At present, the female population in China is about 448 million in menstrual period, forming the world’s largest feminine hygiene care products market, with annual sales of 87 billion yuan in sanitary napkins. But the history of Chinese women using sanitary napkins is not long.

In 1982, China introduced the first sanitary napkin production line from Japan, but sanitary napkins were too expensive. A pack of sanitary napkins cost 70 cents. Therefore, domestic women were still using menstrual pads made of cloth strips. In the 1990s, sanitary napkins began to become popular in big cities.

At that time, Hengan Industrial purchased the in-film advertisement of the popular Hong Kong drama “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” and quickly opened the market in Shanghai. At the same time, the four major foreign brands-Procter & Gamble’s Hushubao, Kao’s Le Erya, Kimberly-Clark’s Gao Jisi and Unicharm’s Sophie, have also entered the Chinese market.

Since then, benefiting from the rapid economic growth and the continuous improvement of women’s personal health awareness, the penetration rate of sanitary napkins, tampons and sleep pants in the Chinese market has continued to increase. Among them, the penetration rate of sanitary napkins has reached 100%, which is important for protecting women’s health. It is a welcome progress.

But when the monthly income of 600 million people was still less than 1,000 yuan, sanitary napkins, a just-needed product, began a rapid “consumption upgrade” process.

The current sanitary napkins on the market can be divided into low-grade sanitary napkins (less than 1 yuan/piece), mid-range sanitary napkins (1 yuan to 1.5 yuan/piece) and high-end sanitary napkins (higher than 1.5 Yuan/piece)

Assuming that a woman has a menstrual period of 5 days, sleeps for 8 hours, and changes a sanitary napkin every 4 hours during the day, the woman needs to use 4 daily sanitary napkins and 1 night sanitary napkin every day. Calculated on the basis of 1 yuan per piece of daily sanitary napkins and 2 yuan per piece of night sanitary napkins, this woman needs to spend 6 yuan a day, 30 yuan for one menstrual period, and 360 yuan a year. If the frequency of replacement is higher, the price of sanitary napkins is more expensive, and the menstrual period is prolonged, the cost will be higher.

Although 360 yuan a year does not seem to be much, on the one hand, China has 600 million low- and middle-income people and below, on the other hand, the gross profit margin of sanitary napkins is very high.

The cost of manufacturing sanitary napkins is very low. The raw materials are mainly membranes and absorbers (non-woven fabrics, polymer resins, dust-free paper, fluff pulp, etc.), which account for 80% of the cost, and the process is relatively simple.

It is marketing advertising that supports high gross profit. The sanitary napkin industry generally has high sales costs, and the industry’s average sales costs account for about 23% of sales

In addition, the terminal price of sanitary napkins has to be increased by dealers. Take Baiya shares as an example, the ex-factory price of a sanitary napkin is 0.38 yuan/piece, and the distributors of each layer increase the price by 20%~30%, and the terminal price reaches 1.25 yuan/piece, which is 3.3 times the ex-factory price.

In the case of spending money on channels and selling advertisements, the 13% value-added tax of sanitary napkins that has received much attention has little impact on prices. At present, the value-added tax for all kinds of consumer goods in China is 13%, which is included in the price of the goods, but it is the merchant and retail channel that decides how much to sell. In other words, even if the country reduces the value-added tax by 13%, it will not necessarily make sanitary napkins cheaper.

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