Chinese summer artifact, can break into Southeast Asia
In China, with the change of consumer awareness of sun protection and the expansion of sun protection demand scenes, the sun protection industry has been rapidly expanded. In recent years, Zhang Yu has helped many brands to manufacture sunscreen clothing, and they want to copy this Chinese industrial development path to overseas, sun-protective clothing has become the first stepping stone.
Such thinking comes more from an increase in extreme weather. Take this year as an example, since April, many places in Southeast Asia have suffered continuous hot weather, many countries have broken the highest temperature record, and many ground temperatures have exceeded 50 ° C. Not only Southeast Asia, this summer around the world continued to heat up, the rare hot weather made the residents of many countries in Europe unbearable, some provinces in France issued a high temperature orange alert, Spain experienced the hottest summer since 1961, Portugal, Italy and many places the temperature exceeded 45 ° C.
In addition to sunscreen clothes, many Chinese consumers' favorite single products have also become popular overseas. "Ancient Chinese invention" - mat brings an unusual sense of cool and comfort, "no leg hair" ice silk mat is becoming popular overseas. Related media reported that Jiangsu ice silk mat manufacturers in July foreign trade orders rose 120% year on year. In the first five months of this year, Ningbo's mat exports exceeded 100 million yuan. At the same time, ice sleeves and "facekini" and other once popular in the domestic market sun protection products continue to sell well, unimaginable "hanging on the waistband of the fan", "can cool the sun protection goggles", and "equipped with air conditioning vests" are selling well in some countries and regions.
Not long ago, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that extreme heat is no longer an exception, but a climate dilemma that all mankind will soon face. As extreme weather frequently occurs and global consumers' lifestyles and living environments change, Chinese companies are trying to improve their products to expand the "cooling industry." Whether this will break new ground, however, remains highly uncertain.
The demand for summer overseas is strong
Overseas, due to poor grid infrastructure, relatively high power prices and high labor costs, there are many countries and regions with relatively low air conditioning penetration. In Southeast Asia, for example, because of the large population, Southeast Asia is one of the regions with the highest demand for refrigeration, but according to the International Energy Agency's regional survey, only 15% of households in Southeast Asia have air conditioning, and refrigeration opportunities are uneven across the region, nearly 80% of households in Singapore and Malaysia have air conditioning, while in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, That's less than 10 percent.
In this case, the Chinese mat sellers business is booming. On e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, there are a large number of MATS sold by Chinese sellers. These MATS, there are high-tech ice silk MATS, there are traditional natural materials of bamboo MATS, rattan MATS and other products.
However, the Southeast Asian market for high-tech mat acceptance is not high. Nantong businessman Liang Peng, who had been mainly engaged in home textile products, began to produce ice silk mat after sensing a business opportunity, and one of the best-selling products on the "Tao factory" is currently priced at about 100 yuan. But when he reached out to users in Southeast Asia, he found that prices were still relatively high for them, so the product took off first in countries with strong spending power, such as Europe.
At the same time, Google Trends data shows that searches for "sun protection" continue to rise, with the most popular products being sun protection gear such as hats or sleeves. Hot list data from a cross-border e-commerce platform also shows that consumer demand for sun protection is surging.
In addition to skin-friendly textiles, cooling appliances are also hot overseas sales. Ali International station data show that in the first half of this year, China's exports of electric fans and air conditioners increased by 15% year-on-year. After entering the second quarter, overseas procurement demand for summer cooling appliances such as fans and air conditioners increased by 54% year-on-year, mainly in North America (the United States and Mexico), Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d 'Ivoire, Cameroon) and Southeast Asia (Philippines, Vietnam).
China's manufacturing industry is actively adapting to changes in global market demand and has launched a series of products to meet the diversified needs of consumers. Yu Xuehui, president of Cixi E-commerce Association, pointed out that homogenized products have been rapidly sold to all corners of the world through traditional forms of foreign trade and emerging cross-border e-commerce platforms, and the market has shown a certain saturation. But like the new demand point of sun protection summer, once it is grasped, it can make a difference, "the enterprise that gets the first opportunity is likely to break out a new track."
Simple copy, not necessarily effective
"Hard sunscreen" in China is a high growth category, generally including sunscreen hats, sunscreen ice sleeves, sun-protective clothing and sunscreen glasses and other products, different from sunscreen and other soft sunscreen, hard sunscreen through physical cover to achieve the purpose of sun protection.
In the past few years, with the trend of camping, cycling and short trips, Chinese girls are no longer satisfied with sunscreen, and manufacturers are also immersed in research on "black technology" of sun-protective clothing. A large part of the confidence of the internal volume comes from the completion of China's manufacturing supply chain.
In Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries, the sunscreen clothing market is basically zero, but Zhang Yu chose to go to sea also has confidence, confidence mainly comes from rich experience and strong supply chain. "Our products have been sold abroad as early as many years ago, throughout the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia and other countries and regions, but before it was' passive production ', there are middlemen in the mediation, and now we have to take the initiative to meet the wind."
Since May this year, Zhang Yu has sent samples to more than 200 customers, but so far, only three orders have been received. Did this result from the fact that the wind had not yet picked up, or was the wind wrong? Zhang Yu believes that it is the former, "They have not even seen the sun protection clothes, have been wearing thick and uncomfortable coats running in high temperature weather, as long as guide their sun protection concept, will eventually form a big market."
Extreme weather is happening more and more frequently on Earth. On July 21 and 22 this year, the global average temperature has reached the highest temperature since 1940, making these two days successively the "hottest day on Earth".
There is no doubt that the "sun protection" and "summer heat" track will be more and more extensive. After Chinese players aim at this track, they will spare no effort to "tell stories" and attract consumers through various marketing means. However, over-promotion may not be easy to achieve the desired revenue. Li Dihua, secretary-general of the Urban Ecology Professional Committee of the Chinese Ecological Society, for example, in extreme weather, environmental protection workers wearing sunscreen clothes in some areas will still work with strict assessment standards, and "sunscreen clothes" seem to become a "guarantee" that can make high temperature workers reasonably exposed, but it will increase local "social anxiety".
In Li Dihua's view, from the perspective of humanization, this more tests the Chinese enterprises in overseas business strategy and localization, "these sun protection summer products can not be used in daily life and work." Rushing to make quick money and frantically creating "sun protection anxiety" may not be the most appropriate strategy for going to sea.