Consumers: The Future Market Trend Of New Sunscreen Products

Sunshade umbrellas, sun proof clothes, sun proof hats, sun proof gloves, sunscreen ice sleeves, full face and half face sunscreen masks... Summer is getting closer and closer. To what extent can young people "arm" themselves for sun protection?

Xiaoxia, a post-90s girl, is a typical sunscreen expert. She started with hard sunscreen (physical sunscreen) to cooperate with soft sunscreen (sunscreen or sunscreen spray, etc.). Now, as long as you go out in sunny weather, "soft sunscreen + hard sunscreen" has become the standard configuration of Xiaoxia.

Not only has she studied sunscreen products, but Xiaoxia also knows the principle of sunscreen, "There are many types of ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Among them, UVA (near ultraviolet) can penetrate clouds and glass, causing direct damage to the skin, such as darkening the skin, accelerating skin aging, etc., and we mainly prevent this type of ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, if it rains all the year round, I will" sunscreen "as long as I go out."

Cao Chenwei, founder and chief product officer of ohsunny, which focuses on hard sunscreen brands, said in an interview with 36 krypton that hard sunscreen refers to new sunscreen products that are different from traditional sunscreen in the form of clothing and tool products. Through the external protective layer (fabric or coating, etc.) for light refraction, so as to avoid UV contact with the skin to achieve the purpose of sun protection. Therefore, only relying on soft sunscreen can not play a 100% protective effect, and the combination of soft and hard sunscreen is an important trend change of consumer demand.

According to the "sunscreen industry trend guide in 2022" released by Meili cultivation big data team, from 2018 to 2021, consumers' demand for sunscreen has gradually upgraded to rigid demand. Compared with other categories, the attention of consumers increases explosively, and the number of sunscreen search increases 7 times from 2019 to 2021.

The "double sunscreen" and "sunscreen plus anti-aging cream" are no longer applied to the "white" and "anti-aging" products, which are just like the "white" and "anti-aging" products.

Compared with that in 2020, tmall's sunscreen market will increase by about RMB 27 billion. According to the forecast of burning knowledge consulting, from 2021 to 2026, the sunscreen clothing market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4%. By 2026, the market size will reach 95.8 billion yuan. Over the same period, online sales of the industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.0%, reaching 42.8 billion yuan in 2026.

Consumers are crazy about hard sunscreen, which makes more and more players in this track. In addition to the brands focusing on hard core sunscreen, fast fashion brands, outdoor sports brands, and brands that have nothing to do with outdoor and sun protection are doing cross-border sunscreen clothing. It is worth mentioning that the pursuit of consumers also directly makes the sun protection equipment brand Jiaoxia Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiaoxia") a step further from the successful IPO. Recently, Jiaoxia submitted a "prospectus" to the Hong Kong stock exchange to list on the main board.

However, with the increase of entrants, on the one hand, it gives consumers more choices, on the other hand, it directly leads to the homogenization and involution of products.

"Before I bought sunscreen products, I just focused on whether I could really protect myself from sun, but now I still have to look at the appearance, weight, portability and so on." Xiaoxia told ran Caijing that sunscreen clothing can be divided into long, short, classic, shirt and cardigan styles. There are many kinds of sunscreen masks, including solid color, mixed color and gradient color. Some can protect the corner of the eye, and some are directly equipped with a sunscreen mask

Zhang Yi, CEO of AI media, told ran finance that hard sunscreen is a subdivision track, not just a product for all consumers, so the market potential and market share can easily touch the ceiling.

Zhang Yi stressed that if we study hard sunscreen in this subdivided field, it may lead to the decrease of brand profit margin with the narrowing of consumers' choice and the aggravation of industry homogeneity competition. The final trend is to rely on continuous burning money marketing to survive.

　　 Hard sunscreen is "playing with flowers"

In the past two years, under the influence of the concept of "whitening and anti-aging first, sunscreen" has gradually extended from outdoor scenes to daily commuting and travel. Sunscreen clothing is more and more popular because it can provide all-round and all-weather sunscreen.

Li Xiaoqi, a post-90s girl, told ran Caijing that the ultraviolet rays are strong in summer. No matter how many layers of sunscreen are applied, they will subconsciously block the sun. As a result, sunglasses, hats and sun proof clothes must be worn when going out. In addition to psychological comfort, in Li Xiaoqi's view, hard sunscreen is also more cost-effective. "I usually choose a professional sunscreen brand. I can wear my hat and clothes for 1-2 years without any problem. Compared with applying sunscreen, I can save both labor and money."

Like Li Xiaoqi, Tianyi, a girl born in 1995, is also a fan of physical sunscreen. She bought 10 ice sleeves only. For her, it's not just ice cream. "Recently, I have bought a pair of ice sleeves, and I think it's good to see people around me."

Tianyi told fuel finance that many brands are playing with sunscreen products. Take the sunscreen ice sleeve as an example, UPF50 + is the standard configuration in terms of sun protection strength. Color matching, in addition to the classic solid color, there are letters, fluorescent, gradient, etc. In terms of style, there are thumbs, thumbs, gloves and gloves. In addition, ice sleeves can not only be used for sun protection, but also can be worn with short sleeve T-shirts to create a sense of hierarchy. "In addition, ice sleeves made of lace material can be worn with skirts, which is absolutely beautiful."

Of course, it's not just ice sleeves that are being played out. In search of relevant sun protection products on e-commerce platform, we can see that in addition to the regular outdoor sports clothes, there are also various styles of sunscreen clothing, such as Cape Cape Cape, long windbreaker, shirt, beach sun proof shirt, knitted sun proof shirt, chiffon sun proof shirt, etc.

In addition to the diversity of appearance and style, the "roll" of hard sunscreen is also reflected in the sense of science and technology of fabrics. After browsing several brands of sun protection clothing, we found that fabrics with black technology names such as airism, enfo-shadow, nano sunscreen fiber, condensed titanium, twilight sun protection technology and so on are everywhere.

In order to let consumers more intuitively feel the sunscreen effect of these "black technologies", brands have launched test videos on the product introduction page, and some brands with offline stores are still in the store for popular science display.

In UNIQLO's Beijing Sanlitun global flagship store, we can see that there are more than ten styles of sunscreen clothing in the store. Some products not only have the function of sunscreen, but also have the functions of cool feeling, air permeability, waterproof and portability. In the store, in addition to the display of conventional sunscreen products and the introduction of Fabric Science, a small experiment of fabric softness and tactility is also set up. Consumers can pour the blue particles made of black technology fabric and ordinary fabric into the same type of device in turn, and feel the difference between the two fabrics by observing the different sliding speed of the two fabrics.

Other sunscreen products also have a variety of patterns. Sunscreen cap not only bears the function of sunscreen, but also has the effect of slimming face, so that sunscreen and concave shape are not wrong. Fuel finance has searched on several e-commerce platforms and found that more and more sun proof hats are made into straw hat, baseball cap, fisherman's cap, big cornice cap, and empty top hat, which can be folded and stored. Even sunscreen masks have different styles.

　　? Chaos caused by involution

Behind the increasing variety of products, on the one hand, is the change of consumer demand: Digital party sunscreen, lazy sunscreen and new aesthetic sunscreen are gradually becoming the three major trends of sunscreen wear. That is, focus on the change of sunscreen data, favor multi-functional, convenient and beautiful sunscreen products, and pay attention to the upgrading of color matching and style design of sunscreen categories.

In the past, consumers didn't pay much attention to physical sunscreen, so the production process and design of the products are relatively traditional and lack of innovation, Zhang Yi told ran Caijing. After the rise of generation Z users, there is more demand for innovative and fashionable products and new concepts, which in turn gives birth to new formats.

On the other hand, more and more fierce competition is attracted to the circuit.

In addition to sunny's new sunscreen and fast core brands, we have also launched new sunscreen and fast core products from sunny and inner core.

Camel, desant and decathlon, which are the main outdoor sports brands, can not miss this bonus. Even down clothing brands like bosden have begun to lay out sunscreen clothes. At the same time, there are also factory brands and niche brands emerging on the shopping platform.

Zhang Yi told ran finance and economics that most of the new brands that have entered the Bureau in recent years are OEM or ODM, making brands through marketing. Few capital and entrepreneurs enter from the production side. At most, they upgrade the product process based on the original factory. On the one hand, the price competition and homogenization are serious, on the other hand, it is necessary to constantly go to the marketing.

As Zhang Yi said, the price of "sun proof hat" searched by fuel Finance on e-commerce platform ranges from 12.9 to 159 yuan, mostly "shell hat" and "Fisherman's cap", and the color and style are basically the same. If you don't look at the brand name, you can't see the difference.

In addition, uneven product quality, coupled with the lack of uniform industry quality standards, sunscreen products increasingly affect the consumer experience.

In the small red books, such as "stuffy heat and airtight", "modeling disaster", "sunscreen corner" and so on. Among them, more than 600 netizens watched a note about "don't buy a sunscreen cap that can cover your shoulder". In addition to "ha ha ha ha", the comment area asked "can bloggers see the way" and complained about "Witch Hat". In the comment area of another sunscreen umbrella evaluation, some netizens complained that their sunscreen umbrella framework would be damaged in the wind, and that the price of the famous brand of tucao.com was too expensive and cost-effective.

As consumers say, the quality of a wide range of sunscreen products on the market may not be as good as what is advertised.

In June 2020, consumer report submitted "UNIQLO women's airism anti ultraviolet mesh zipper hooded cardigan (long sleeve)", "decathlon jacket", "bosihe women's skin coat", "Pathfinder men's Tief skin coat", "Antarctic skin coat", "camel women's skin windbreaker", "UNIQLO women's skin windbreaker", etc "Banana ice thin series shawl sunscreen clothing" and other 18 products that claim to have "UV protection" and "sunscreen" functions.

However, after a series of tests including UV protection performance, air permeability, moisture permeability, pH, formaldehyde, light and perspiration resistant composite color fastness, identification and other indicators, more than 30% of the 18 products failed to meet the standard requirements. What's more, many well-known outdoor brands of "sun proof clothes" are not as effective as an ordinary T-shirt.

In the case of serious homogenization of products, in order to seize the market, brands can only increase marketing efforts. In addition to cooperating with KOL to bring goods, we have also published grass planting stickers on social platforms such as xiaohongshu, shuoyin and Weibo. In addition, some brands also frequently boarded Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao and other big anchor's live room. According to Jiaoxia's prospectus, in 2021 alone, the company has cooperated with more than 600 KOLs, which have brought 4.5 billion views to the brand across the network.

According to the data of fat ball, Li Jiaqi carried the goods under the banana three times in the past month from May 10 to June 10 last year. There were 7 kinds of products on the goods and the sales volume was about 28.8 million yuan. The sales of Taobao are close to 1.76 billion yuan, and the next one is still working with Taobao in the same time.

Besides ohny's efforts, sunny has made great efforts in marketing. According to incomplete statistics of fuel finance and economics, ohsunny has successively cooperated with stars such as Song Yi, Wu Jiacheng, Chen Yanfei and Zhou Yangqing to attract young female consumers aged 20-35 through the strategy of star's same style and fashionable popular products.

　　 Need to make up the short board

To be sure, whether it is to cooperate with stars or find KOL to bring goods, there is no doubt that it can bring traffic and attention to the brand, but at the same time, it will also make the marketing expenses of each brand soar year after year.

According to the Jiaoxia prospectus, from 2019 to 2021, the company's distribution and sales expenses will be 124 million yuan, 323 million yuan and 1104 million yuan respectively, accounting for 32.4%, 40.7% and 45.9% of the total revenue, respectively. Among them, the advertising and marketing expenses were 36.917 million yuan, 119 million yuan and 586 million yuan respectively. It is worth noting that in 2021, the advertising and marketing expenses of Jiaoxia will increase by 392.43% year-on-year, accounting for 45.9% of the company's total revenue.

The increase of marketing cost directly leads to the decrease of its profit space. From 2019 to 2021, the total revenue of Jiaoxia will be about 385 million yuan, 794 million yuan and 2.407 billion yuan respectively, with a compound growth rate of 150% in recent three years; However, the net profit is only 20 million yuan, 39 million yuan and 136 million yuan respectively. In 2021, the net profit margin under banana is less than 6%.

In contrast to the high marketing cost, the proportion of R & D investment is relatively low. In Jiaoxia's prospectus, the R & D expenditure in the past three years was only 20 million yuan, 36 million yuan and 72 million yuan respectively, accounting for 5%, 4.5% and 3% of the revenue in the same period, which decreased year by year.

Li Yingtao, a senior analyst in the retail industry of Yiguan analysis, told fuel finance that most of the marketing driven brands are online Red brands, which have strong explosive power in the short term, but if R & D fails to keep up, it is likely to be a flash in the pan.

Zhang Yi also said that it is very difficult for a product or brand that does not work hard on research and development to have core competitiveness. It can only compete at the end of the market and burn money by marketing. Of course, it is difficult to make a considerable profit. "From this point of view, sunscreen clothing brands still need to work hard, increase research and development, and build core competitiveness based on product design and patents."

Li further added that even if a brand has a high revenue growth rate, it is usually difficult to obtain a relatively high P / E ratio. Therefore, for any brand, it is more important to change from marketing channel to R & D, supply chain and other more essential internal drive.

In addition, the seasonal demand for sunscreen products is obvious, which is also a short board that can not be ignored by brands focusing on hard sunscreen. It is not difficult to understand why brands such as Jiaoxia and ohsunny continue to expand their categories and adjust their brand positioning.

According to public information, since the transformation and launch of non umbrella hard sunscreen products in 2017, Jiaoxia has basically maintained a new speed of 2-3 months. In 2021, there are not only new products such as "suntan shoes" and "Sunglasses", but also "Sunglasses" and "Sunglasses".

It is not only the brand of warm keeping clothing, but also the brand of "professional protective clothing" has been changed from "professional" to "winter protective clothing" in 2021.

Li Yingtao said that if we lengthen the time line and enrich the product categories to increase the brand life, it will certainly work. But the key is that whether it is to adjust the brand positioning or expand the brand, we need to overcome a series of challenges and face different competitors. In addition, we also need to reshape the brand positioning in the user's mind, and in the ability challenges of cross category operation, including product design, R & D, supply chain and so on, are not to be underestimated.

Zhang Yi analyzed that the sun protection of comprehensive clothing brands is an extension of the original products to meet the demand of market segments. Compared with enterprises that regard sunscreen as the only product or main product, they have stronger comprehensive strength and less survival pressure. In order to meet the needs of consumers, brands that mainly focus on hard sunscreen must build their own "moat" such as patent barriers and material barriers, so as to live longer.

Li Yingtao further added that from single category to multi category, whether the operation ability and management ability of enterprises can keep up with it is also worth pondering.