Another "Assassin" category becomes popular overseas!

At present, the "appearance economy" has become a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Categories including beauty and clothing have repeatedly made cross-border sales and topped the overseas rankings. At the end of last year, "Chinese cosmetics are hot in South Korea" became a hot search. Data shows that in the first 11 months of 2023, China's cosmetics exports to South Korea soared to 935 million yuan.

But the same hot-selling phenomenon is not only seen in cosmetics. As a sub-category of the beauty category, nail art has also been very popular in recent years. It even became a hot search topic because of the topic list #Nail art far exceeds the housing prices in first-tier cities . The total area of ​​10 fingernails is only 0.001 square meters, but the cost is hundreds or even thousands of yuan, which is comparable to the housing prices in the core areas of first-tier cities. It is not an exaggeration to say that nail art is the "assassin" of the industry.

It is this lucrative nail art business that has enabled many sellers to break through the siege. With the unanimous pursuit of nail art by women around the world, Chinese sellers have successfully introduced nail art-related products into overseas markets and firmly established themselves on Amazon's best-selling list. The products they have cultivated include wearable nails, which have been very popular in recent years, nail polish and nail lamps required for homemade nail art, etc. The popularity of nail art products has also led to a small city in China making a lot of money from European and American people.

As women invest more of their disposable income in beauty products, the market size of nail care products is expanding rapidly. It is estimated that the global nail care market will reach US$23.1 billion by 2031, and will continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8% . Under the "face value economy", the nail care track may burst out with more possibilities in the future .

Annual revenue exceeds 10 million, and the top of the category becomes a nail in the Amazon sales list

As "becoming beautiful" has gradually become a basic need in life for some consumers, the industrial chain centered on the "appearance economy" has also been continuously extended. It currently includes beauty and skin care, hairdressing and body care, medical beauty and fitness, etc. Among the products that have contributed the most to the appearance economy in recent years, manicure must have a place.

As a new trend in the beauty and cosmetics market, nail art not only has extremely high market potential, but also has three significant advantages: high gross profit margin, low startup cost, and low technical requirements. While the domestic nail art market is involuted, foreign wearable nail products are becoming increasingly popular and occupy a high market share. Naturally, nail art has become the first choice for some sellers to go overseas, and even a domestic nail art seller admitted that "cross-border sales have saved the fate of many nail art companies."

At the beginning of 2020, emerging beauty brands represented by Huaxizi and Perfect Diary began to go abroad, but before that, nail art and other peripheral beauty products had already entered the overseas market. Although most Chinese nail art companies go overseas as suppliers, there are also many brands that stand out on the platform, such as Modelones, Beetles , and SUNUV. They are mainly engaged in nail polish, nail powder, nail lamps and other homemade nail tools; the wearable nails that became popular later are mainly covered in the second part of the article.

Modelones is one of the top representatives in the beauty segment . It was founded in the United States in 2015 and focuses on the European and American markets. It is a genuine Chinese brand. The brand's main products are four categories, namely nail polish, nail powder, nail gel and nail tools. The average customer price is mostly between US$15 and US$35. It is mainly aimed at consumers who try DIY nail art at home. The beginner's kit is one of its best-selling products.

Similar to the overseas expansion strategy of most brands, Modelones chose Amazon as its first overseas destination. After achieving impressive results, it began to build an independent website and accumulate private domain traffic. Now it has also entered cross-border e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN, and its annual revenue remains at US$2-5 million.

As a frequent visitor to Amazon's bestseller list, Modelones is a nail brand that has been launched overseas for a long time, and is often listed on the recommended list together with many international old nail brands. On Amazon, Modelones' recent best-selling product is a dipping powder and liquid set, priced at $26.99, with sales of 2K+ and 6K+ reviews in the past month.

As we all know, the nail art market in Europe and the United States is large, especially in the United States, which has many buyers and high sales, ranking at the forefront of the global nail art market share. There are already many mature nail art brands in the local area, such as OPI, Essie, China Glaze, etc., which have a high reputation in Europe and the United States. There are many large market share players, and it is not a small matter for Chinese brands to enter the European and American markets.

Unlike some celebrity brands that entered the market with a single nail polish, Modelones entered the European and American markets with an entry-level gel nail polish set. The product includes nail polish, UV/LED lamp nail tools, nail repair tools, etc. The price is set at around $30-40 after discount, which meets the needs of entry-level nail users. Currently, the product's Amazon reviews have been maintained at more than four stars, with more than 10,000 reviews.

If you want to penetrate the European and American markets, you must also consider the habits of European and American women. They prefer nail styles that have a strong visual impact and can show their personality. Modelones has also launched colorful nail polishes and different styles of wearable nails to meet the needs of consumers who love DIY personalized nails, and the price is relatively affordable. With its high cost-effectiveness and optionality, Modelones has gained a significant market share in the fierce European and American nail art market.

Currently, Modelones has more than 10 million online users, and its products cover more than 30 countries. At the same time, it uses the hundreds of billions of views of #Nails-related tags on TikTok for marketing, driving the number of TikTok views related to its brand to exceed 100 million, and successfully doubled its sales through short videos.

In fact, it is not difficult to see why manicures are so popular overseas. In the United States, the simplest manicure, even if it is just a standard solid color nail polish, costs about $50, plus an additional 15% tip. If you want a more artistic manicure, you will need to pay a higher price and make an appointment with a suitable manicurist.

A Chinese student studying in the United States had a deep impression of this: "In China, you can get a beautiful painted manicure for 200 yuan, but in the United States, this money is only enough to make a basic one." Therefore, many overseas consumers choose to buy their own manicure products, which has also led to a surge in sales of homemade manicure-related products.

Beetles is also one of the fast-growing nail polish brands , focusing on nail polish, nail tools, and nail accessories. As early as 2022, a nail polish set of the brand suddenly became popular in Europe and the United States, with more than 10,000 positive reviews on Amazon. It successfully achieved explosive sales and also rushed to No. 1 on Amazon's best-selling list.

It is understood that this product set includes a portable UV/LED nail lamp, 7.5 ml two-in-one nail glue and 500 transparent nail tips. Among them, the nail lamp has the advantage of high power and can illuminate the nails within 3 minutes. The two-in-one nail glue can be used as both nail tip adhesive and base gel. Consumers at the time praised this product a lot: rich colors, very easy to color; the gloss of the paint can be maintained for a long time; very suitable for novice DIY nail art, etc.

Searching for "Beetles" on Amazon , you can find that most of its products have over 30,000 reviews, and some have over 90,000 reviews. The sales of these products in the past month have also been very good, mostly at 4K+ or 6K+. Take a foundation oil on the BSR list as an example, the sales in the past month were over 30K, and the reviews exceeded 90,000, which shows how popular this brand's products are on Amazon.

Moreover, the Beetles brand pays special attention to product innovation. To meet the needs of European and American consumers, it continuously launches new color series, such as temperature-sensitive color-changing nail polish and magnetic nail polish. With its advantages of novel styles and keeping up with fashion trends, Beetles has captured a large number of young female consumers. On the homepage of its independent website, Beetles also provides many nail art design patterns and even buyer shows, so that consumers can DIY nail art based on them, thereby increasing the number of orders on the website.

Among all the nail art brands that have gone overseas, SUNUV is unique because its main product is only the nail lamp. The seemingly inconspicuous nail lamp is an indispensable part of homemade manicure, because the nail lamp is used to dry the nail polish and prevent it from shrinking, making the manicure more durable. It is precisely because of this single product that SUNUV has captured 40% of the global nail lamp market within one year of going overseas, with annual shipments reaching 4 million units. It can be said to be a money-making machine.

Founded in 2010, SUNUV is a veteran in the nail lamp industry. It is affiliated to Shenzhen Yuchuang Synthetic Optoelectronics Technology Co. , Ltd. As early as 2016, it occupied 60% of the Amazon nail lamp category and was also one of the top ten export brands of AliExpress in 2017.

On Amazon, SUNUV products have more than 20 models, all of which are very popular, including the most popular gel nail lamp on Amazon, and a series of models suitable for home, professional salons, etc. The reason why SUNUV can be so popular in Europe and the United States is not only because it keeps up with the trend, but also because it considers details such as consumer safety and health.

Taking into account the plug standards of different countries and regions, all SUNUV products are designed with three types of plugs: British/American and European. The UV nail lamps on the market can help nail polish gel harden quickly, but there is a common problem: there will be a burning sensation during use, and the nails and skin will turn black. For this reason, SUNUV has improved the efficiency of oven gluing, and the gluing speed is 4-6 times faster than traditional nail machines, and launched a "painless mode" that does not require manual operation.

Although the traffic of SUNUV's independent website is only 25,000 per month, its traffic has been on an upward trend, and natural search traffic accounts for a high proportion, reaching 70%. Perhaps benefiting from word of mouth and good sales performance, SUNUV has a high brand awareness, and 94% of its popular search terms are concentrated on brand terms related to "SUNUV".

Judging from the above-mentioned overseas brands, the competition in cross-border e-commerce categories is becoming increasingly fierce, but this does not prevent sellers from capturing the niche track of nail art. After some penetration and efforts, some of them have achieved the level of big sellers, and many domestic nail art brands have created a second growth curve for the company through cross-border platforms. Some of the big sellers rely on homemade nail tools, while the other part relies on wearable nails that have become popular in recent years.

With a daily revenue of 2,000 pounds, the post-00s generation has seen a surge in sales by relying on their own independent website that wears armor

In recent years, wearable nails have entered the vision of consumers as a substitute. It costs hundreds or thousands of yuan to do a manicure, but with the same money, you can buy several or even dozens of pairs of wearable nails. On Amazon, the price of a pair of products of Glamermaid, a Chinese wearable nail brand, is mostly around $10, and some are as low as $5.99. Moreover, the patterns and decorations painted on these wearable nails look no less than handmade nails.

So much so that some nail art enthusiasts have started buying wearable nails. In their opinion, buying wearable nails is not only cheaper and less time-consuming than getting a manicure, but they can also change the fingertips style at any time according to their mood or clothing. If they are well protected and cleaned, they can be reused many times. It is indeed a better choice for girls.

Due to its convenience, beauty, high cost-effectiveness and other advantages, wearable nails are popular among consumers in Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other regions. Relevant data shows that the penetration rate of wearable nails in the North American market alone has reached 50%. It is estimated that by 2027, the scale of the global wearable nail market will reach US$9 billion.

For C-end sellers, wearable armor with low average order value can bring considerable profits, which has also led to a number of Chinese brands rushing to enter the overseas market, and Glamermaid is one of them. It attracts consumers with the gimmick of "product average order value as low as US$5.99" and increases sales through bundling sales and free gifts for purchases above the limit. On Amazon, Glamermaid has a wide range of products, and most of its sales are in the hundreds.

In order to attract consumers, Glamermaid maintains a high frequency of new product launches, sometimes launching large-scale new products three times in half a month, and the number of products updated each time is more than 50. On some holidays, Glamermaid will also do holiday marketing, such as the Independence Day in the United States, they will launch special Independence Day wearable armor, and publish relevant product previews in advance to guide the holiday atmosphere and guide consumers to buy.

Glamermaid has a high cost advantage due to its lightweight and compact products, low logistics costs, and abundant domestic supply chain resources . At the same time, its independent website is based on the female perspective, with pink as the main color, which is simple and clear, attracting many consumers to stop by.

Nail art products are booming, and it’s not just the top brand sellers who are jumping into the game. On some social media platforms, you can find that many post-2000s have started their own businesses, relying on the Chinese supply chain to build independent websites for wearable nails. At their peak, their daily sales could reach 2,000 pounds. Some even shared their experiences of selling wearable nails on the streets overseas: “Fluorescent wearable nails are very popular in Europe and the United States. Importing from China, the price plus shipping is less than 30 yuan per box. I set up a stall and priced it at twice the cost, and I can sell 50 boxes a day.”

All of this is backed by the Chinese supply chain. If you look into the overseas sales of wearable armor, you will find that Yiwu, a small commodity city, is a major force. The head of a Yiwu factory said: "We ship 400,000 boxes of wearable armor to a European and American customer every week. A local anchor even created a sales volume of more than 8 million yuan in 5 minutes."

However, initially, most of the wearable armors exported from Yiwu were machine armors produced on factory assembly lines, and there were few handmade armors made by human nail artists. Later, as market demand changed, these companies began to combine machine armor and artificial armor, with the machine armor being injection molded, printed, and primed, and then manually decorated to meet multi-level market demand.

When talking about wearable nails, in addition to Yiwu, there is another place that cannot be ignored, that is Donghai County, Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. This is a small county that originally focused on crystals, and relied on exporting crystals overseas to drive the GDP of the entire county. Today, relying on the advantages of the crystal industry chain, the wearable nail industry in Donghai County is also developing in full swing. At present, there are more than 4,000 wearable nail companies in Donghai County, which have established a complete industry chain from nail plate production to style design, and then to processing and manufacturing, wholesale and sales. It is one of the largest markets for handmade wearables in the country.

According to incomplete statistics, Donghai County produces about 400,000 pairs of wearable armor , and the e-commerce sales volume exceeds 300,000 pairs, with an annual e-commerce sales volume of 2.5 billion yuan, of which the overseas market contributes a lot. In the wearable armor factory, mothers are the main producers. Some of the wearable armor produced enters domestic live broadcast rooms and online stores, while the other part goes overseas and captures the hearts of North American hot girls.

NIQ data shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, sales of wearable nails exceeded traditional nail polish , reaching US$6 million. It is estimated that sales of artificial nails (including press-on nails, nail tips and nail stickers) will reach US$160 million in 2023 , which is enough to show the prospects of this market.

In addition to Amazon and offline dealers, sellers also sell wearables through TikTok. On the one hand, the user profile of the platform overlaps with the audience of wearables, mostly young women who pursue fashion and individuality; on the other hand, sellers can sell products directly on TikTok.

The popularity of hashtags on TikTok further proves that wearable nails are still popular overseas. On the platform, the hashtag #pressonnails has received 7.2 billion views, the number of mentions of "press-on nails" on Reddit has soared 62% year-on-year, and the global Google search volume has increased by nearly one-third.

Although the nail art market is huge, many sellers think it is too difficult to sell nail art products overseas due to the low average order value . Amazon Wuye, a blogger, said at the beginning of this year that "the nail art and beauty category is too tiring and difficult, and the low average order value of full hosting is coming again."

This is indeed the case. When a blogger shared his experience of explosive sales on an independent website, he also mentioned that "wearable armor has a low unit price, so it is difficult to sell, but it is also easy to form impulse purchases." This requires that the seller's products have certain characteristics, such as high-end and personalized materials, and grand pictures and videos; the comments must include pictures of the actual products for consumers to compare; the seller must serve as a private domain user to ensure product quality and increase repurchase rate; and the service must be thoughtful, including whether shipping is free, delivery time, and how to use the wearable armor.

At present, although the average order value of the nail art market is low, it still has many advantages compared with other popular categories: it is still in its early stages, there are relatively few brand sellers, and the competition for market share is not too fierce. With the continued development of the appearance economy, consumers are bound to spend more on nail art and other products. Sellers who focus on nail art products can also focus on building brands and increasing product added value to gain an invincible position in the market.

Nail Art

Modelones

Wearing armor