**|Tech Planet
text|Lin Jing
As the Chinese New Year approached, young people lined up at gold shops.
The owner of a gold shop in Hangzhou told Tech Planet that he had been busy from 9 a.m. to 6 a.m. recently, making gold jewellery all night. Because there are still many customers who come from other places, he tries to deliver gold bracelets, gold rings, gold necklaces and other products as soon as possible, so that they can wear them during the Spring Festival.
Behind the explosion of gold shops, there is another reverse consumption after young people become the main force of consumption.
The data shows that starting in 2022, **au9999, that is, thousands of pure gold) continues**, and the retail price of Chow Tai Fook's ** jewelry is about 30% more expensive than *** on average, and will break through the high of 600 yuan grams in 2023.
It's not just the retail price that's expensive, it's also the craftsmanship fee. For example, in Chow Tai Fook's store, on February 2, the price of the ancient ** bracelet was 609 grams, and the manual fee was 60 yuan, which was calculated to be 59An 83-gram bracelet will cost more than 40,000 yuan.
* In front of the counter of the gold shop, the young man who was hesitant quickly found a new "gold panning" money-saving strategy - buy gold bars from the bank, and then go to the gold shop to make bracelets. Also on February 2, the Agricultural Bank of China's cast gold bar** was about 492 grams, and the manual fee of a gold shop in Beijing was 20 yuan, which was calculated to be 59 for the same oneAn 83-gram bracelet can save more than 9,000 yuan.
A staff member of the Agricultural Bank of China told Tech Planet that in 2022, the price of the same cast gold bar gram will be about 340 yuan, and it will rise to 490 yuan gram by 2023, but it is much cheaper than offline gold stores, and many people come to consult at the end of the year.
In addition, over the past year, ** consumption has continued to rise. According to the latest statistics of the China ** Association, in 2023, the national ** consumption will be 108969 tons, an increase of 878%。Among them, **jewelry 70648 tons, a year-on-year increase of 797% and, ** jewellery consumption far exceeds gold bars and coins.
A ** anchor in Shuibei, Shenzhen, the largest ** jewelry trading and distribution center in China, told Tech Planet that the end of the year is the peak sales season, and "our bosses have begun to sell at a higher price."
It's just that at the peak of sales this year, young people who are obsessed with ** have gone from "being unhappy, saving points" to opening a new moment of blood awakening - to achieve the freedom of gold mining.
Approaching the Spring Festival, many banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, and China Construction Bank, have launched the Year of the Dragon products, and launched various activities such as "matching commemorative banknotes" and "buy 5 get 1 free" to attract customers.
Compared with the retail price of offline stores such as Chow Tai Fook, bank gold bars can be about 100 yuan cheaper than 1 gram, and the quality is *** Young people have set off a wave of buying gold bars from the bank to make bracelet jewelry.
A bank staff member told Tech Planet that the reason for the popularity of this year's *** vegetarian circle is that the ancient method ** Su circle has become popular on social platforms, because there is not too much design, and the style will not be easily outdated, young people have bought gold bars from here and poured into gold shops.
Tech Planet visited a gold striking shop in Beijing, where four gold striking masters were busy, and when there was a visual impact such as melting gold and polishing rings, they would call special staff to come in and shoot and post it online to attract more customers. The waiting area outside is already full, and the waiting time for the on-site number queue is at least three hours.
A master in the gold shop said that the latest day about 1,000 grams of gold, according to the complexity of the process, from 20 yuan to 50 yuan of the hand, according to the average of 35 grams of manual cost to calculate, can achieve a daily income of more than 30,000 yuan, a monthly income of 900,000.
Compared with the order of taking dozens of grams of ** to make rings or bracelets, there are many customers in the store who take 200g and 300g ** to make bracelets.
A master who was processing 300 grams of gold bars with a welding torch was so tired that his hands trembled. The owner of the gold bar is a burly young man with a tattoo on his left arm, and he and an escort are staring at the whole time, watching ** turn into a bracelet step by step in front of him.
Equally busy is the owner of a goldsmithing shop in Hangzhou, which quickly became popular after being featured on local television this year. Since the store is located in a community, the area is only about 30 square meters, and the decoration is a little simple, and the owners of the adjacent vegetable and fruit shops on the left and right can't help but ask: Why is the business suddenly so good?
Lin Jinxiang, the owner of the above-mentioned Hangzhou gold shop, told Tech Planet that the recent work rhythm has been busy from morning to two or three o'clock in the morning, and the latest to six o'clock in the morning. If you have to repeat the same style many times a day, it will be more tiring for the gold shop master. Even the goldsmith couldn't help but suggest that he recruit someone to help.
Lin Jinxiang said that from the "three golds" (gold rings, gold necklaces, and gold earrings) used for marriage to gold jewelry for pets, young people's demand for ** is very diversified, and he is constantly adapting to new trends. A customer made a 25-gram** pendant for his pet dog, totaling more than 10,000 yuan, which made him sigh "I can't understand the world of local tyrants".
A consumer who has been to this store told Tech Planet that it took a total of 12 hours to queue up from 8:30 in the morning, to the molten gold at 4 in the afternoon, and to get the bracelet at 8 in the evening. During this period, the waiting time made her want to give up, but when she thought of the retail price of 600 grams in the offline gold store, she decided to be patient and continue to wait.
Another consumer told Tech Planet that because the craftsmanship of the gold shop in Shanghai is relatively expensive, she took the high-speed train to a gold shop in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province to make a bracelet, and the saved process fee can make up for the high-speed rail and taxi costs, but it takes more time and cost.
The explosion of gold shops is not accidental. Behind this, young people are becoming the main force of consumption, and gold shops are also breaking the circle with the help of short-term and grass-planting community platform marketing, and the gold price continues to exceed 600 yuan gram in the background, a flat consumption choice for young people.
According to the "2023 Jewelry Industry Trends" released by Tmall, **jewelry consumers are mainly women aged 18-34, among which the post-00s consumption enthusiasm is particularly obvious.
The traditional ** consumption scene is mostly the "three golds" when getting married, the gold locks and gold bracelets when the newborn is full moon, etc., but with the decline in marriage rate and fertility rate, brands represented by Chow Tai Fook have begun to target young people and explore new growth curves.
As early as 2017, Chow Tai Fook set up a venture capital firm named C Ventures, which invested in Xiaohongshu in 2018. Up to now, searching for "Chow Tai Fook" as a keyword on Xiaohongshu, the number of related notes has exceeded 2.03 million+.
Despite being the leading brand in the industry, Chow Tai Fook has been troubled by the difficulty of making money, and its gross profit margin for the 2020-2023 fiscal year is4% and 237%。
Since the gold price of ** is determined by the international gold price, no matter how much the brand sells, it cannot make a significant profit from the **, therefore, it is generally the brand premium and technology.
At the end of 2023, Laopu** submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, providing new ideas for the industry. Founded in 2016, the old shop** with "ancient method**" as the selling point, and its prospectus shows that from 2019 to the first half of 2023, the gross profit margin of the old shop** has been stable at about 40%, far exceeding the industry level.
Since 2018, Chow Tai Fook has launched a series of heritage series of ancient gold jewelry, using matte and frosted textures, plus traditional Chinese crafts such as engraving, inlay, enamel, filigree, etc., taking advantage of the popularity of the national tide and young people's demand for both investment and appearance, it has gradually developed into a popular product.
Chow Tai Fook General Manager Chan Sai Cheong has said that between April and September 2021, more than 56% of Chow Tai Fook's "Legacy" series sales contributed to millennials and Gen Z. According to the financial report, as of now, the "inheritance series" accounts for 40% of Chow Tai Fook's ** jewelry revenue.
But for young people, they need to bear a large part of the process cost when buying. Taking this year's popular ancient ** plain circle as an example, Chow Tai Fook's craft price is about 60 yuan, if you create a 60-gram bracelet, it means that you need to pay the craft fee, which is equivalent to young people to buy about 6 grams**.
In comparison, the charging standard of gold mining shops in first-tier cities is about 30 yuan in the ancient ** prime circle, and the charging standard of gold mining shops in Hangzhou and other cities is 10 yuan.
Gold shops are also recruiting young people. On the short ** platform, there are more than 10 gold shops with fans between 10,000 and 100,000, and some gold shops are still building account matrices and opening live broadcast rooms. Unlike in the past, gold shops were crowded with middle-aged women, but now gold shops are crowded with young people.
In this context, with the continuous increase in prices this year, young people either take the gold bars and bracelets bought by the bank to the gold shop, or renovate the old demand, which will push the gold shop business to a new climax.
The flip side of the explosion of gold shops is that young people want to save money while worrying about being "stolen".
At present, most of the gold shops are mom-and-pop stores, and large-scale chain brands have not yet been formed. Many customers are worried about whether gold bars will be added with other impurities or deducted a few grams in the process of making bracelets and other jewelry**, after all, in the early development of some gold shops, it happened from time to time.
It is mentioned in many anti-pit guidelines summarized on the short ** platform that customers can weigh at home in advance to prevent problems with the merchant's scale, and in addition, to see if there are other metal residues in the molten gold bowl, or to use solder welding, which will eventually affect the purity.
A Nanjing gold shop owner who has been established for more than 30 years told Tech Planet that there will definitely be losses in the process from gold bars to gold jewelry, such as a 30-gram** bracelet will lose 01 gram, the general store owner will calculate the gold price of the day *** to offset part of the manual cost. It is impossible for some "zero loss" propaganda on online platforms to happen.
With the development of the Internet platform, most of the eye-catching signatures of gold shops now allow users to record the whole process. However, now gold shops are now also connected to online orders, and some gold shop masters are famous enough, and many users will choose remote mail, how to ensure safety is extremely challenging.
According to a number of gold mining shops consulted by Tech Planet, gold mining shop owners generally record the unpacking, final processing of bracelets, weighing, and packaging and other processes, and send them to users. At present, remote mailing is still based on the trust of both parties, and some gold shop owners are not responsible for the round-trip mailing costs, and will not issue relevant quality inspection certificates when they are finally sent back. There are also some gold shop owners who said that they will come with a spectrometer test report at the end.
But despite this, the quality and integrity of the gold shop are still difficult to dispel the concerns of some users, "What if the spectrometer is also fake?" One user said on the social platform.
A user who has been to the gold shop said that many well-known gold shop masters do not need to affect their reputation for a few grams. Moreover, the owner of the gold shop can also get a good income purely by manual fees, such as the loss of the user, they do not suffer, because whether it is melted into the water, or other losses are lost, the store will finally refine it and save it.
The above-mentioned users said that now many young people go to gold shops in order to save money, and they will also do a good job in advance.
For many gold shop owners who have been in the industry for twenty or thirty years, they are not familiar with the Internet, and more users on social platforms spontaneously plant grass to bring popularity. There are also some young practitioners who are well versed in the play of traffic, and with the help of channels such as short ** platforms, they have obtained a steady stream of customers.
Some gold striking shops also try their best to push the store owner into an Internet celebrity in the short **, tech planet saw from a gold striking shop that the store owner will accept apprentices according to the cost of 10,000 yuan for 30 days and expand the scale.
The challenges faced by consumers in gold mining shops are also constantly changing, and one consumer who went to a gold mining shop said that the promise was made by the master in the store, and in the end it was actually an apprentice, resulting in a very rough final product.
Therefore, whether the popularity of gold striking shops can last also depends on the degree of standardization of this industry in the future. Kunpeng Project