An eyelash town that produces $7 billion a year

• An eyelash town that produces $7 billion a year

Buoyed by a strong supply chain and unprecedented demand, tiny false eyelashes are enjoying a golden age.

A two-and-a-half hour drive from Qingdao is the town of Changle in Pingdu County, known as eyelash Village, where the Pingdu eyelash industry originated.

Every step of the way around the town can be seen several shops with the word "eyelashes" on display, displaying various false eyelashes. With the keypad tapping of the assistants next to them, these false eyelashes are sent to Pingdu through offline wholesale or online e-commerce, and sold all over the country, as well as Europe, America, Japan and South Korea and other countries.

Up to now, Qingdao Pingdu City has registered more than 5,000 eyelash enterprises, among which more than 1,000 enterprises are engaged in the production and processing, trade and supporting eyelash-related industries, with an output value of up to 7 billion yuan, accounting for 80% of the national output and 70% of the global market share.

Eyelash sales form also began to become more, or mainly to retail, while opening Taobao store and network red cooperation to sell goods; Or back to 1688 to do upstream wholesalers, lashes to lower-level businesses and beauty institutions; The rest belongs to offline channels and is sold around the world through cooperation with foreign trade companies.

The eyelash economy is heating up just in time for the 2020 pandemic.With faces obscured by masks, consumers' attention shifts to the only eyes that can be seen.

In the past year, as many as 800 new companies focused on the production, processing and sales of eyelash products, nearly 20% more than in 2020.

The fake eyelashes in Qingdao became a hot search due to the huge sales volume on Nov 10. According to the feedback of eyelash manufacturers, flat eyelash manufacturers increased their orders by nearly 40% on November 11. Even though the lights are still bright in the cold night, eyelash manufacturers still cannot meet the demand even though they ship nearly 20,000 boxes of false eyelashes every day.

The production of false eyelashes is extremely artificial, including "pressing, closing, lining, cutting, tube curling, shaping, tube peeling, supporting and packaging". A pair of false eyelashes needs to go through a total of nine steps before they can be manufactured.

In addition to the two most common types of grafted lashes and daily lashes, there are also categories of hair, dense rows and fleece. According to the different density, length, color and curl degree of false lashes, there are also different materials and styles, and corresponding to different methods of hair closing and shaping.

The production of complex false lashes is difficult to mechanize, because mechanical lashes are single and rigid, far less than the price of hand-made lashes. Even in Pingdu, the majority of false eyelash manufacturers are mainly family-run workshops, and the people in this formerly impoverished county are better protected from drought and flood than from the risk of spending money on brands.

With a strong supply chain and unprecedented demand, tiny false eyelashes are enjoying a golden age.

Just as any consumer product deserves a remake, now it's the eyelashes' turn, and an industry that has had neither the education of a global brand nor the birth of a national brand is approaching its turning point.