Although the competition is fierce, Zhang Zhikui is very optimistic about this industry
Top News·Henan Business Daily reporter Li Shouwen/picture
In the TV series "The Hidden Corner", many people still remember Zhang Dongsheng's bald image. If you don't look carefully, it would be difficult for ordinary people to notice that he actually wears a wig in the play.
Now, hair loss is bothering more and more people. Survey data shows that there are more than 250 million people with hair loss in my country, and on average one in every six people has hair loss. Someone discovered a business opportunity from it.
From barber to wig stylist, he has led thousands of students
In a beauty wholesale market in the Zhengzhou Railway Station business district, a shop is filled with wig products of different styles. The owner, Zhang Zhikui, has been selling wigs for many years. In addition to making his own brand, wholesale and customization, he also currently does product processing for some companies.
Zhang Zhikui was born in Nanyang in a small county in 1978. He vaguely remembers that when he was a child, the older generation would save their combed hair and sell it to hair buyers in exchange for small items such as needlework, thread, and candy. Hair can be a business. This was his initial impression, and Zhang Zhikui seemed to be associated with hair for the rest of his life.
In 1998, Zhang Zhikui worked as a barber. He could sell the hair cut by customers to buyers. Some customers even sold their long braids directly to the barber shop.
In his twenties, hair loss began to bother Zhang Zhikui, so he began to wear wigs and became obsessed with wig styling. He visited wig stylists everywhere to study the production and styling techniques of wigs. As his skills became increasingly sophisticated, around 2007, he started selling wigs and provided wig styling training to some partners. There are also people who come to pay to learn wig styling techniques, with a single charge of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan. Up to now, Zhang Zhikui has trained at least thousands of people.
After two years of setting up the factory, more than two million yuan was spent in vain. Later, it sold tens of thousands of wigs every month.
After staying in the wig circle for a long time, a friend suggested that Zhang Zhikui provide a one-stop service of wig design, production and sales.
Xuchang is known as the "City of Wigs" and is the largest hair products distribution center in the country and even the world. 6 out of 10 wigs in the world come from here. In 2015, Zhang Zhikui and his friends partnered to open a wig processing factory in Xuchang. However, a lot of money was invested in it, and the wigs produced were unsalable because they did not meet the market demand. The factory lost more than two million yuan in the two years before it was opened. "It was really a low point in life at that time."
Zhang Zhikui did not recover from the fall; Concentrate on researching products and raw materials, and explore wig products that are more suitable for customer needs. Slowly, the production, processing and sales of wigs are gradually getting on the right track. Zhang Zhikui’s factory not only provides OEM services to brands, but also provides design and wholesale customization services to customers. When business is good, tens of thousands of wig products can be produced and sold in a single month.
The wig market is fiercely competitive, but he is still optimistic about the industry.
National Health Commission Survey data shows that the number of people with hair loss in my country exceeds 250 million, and on average one in every six people has hair loss, and more and more young people are beginning to suffer from hair loss. trouble. And this has promoted the prosperity of the wig market. Data shows that my country's wig market has shown rapid growth for many years, and the market size is expected to reach 14.43 billion yuan in 2023.
But Zhang Zhikui said frankly that when he wholesales wigs, his gross profit margin is between 3% and 10%. The wig business is not a hugely profitable industry as everyone thinks. Due to labor costs, most of the handwork of wig making in the past was done in North Korea. In recent years, many people have begun to develop new processing points in Bangladesh , Vietnam and other places, but the production lines in these areas are not mature enough. In addition, some people in the domestic wig industry are engaged in a "price war". However, Zhang Zhikui said that he is still optimistic about the development of the wig industry. In the future, he will focus more on investing in mid-to-high-end products and provide customers with a better experience through personalized services.
