The false eyelash industry belt is so ＂rejuvenated＂

Decoding the new situation of foreign trade economy and new trends in the industry in 2025, TikTok’s solution to help businesses in Cidu to sell in the sea, and eyelash industry’s compliance in the sea … From April 16 to 20, a number of e-commerce platforms came to Qingdao roadshows one after another to help enterprises with the false eyelash industry expand their domestic and international markets. Merchants located in Qingdao Pingdu False Eyelash Industry Belt found that the false eyelash industry accelerated the reshuffle, which actually gave birth to new opportunities.

01

Eyelashes blink out of the industrial belt

Pingdu, which has the reputation of "eyelash capital of China", produces 70% of false eyelashes in the world and sells well in more than 100 countries and regions.

From April 19th to 21st, 2025, the 4th China (International) Beauty and Eyelash Industry Expo (hereinafter referred to as "Eyelash Industry Expo") was held in Pingdu. Hosted by Qingdao Beauty Salon Cosmetics Industry Association and pingdu city Beauty Eyelash Association, this exhibition attracted more than 500 enterprises in the whole eyelash industry chain to participate, covering product research and development, raw material supply, equipment manufacturing and terminal sales, which concentrated on the innovation ecology of the industry.

During the exhibition, the first "Taobao Eyelash Festival" became the focus of traffic, with an online exposure of 5.95 million times, ranking ninth in the hot search of Taobao beauty list, realizing online and offline traffic resonance.

As the core area of China eyelash industry, Pingdu has developed for more than 40 years and formed a complete industrial cluster. At present, there are more than 5,000 market entities and more than 20,000 processing points, with an annual output value of 10 billion yuan, which has driven more than 60,000 people to find jobs and become a local characteristic industry to enrich the people. With the integrity of industrial chain, technical iterative ability and cost advantage, Pingdu Eyelash has realized the leap-forward development from "Kangtou economy" to industrial cluster.

"At present, more than 90% of false eyelashes enterprises use Alibaba International Station, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Wish, Temu, Shein, Tiktok and other well-known cross-border e-commerce platforms at home and abroad to explore overseas markets." Su Jing, founding secretary general of Qingdao cross-border electronic commerce Association, told reporters that the false eyelashes industry has a huge market and huge consumption potential.

Qingdao combines the advantages of the national foreign trade transformation and upgrading professional demonstration base, and puts forward the development model of "cross-border e-commerce+industrial belt" to continuously promote the false eyelashes industry to bring corporate brands to the sea. In the public speech, the relevant person in charge of Amazon’s global store opening indicated that not only in the US market, but also in emerging markets such as Europe, Japan and the Middle East, the sales of false eyelashes also showed an upward trend year by year, and false eyelashes became the official recommended key selection direction. Cross-border e-commerce has become a boost to Qingdao false eyelashesfine and soft hair or feathersAn important starting point for industrial upgrading and development and creating new advantages in foreign trade.

In particular, in recent years, enterprises in Qingdao False Eyelash Industry Belt have actively carried out research on new technologies, new processes, new materials and new equipment, promoted digital transformation, and found a new way of independent innovation and brand development.

It is worth mentioning that many enterprises in Qingdao participated in the drafting of the industrial standard of False Eyelashes for Hair Products in China and the formulation of the quality standard of eyelash products in China.

02

"Volume" price, but also "volume" quality

At the eyelash industry Expo, the reporter saw several fake eyelash products sold at reduced prices.

"These products take up a lot of space, so it is better to dump the goods directly." Merchants told reporters that they are a source factory, and these products are OEM products for others. Because of the changes in the foreign trade situation, these goods can’t be sold and become a tail order. They can only find suitable channels to avoid the waste of funds and space caused by inventory backlog.

"Policy changes in the international market still have a great impact on us. Profits have fallen sharply compared with before. " Ye Yaoyao of Zhejiang Yueguang Beauty Cosmetics Co., Ltd. told reporters that due to the improvement of market transparency, the price difference between cross-border trade and domestic trade has gradually narrowed. She made a special trip to Pingdu this time because it is the production base of false eyelashes. If she buys in large quantities, it will be attractive to her in terms of price.

Changes in the competitive situation in the international market have had a negative impact on the export business of some foreign trade merchants, resulting in a decline in profits. In response to this change, some false eyelash manufacturers optimize their operations by adjusting prices and enhancing brand competitiveness.

"Fierce foreign trade competition has led to a decrease in the export profit of this product. We regard the continuous introduction of new products as a’ sharp weapon’ to cope with external changes. For example, this kind of’ explosion’, our wholesale price is 3.8 US dollars/box, and the highest price abroad can be 9.9 US dollars/box. " Shi Lu, general manager of Qingdao Zidie False Eyelashes Co., Ltd., pointed to several false eyelashes and told reporters.

There are many kinds of false eyelashes in Pingdu, including counter hair, flower hair, segmented hair, grafting hair, planting hair, and various colored eyelashes. Special styles and colors can be customized according to customer requirements, which can meet the different needs of various customers all over the world. Among them, the new false eyelashes continuously developed by Pingdu false eyelashes enterprises are quite different from the old ones in terms of price and profit.

"Now manufacturers not only’ roll’ the price, but also’ roll’ the quality. Foreign old customers will generally place orders for many years. If the quality is not good, a batch of goods will’ screw up’ the credit. " Shi Lu said that they pay more attention to product quality and uniqueness, meet market demand by providing diversified products, and maintain competitiveness by controlling costs and developing new products. In addition, in addition to self-operated brands, many false eyelash manufacturers have strong production capacity to undertake OEM and ODM.

She believes that under the new competitive situation, it is unsustainable to rely solely on low-cost running companies, and it is more necessary to deepen the subdivision of the track and develop accessories for specific groups and niche products. In terms of brand building, it is necessary to build brand premium and optimize supply chain capabilities.

03

Integration of domestic and foreign trade opens up new channels

"The increasingly fierce domestic and international market competition will continue to affect market procurement decisions, and we think this is a long-term trend." A related person from Ali International Station said.

On April 16th, a foreign trade summit was held in Qingdao area of Ali International Station. To provide solutions to the problems such as the soaring cost, business loss and compliance risk, which lead to the continuous increase of operating costs and further squeeze the profit margin of China merchants when they go out to sea.

One generation, one person can also do foreign trade … The major cross-border e-commerce platforms are relatively mature in digital foreign trade practice. Use AI to start business increment with one button to help customers quickly generate product information, material creativity, promotion and expansion, risk prevention and control, intelligent product testing, small language translation, intelligent analysis, etc., so as to meet the domestic and foreign market consumption needs.

According to the data of the General Administration of Customs, in 2024, the proportion of countries building the Belt and Road Initiative in China’s import and export exceeded 50% for the first time. Last year, China’s import and export to countries that jointly built the Belt and Road increased by 6.4%, accounting for 50.3% of China’s total import and export value, of which exports and imports increased by 9.6% and 2.7% respectively.

Most of the trade volume comes from emerging markets such as ASEAN. China’s import and export to ASEAN has maintained growth for nine consecutive years and has been each other’s largest trading partner for five consecutive years; The BRICS cooperation mechanism has continued to grow and develop, and China’s import and export to other BRICS member countries and partner countries has increased by 5.5%; In addition, China has continued to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with Latin America, Africa, five Central Asian countries and Central and Eastern Europe, and its imports and exports have increased by 7.2%, 6.1%, 7.2% and 7.5% respectively. The contribution rate of the above markets to China’s foreign trade market is nearly 60%, which has become an important force to promote China’s foreign trade growth.

According to the latest data from Ali International Station, the YOY growth rate (year-on-year growth rate) of beauty products, including false eyelashes, in Southeast Asia market opportunities is as high as 936%.

"In terms of demand preference, Southeast Asian buyers pay attention to the basic trend and cost performance, as well as the most basic functional efficacy and product quality of goods. Domestic enterprises should pay attention to integrating into local consumption concepts and market culture in the face of Southeast Asian markets." Liu Qun, Qingdao Regional Director of Ali International Station, said.

At the same time, false eyelashes are constantly expanding domestic sales channels.

Driven by platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Tik Tok and Taobao Live, domestic consumers’ awareness of false eyelashes is rising. According to statistics, in 2023, the domestic false eyelashes market increased by 111.5% year-on-year, and the scale reached 2.84 billion yuan. In 2023, China’s false eyelashes market share has accounted for more than 30% of the global total, while the share of the US market in the same period was 36.7%.

Pingdu Tonghe Street, Dazeshan Town and Jiudian Town are the core areas of the false eyelashes industry belt. As early as 2021, Pingdu specially issued "Several Policies for Supporting the Development of Eyelash Industry in pingdu city" to support eyelash enterprises to develop new cross-border e-commerce formats, and give eligible enterprises a subsidy of up to 100,000 yuan.

Deep cultivation of technology and diversified market layout make a small false eyelash more and more suitable for the fierce competition in domestic and foreign markets.

Business Weekly reporter Guo Qingjian