with the red line constraints of the protective development of ore resources, Donghai no longer mined crystals. Instead, it purchased crystal rough stones from all over the world and transported them back to Donghai County for centralized processing and production. Sale. If you want to buy and sell globally, online channels are indispensable, and Donghai’s e-commerce business has slowly developed as a result.
"Those who are engaged in the crystal wholesale and retail business have all been exposed to e-commerce. In the past, they were selling crystals, but now they are selling armors. The transition is very easy." said a local merchant wearing armors.
There are many Donghai people who have transformed from crystal live broadcasting to wearing armor, and Bao Yile is one of them. His shop occupies three stalls on Daijia Street and has done a lot of business in the past two years.
Before that, Bao Yile sold crystal jewelry and specialized in customized Buddha statues. Now, he has copied the model he accumulated in crystal e-commerce to wear armor, and is familiar with product selection and distribution. In Bao Yile's view, stores are just a display space, and online channels are needed to achieve large shipments. He also has a way of identifying big customers. When a customer walks into the store, he will ask them where they are from. "Outlander talents are the target customers. If they are locals, they will not only buy your products, nor will they buy many products. Because when I was doing e-commerce before, my idea was that all the products in the East China Sea are My inventory, so I can compare my feelings." He smiled slightly.
Chen Mangmang, the person in charge of Enduo Wear Armor, used to do Crystal Live Broadcasting. According to his words, he has worked in every aspect of the live broadcast industry: from anchoring, operations, distribution to customer service, packaging, and after-sales, everything. From working for others to now being my own boss selling armor, I have used all my experience in live broadcasting. Chen Mangmang rented a three-story factory building, mainly used for packaging and shipping. The production bases are distributed in Donghai and major towns around Donghai.
Today, Donghai is one of the main distribution centers for handmade armor in China, with a daily output of about 400,000 pairs and annual e-commerce sales of 3 billion yuan.
Once your business is doing well, you will naturally consider going overseas. Donghai people are no strangers to going to sea.
In 2023, Donghai Crystal's cross-border sales will reach 4.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.5%. There are more than 1,500 cross-border e-commerce companies, and it has cultivated many cross-border anchors. However, in the emerging wearable armor industry, cross-border sales are still a blue ocean.
Bao Yile took out 18 pairs of armor and spread them out one by one on the table. "Look, this is the style we export to North America and Russia." These armors are all super long in size and exaggerated in shape. Some are covered with leopard prints and glitter, and some outline red spots and a lot of black lines.
The styles of armor sold to Russia and North America are exaggerated, photographed by Liu Chang
Half a year ago, a customer who looked like a student came to the store, walked around and started chatting with Bao Yile. "Brother, I am an overseas student and would like to choose a few items to sell abroad." Bao Yile readily agreed. Overseas students don't get much. They usually order dozens or hundreds of pairs and sell them on street stalls abroad, but the profits are very high. According to Bao Yile's observation, a pair of high-quality armor that costs 20-30 yuan in China can be sold by international students for 40 US dollars when resold abroad. Therefore, more and more international students come to him to buy goods. At the end of November last year, he sold the largest order overseas, which was 3,000 pairs.
Bao Yile is not the only one who wants to do maritime business. On November 13 last year, Chen busily sealed the boxes of his own nail-wearing products and sent them to Los Angeles, the United States. A Chinese manager visited Donghai and ordered 100,000 pieces of armor products. Chen Manmang's products accounted for more than half. "No other place in the country can send such a large quantity of handmade armor overseas in one TEU, but we in Donghai can." Chen Busan said proudly.
In order to save labor costs, Bao Yile also built a production base in Vietnam. The produced armor is sold directly locally and is very popular among Vietnamese. Not only that, he also built a cloud warehouse in Russia. Although it is small, the logistics advantages are immediately apparent.
Not long before the reporter came to visit, Bao Yile had just attended a symposium held by the County Commerce Bureau. At the meeting, he talked openly about the fact that the foreign market for wearing armor is particularly good, but the suppliers in Donghai lack a platform and connection. There happened to be a beauty and cosmetics exhibition in Russia in June, and the Commerce Bureau agreed to help connect him and his colleagues to participate in the exhibition to seek more cooperation opportunities.
It was not until last year that the Donghai County government realized that wearing armor was a fire hazard.
Li Zheng, deputy general manager of Shojing Company of Donghai Crystal Industry Development Group, remembered that in the summer of 2023, Donghai County sent people to visit and investigate, hoping to understand the industrial distribution and corporate demands. Surprisingly, the armor industry has blossomed all over the East China Sea. Almost 70% of towns and villages have been involved in the production of handmade armor. After all, with a small space and a few idle mothers in the village, they can start making it in a week. . Because of his crystal business, Li Zhengchang contacted the e-commerce platform, and the other party reported that almost all the handmade armor on the platform was shipped from Donghai.
Although Donghai has a first-mover advantage, frankly speaking, the threshold for the wearable armor industry is not high, and other cities are not slow to respond.
Due to low labor costs, places such as Linyi in Shandong and Guanyun in Jiangsu have undertaken the transfer of many manual armor-wearing industries, and the number of processing centers has increased sharply; Huaian, Jiangsu has a great logistics cost advantage, almost 30% cheaper than Donghai; Yiwu, Zhejiang It mainly produces robot armor produced on factory assembly lines. Although it is not as exquisite and diverse as hand-made armor, its shipment volume is very impressive. In Guangzhou, the price of wearable armor is high but the quality is also the best, making it the first choice for many merchants.
If the base of the pyramid is too crowded, someone is bound to want to climb up.
In order to protect the new city card of Wear Armor and consolidate its first-mover advantage, Donghai established the Wear Armor Industry Association at the end of 2023, with Li Zheng serving as the secretary-general of the association. After the industry association was established, the first thing it did was to formulate group standards for the armor industry. The standards regulated the production of handmade armor from raw materials, production processes and other aspects. Next, the association will work with the quality supervision department to conduct random inspections of products. Companies that do not meet the standards will be boycotted by the industry to prevent bad money from driving out good money.
At the same time, this year, Donghai will also build a production and manufacturing base in the high-tech zone. It has already introduced four companies related to nail polish, nail polish and wearable nail accessories to form a complete handmade wearable nail industry chain. Previously, there were several local manufacturers of wearable nail materials in Donghai. Raw material procurement was convenient, transportation time and cost were saved, and shipments were faster. This is also the advantage of Donghai in being able to rapidly develop the handmade wearable nail industry, and the new manufacturing base will bring this The advantages continue to expand.
"In addition, we also plan to build comprehensive service points in towns and villages, cooperate with town governments, and provide free armor production sites instead of scattered in today's small factories." Li Zheng added.
Pattern makers make armor templates based on popular styles, photo by Liu Chang
The development model of the crystal industry in the past also pointed the way for wearing nails. In the future, Donghai will create wearable armor industry conferences, trade fairs, design competitions and other activities to promote cooperation and resource sharing among enterprises and promote industrial upgrading.
The armor-wearing bosses in Donghai are also using their brains. In March of this year, Bao Yile's goods began to be put into supermarkets on a trial basis. He rented a 15-square-meter shop in a shopping mall in Huai'an City. On the first day, he sold 170 pairs of handmade armors, and now the number has stabilized at around 300 pairs per day. "Not only that, I also want to use the street stall economy to sell armor. After all, a single spark can start a prairie fire," he said. Shell Nail Art owner Shen Xiangjun’s products have been sold to One-Minute Nail Salons in shopping malls in Changsha, Hangzhou and other places, as well as vending machines in shopping malls in Guangzhou. "Our company has also participated in the formulation of group standards for wearable armor. With the standards in place, it will be smoother to enter supermarkets." Shen Xiangjun believes that the diversified sales scenarios for wearable armor are far from being opened. In the future, people will buy them in supermarkets and convenience stores. Buying armor in the store is as common as buying fruit or milk.
In Li Zheng's office, the reporter also met Han Qiuchen, who is in the crystal business. "President Han is also going to wear armor this year and is forming a team." Li Zheng pointed at the person in front of him.
Han Qiuchen’s idea is to create a mid-to-high-end wearable armor brand. He realized very early on that if he only made low-end wearable armor, it would be too replaceable. "Therefore, the armor I want to make requires a dedicated design team to create a more aesthetic style. Hand-painting and inlaying are both heavy tasks and require specialized talents to achieve. This is the core competitiveness." Han Qiuchen said.
Of course, building a brand means a lot of investment, the funds must be sufficient, and the operators must have corresponding courage. Li Zheng said that the government will have certain support policies for wearable armor companies that want to build brands, such as helping to introduce some talents in brand packaging and operations, and the government is also willing to provide certain special financial support. At a symposium on the development of the wearable armor industry in early May, Ma Shiguang said that it is necessary to focus on the product value from "small" to "large", accelerate brand development, strengthen R&D innovation, create well-known brands, and vigorously develop customized products. Strive to move up the value chain.
The East China Sea, the former crystal capital, once unearthed brilliant crystal mines, and now, "gold" is once again being unearthed at your fingertips.
