Can nail salons sell cigarettes?

“ Five years ago, Qiu Ye was the owner of a nail salon and bought a Gatling e-cigarette for the purpose of quitting smoking. The price was more than 1,000 yuan. “The customer thought that the thing I smoked was very good. Not only can he quit smoking but also be fashionable, he often helps customers buy e-cigarettes." By accident, he became one of the earliest e-cigarette agents in China and made a pot of gold.

and Most of those who entered the industry at the same time also had a large number of contacts, and they were able to start e-cigarette agents in the early stages. From 2015 to 2017, they experienced the huge profits of domestic e-cigarette agents on average every year. The revenue is around 1.5 million, and the overall gross profit is 100%-200%.

Since the second half of 2018, a large amount of capital has entered the market, and emerging e-cigarette brands have emerged one after another. However, now. As an e-cigarette agent, the gross profit of each e-cigarette is basically maintained at around 50%.

While brands are competing for development, e-cigarette agents are inseparable from exploring markets, promoting products, and developing new channels. Behind the e-cigarette trend, the experiences of agents are also a wonderful story.

Note: The content of this article mainly comes from interviews with Pencil Road reporters and public information on the Internet. The arguments are inevitably biased and are not deliberately misleading. < /p>

One of the first e-cigarette agents in China

"Xinyikang's Gatling 134", six years later, Feng Aqi still remembers the model of the e-cigarette he smokes , he has been an agent for this cigarette for nearly three years.

From 2013 to 2017, the regular army of e-cigarette brands has not yet entered the market, and electronic products manufactured by OEMs such as Zhuoeryue, Yijiat, and Xinyikang have not yet entered the market. Cigarettes are mainly exported abroad, and the foreign e-cigarette market is booming.

The first e-cigarette Feng Aqi used, Gatling 134, was bought from the United States through a friend, and it said " "made in china".

"When I saw the electronic cigarette for the first time, I thought it looked so handsome." He casually posted it on WeChat Moments. After using it for a while, he felt pretty good. Feng Many of Ah Qi’s friends asked where he bought the e-cigarette.

Realizing the business opportunity, he called his sister who was a designer in New York and asked her to help him find this e-cigarette in the United States and buy dozens of it first. It will be shipped back to China. However, because there is not much inventory in physical stores in the United States, purchasing on behalf of others is not an option.

“This e-cigarette is made in China, so why should I buy it from the United States? "According to the address provided in the manual, Feng Aqi found the Xinyikang factory in Shenzhen. After proposing to be the exclusive agent in China, the manufacturer was hesitant. They were worried that no one in the country would buy it at that time. After many negotiations, he became the number one in the country. First batch of e-cigarette agents.

After becoming an agent, Feng Aqi had some concerns at first: he was worried about safety issues. The components of e-cigarette oil are nicotine and liquid chemicals, which are inhaled after heating. Lungs can cause cancer.

Feng Aqi found the factory to learn about the health issues of e-cigarettes. After the manufacturer produced the EU-certified CE report and the US FDA test report, he checked the information online and consulted relevant people. The health of e-cigarettes. After that, Feng Aqi officially started e-cigarette agency.

Qiu Ye, the former nail salon manager, also worked in Ningbo before opening a nail salon. Goods business. "This business is not guaranteed. It's better to earn three to four hundred thousand a month, but it's only a few thousand. "The European debt crisis in 2012 severely impacted the domestic real economy. Qiu Ye recalled, "Losing money every month, tens of thousands, is common." After a year of persistence, he returned to Beijing in 2013.

In the eyes of outsiders, Qiu Ye was rebellious and disliked studying since he was a child. At the age of 16, he got nose studs, ear studs, lip studs, and hair dye.

However, his father’s words led him to enter the e-cigarette industry, which he has been doing for more than five years.

In early 2013, Qiu Ye received a call that his father was critically ill. He rushed to Shanghai overnight. Sitting in front of the hospital bed, his father said, "Stop smoking, take care of your health, and work hard." His tone was a little serious.

He has smoked two or three times a day for more than 10 years. Cigarettes and quitting smoking are not easy for Qiu Ye. He searches for information about quitting smoking online every day. He has tried snorting and nicotine patches, and spent several hundred yuan to buy a Ruyan e-cigarette. “The more I smoke, the more I smoke.” The more disgusting it became, the more he wanted to smoke real cigarettes, and he went back to three packs a day."

By chance, he bought a New Econ Gatlin, which was considered the most expensive e-cigarette at the time. , each priced at more than 1,000 yuan. When customers of the nail salon see that Qiu Ye smokes e-cigarettes, which are healthy and can help him quit smoking, he often asks him to buy them. The daily income of the nail salon is one to two hundred, and one e-cigarette costs one to two hundred. The price is three to four hundred, the gross profit is 100%-200%, and the monthly income can reach up to 300,000.

Unintentionally, considering the income and market future, he became a part of the e-cigarette market from an e-cigarette user. .

The business of making money through connections

In 2013, the domestic e-cigarette market was completely blank. At that time, there was a person who could start an e-cigarette agency. Sex: Have a lot of connections

Qiuye electronic cigarette agent started with RBA equipment, which can rebuild the core.

This kind of electronic cigarette belongs to the high-play category. You need to make the heating color and oil-filling material yourself. Moreover, "this thing is addictive to play with."

"It requires a lot of attention when playing. How thick is the heating wire? How many turns are burned? What is the diameter of the circle? How thick is the cotton? How to arrange the cotton to make the taste better? How many resistors are suitable for you? This is the real subculture.” Qiu Ye is a senior player in the industry and can talk endlessly about the performance of these products.

In 2014, Qiuye first sold e-cigarettes through physical stores. After that, he also trained other physical stores, talking to them one by one, teaching them how to operate and decorate. He mainly wholesales, buying goods from Xinyikang at a price of more than 400 yuan. The wholesale profit is less than 10%, and he can earn 40 yuan per bottle. The final price in the hands of consumers is 1,288 yuan. In three years, he sold hundreds of thousands of e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes have very strong social attributes. Qiuye has set up a forum where novices can ask questions, and experienced players can answer questions or discuss, forming a content accumulation.

“Since the first day I started selling e-cigarettes, business has been very good.” Qiu Ye was in two e-cigarette player communities with hundreds of people. After he posted his store in the group, “ It lasted for almost a year from that night, and I basically didn’t sleep at night. People kept buying things, and they always came to me. I didn’t sleep and kept selling every day.”

“Basically from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock in the morning every day, I make tens of thousands or ten thousand, and I earn hundreds of thousands a year. There are 3,000 physical stores in the country, and each of them reaches hundreds of customers. ”

In Qiu Ye’s view, users paid more attention to product performance at that time. "There was a bit of a geek feeling in those days. If a product ignited 0.1 seconds faster, they would choose a product that was 0.1 seconds faster." Chasing newness was the main driving force for e-cigarette players at the time, while outsiders valued safety more. sex.

Early e-cigarette sales relied entirely on word of mouth. Whether it was forums, communities, or Taobao, they all brought a lot of sales to Qiuye’s e-cigarettes. "At that time, I basically made a lot of money."

Similarly, Feng Aqi's path to fortune is inseparable from his previous resources. Before making e-cigarettes, Feng Aqi worked as a senior executive in a coal industry group and had opened three bars earlier.

When he was working in the company, he often accompanied his leaders to eat at high-end places, or did some promotions, and made friends with many high-end people, including beautiful women. After three years of experience in opening a bar, I got to know many models and photographers. This circle provided Feng Aqi with many resources for developing the e-cigarette market in the future. Feng Aqi often asks them to take advertising pictures for Xinyikang. These pictures are used to post promotional photos on WeChat Moments and Taobao, along with product introduction text. Dozens of posts are posted on WeChat Moments a day.

Collocation and arbitrary prices are the fatal pain points of the e-cigarette industry. Three or four months after the new Yikang brand was launched on the market, the manufacturer gave the agency rights to other agents.

"The market centers of those agents are abroad. They place thousands of orders at a time, and I place a thousand orders. Which one is more important? There is no way." He continued, "Traders get more goods, and the prices are twenty or thirty lower than mine. All of a batch of goods was supposed to be sent to the United States, leaving five hundred or one thousand sets for domestic sales. Otherwise, it would be chaotic. It’s worth it!” Thinking of the experience three or four years ago, Feng Aqi could still hear a hint of helplessness in his voice.

He described the development speed of e-cigarettes during that period: "When I was doing it, Taobao only had four stores. Later, it became more than ten pages in one week, dozens of pages in two weeks, and more in three weeks. A few hundred pages, that’s how fast it was.”

Until 2016, the e-cigarette industry began to “change.” The threshold for e-cigarettes is low. After the emergence of many small factories, a large number of new brands appeared on the market simultaneously. Brand iteration is very fast, and the cycle of a product is only two or three months.

The following year, Feng Aqi chose to give up Xinyikang. "It's so chaotic that I can't even make a penny on a product, and a new brand has been launched, so I have no choice but to change it."

Be a "pioneer" of new brands

However, the endless emergence of new brands also gives agents more choices.

Feng Aqi chose to represent MOTI. Given his previous experience as an agent for brands, he seemed very cautious. "I will not make products easily now. If I do, I will cooperate for a long time."

Each agent selling e-cigarettes has his own sales ideas. Feng Aqi requires his subordinate agents to sell products to end customers. This can prevent unfair pricing. He mentioned that the price system of an e-cigarette brand is somewhat confusing, which is an important reason why he does not represent that brand. "A set of electronic cigarettes is sold for 299, but there are more than 100 sets everywhere on Taobao. This is the situation that agents are most afraid of."

The agent will pay a certain deposit to the brand. If In the event of arbitrary pricing, all deposits will be deducted. Feng Aqi used to do B2B, but now only does B2C. Customer groups will also provide some sales assistance when facing physical stores. "If it's B2B, we can't control random prices, but if we're doing B2C, we can ensure that every genuine product is sold to customers."

In terms of profits, Feng Aqi is unwilling to disclose too much. It’s just that this sales model will not increase profits too much, and the customer base and sales volume will decrease, but it can keep the brand alive longer.

Coincidentally, Qiu Ye also chose to become an agent for MOTI, and only for this brand. Before representing MOTI, Qiuye represented several brands at the same time, including MT.

It is the predecessor of MOTI, "it has been on the domestic market for two months and has ranked first in sales."

Qiu Ye revealed that agents do not rely mainly on selling packages to make money, but on maintaining good customer relationships and allowing customers to continuously repurchase cigarette orders. This is the profit point that agents value more. "In 2017, MT was the e-cigarette with the lowest probability of oil leakage and incorrect orders at that time, and it was relatively stable."

The manufacturer's attitude towards after-sales service determines whether the agent can maintain good customers. Qiu Ye mentioned that MOTI’s predecessor, MT, was the first to propose lifetime after-sales service. The pod vape uses lithium batteries, MT is 420 mAh, and MOTI is 500 mAh. If you use e-cigarettes every day, the discharge rate will be high and the battery will continue to decay. After two or three months of use, the battery will be insufficient. "This is very important for sales, regardless of any quality issues. As long as the product has major or minor defects, the manufacturer can replace it."

Not just MOTI, new brands and capital The entry of e-cigarettes has given birth to new vitality in the e-cigarette industry.