WELCOME TO LW LASHES！
Text/Photo by Li Di, reporter of Shandong Business Daily and Subaru News Network
Pingdu, Shandong, is a famous false eyelash industry belt. 70% of the false eyelashes that "lift" the world are produced in the local Dazeshan Town . There are nearly ten production processes for false eyelashes, including hair clipping, hair combination, threading, hair cutting, tube curling, heating, tube extraction, shaping, labeling, and packaging. Each link has a complete industrial chain here.
Wang Guoqing lives in Rizhuang Town, close to Pingdu. Twelve years ago, Wang Guoqing's parents learned how to make false eyelashes through an introduction, and brought this craft and customer relationships back to the village. Today, thousands of false eyelashes are shipped from here to the European and American markets every day.
The rise of cross-border e-commerce is bringing new opportunities to the industry. Wang Guoqing, who tried the cross-border e-commerce platform last year, is one of the beneficiaries. With the help of cross-border e-commerce platforms, this inconspicuous eyelash town has regained its vitality, from a reduction of 80% to 90% in orders to 2,000 orders per day. "The most obvious thing is that there are more orders, and every household is busy." Wang Guoqing said with great enthusiasm.
“It became a hit as soon as the second product was launched”
Wang Guoqing is the only young man in the village who returned to his hometown to start a business.
In 2020, when Wang Guoqing, who majored in e-commerce operations, quit his job in a foreign company and returned to his hometown to start a business, the eyelash factory at home was experiencing a crisis.
Wang Guoqing lives in Rizhuang Town, which is close to Pingdu. Twelve years ago, Wang Guoqing's parents learned how to make false eyelashes through an introduction, and brought this craft and customer relationships back to the village.
Before 2019, the false eyelashes they produced were mainly supplied to foreign trade companies, which then obtained orders by participating in exhibitions and other forms, and sold them in bulk to overseas markets.
During the epidemic, logistics were greatly affected, and the number of orders received by Wang Guoqing's parents dropped sharply. "Orders have been reduced by 80% to 90% ." Wang Guoqing has a personal experience of this. "My parents once produced a particularly good mink fur false eyelashes, with a daily turnover of more than 100,000 yuan. After the epidemic, customers placed fewer orders, and their monthly turnover was only 300,000 to 400,000 yuan."
Traditional foreign trade logistics were hindered and the number of orders plummeted, casting a shadow on this eyelash factory that has been engaged in foreign trade business for more than ten years.
"I refused to give up. The foreign trade orders received by my family's factory were getting fewer and fewer. I studied e-commerce operations, so I thought about helping my family sell the false eyelashes through cross-border e-commerce." Wang Guoqing recalled that cross-border e-commerce was very easy to do at that time. Relying on the platform's traffic, you could sell goods by just hanging up a link. It was very simple.
Relying on his previous experience in Amazon operations at work, Wang Guoqing initially chose the familiar Amazon platform. His daily turnover was six to seven thousand US dollars, with five to six hundred orders a day, and factory orders began to slowly recover.
In October last year, Wang Guoqing began to try Duoduo Cross-border, and the result was unexpectedly smooth. "When I just put the second product on the shelf, it became a big hit, with more than 300 orders a day." This gave Wang Guoqing great confidence, and he began to speed up the pace of new products. The daily order volume continued to grow. In just four months, the factory's daily order volume remained at around 2,000 orders, accounting for 75% to 80% of the company's business volume.
Sales volume supports product innovation
For Wang Guoqing, Duoduo Cross-border has opened up a new sales channel for the factory. "The platform has a lot of orders, and a good product can grow very quickly. There is no need for promotion, and we don't need to worry about logistics. As long as the goods are sent to the Guangdong warehouse, we will split the domestic logistics fees with the platform. In this case, my gross profit margin can reach a satisfactory level."
It is understood that in September 2022, Duoduo Cross-border landed in the United States, and currently covers countries and regions such as Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Spain. In the past year since its launch, Duoduo Cross-border has penetrated into more than 100 manufacturing industrial belts in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui and other places, and through one-stop services such as brand incubation, logistics support, legal support, and resource subsidies, it has promoted high-quality manufacturing products to enter more than 20 countries in North America, Oceania, Europe, and Asia.
At present, the false eyelash market is quietly changing. "Previously, manufacturers provided the payment and distributors were responsible for selling, but starting from the past two years, the payment has to be made according to the distributors' requirements." Wang Guoqing said frankly that as the competition in the false eyelash market becomes more and more fierce, the industry is more homogeneous, and there are higher requirements for product innovation.
"Our products are mainly sold to the European and American markets. In the past, it was difficult to know how consumers thousands of kilometers away felt about wearing and experiencing them. Now, Duoduo has a large number of cross-border orders and comments. We will read a lot of user sharing from false eyelashes-related stores on the platform, and suddenly we know a lot of user pain points, and then we develop new products in a targeted manner." Wang Guoqing gave an example to reporters. Last year, he saw in user comments that some consumers complained that false eyelashes were too simple and there were no tools to stick on false eyelashes. So the factory made a combination set, which not only has more eyelashes, but also comes with eyelash glue, eyelash sealant, eyelash tweezers, etc. At present, this product is the top 1 in the category.
From considering operations and product selection to now focusing on product selection and innovation, Wang Guoqing introduced that Duoduo Cross-border is more friendly to merchants, and has large traffic and good sales. We are also willing to spend money on polishing and opening funds. After all, the chance of success is greater than other platforms.
At present, Wang Guoqing's eyelash factory launches more than a dozen new products every month, and has accumulated more than 2,000 molds.
With a certain sales volume, Wang Guoqing also has a bigger goal, which is to create his own eyelash brand. "There is a false eyelash brand abroad called Kiss. I used to be their OEM. I want to follow Kiss's example and slowly transform into my own brand. When my false eyelashes sell more than 10,000 orders a day on Duoduo Cross-border, I will start this brand plan. With a certain sales volume, manufacturers of eyeshadow palettes, mascaras, eyeliners, etc. will be more willing to cooperate with me."
Shandong false eyelashes gain cross-border e-commerce wings
As the number of orders continues to increase, Wang Guoqing's eyelash business is getting bigger and bigger. He currently has four 150-square-meter factories, three in Laixi and one in Zibo, with a daily eyelash production capacity of about 20,000 orders. Recently, he is looking for a larger factory to bring together the production workers from several processing points.
With more orders, every household is busy and hiring people. This inconspicuous eyelash town is bustling with activity. "We grow Laiyang pears here. The annual income from growing pears is 3,000 to 4,000 yuan a month. Since this year, many people have come to work in their spare time. Now they can earn more than 3,000 yuan a month. With other income, a family can earn more than 6,000 yuan a month." Wang Guoqing introduced that there are currently dozens of female workers in the factory.
Wang Guoqing's eyelash factory is just one of the local industrial belts. In fact, the false eyelash industry has become a veritable industry that enriches the people of Pingdu.
Data shows that this city with a population of 1.365 million produces 120 million pairs of false eyelashes a year. The false eyelashes sold can circle Qingdao city five times, and it has created jobs for more than 60,000 people.
Data from the "Development and Reform Work Briefing" of the Pingdu Municipal Development and Reform Bureau in April 2022 showed that as of 2021, the annual output value of Pingdu's eyelash products was approximately 7 billion yuan, with 2,165 market entities whose business scope included eyelashes. The production share of eyelash products accounted for approximately 70% of the world, and more than 1,000 different styles and categories of eyelash products were produced and processed.
The rise of cross-border e-commerce is bringing new opportunities to the industry. Every day, thousands of boxes of "Pingdu-made" false eyelashes are shipped across the ocean to Japan, South Korea, Europe, the United States and other countries, becoming a hot commodity in the market. While beautifying the faces of thousands of girls, it also allows the local false eyelash industry to find a unique way to go overseas.
Shandong Business Daily·Suba News Network Editor Liu Qingying
