The foot massage parlors that young people are flocking to are expected to open 10,000 branches.

The weariness of life is relieved by foot care and massage.

24-year-old Chen Ran (pseudonym) is a programmer. His "foot kneading career" began with a chance experience. "After walking around the city for a long time, my uncle took me to a foot care shop he was familiar with," Chen Ran said. After soaking and caring for his feet, he also received a foot massage, and the swelling and pain immediately disappeared. Since then, Chen Ran has become a regular at this shop, visiting the foot spa every week for a full range of services that satisfy him all at once.

In Changsha, known as the "foot city," the numerous health centers, foot bath cities, and foot spas are just as popular as various gourmet restaurants. As a city famous for its internet celebrities, during peak tourist seasons, the media has exaggeratedly described it as "half of the country goes to Changsha, and half of Changsha goes to the foot bath city."

The unique bathing culture has led to three "standard actions" for tourists visiting Changsha: exploring gourmet food, visiting landmarks, and going to famous foot spas.

Wang Fang (pseudonym), who has just returned from a trip to Changsha, recounted her experience, "When you've been out all day and feel like you're about to fall apart, thinking about all the places you still want to visit tomorrow but lacking the energy, you walk into a shop, soak your feet and get a massage, and suddenly feel much better."

As early as 2022, the number of users in the foot massage market reached 435 million, with an industry scale of about 585.9 billion yuan.

In terms of consumer groups, data from Meituan shows that consumers aged 20-35 are the main user group for foot massage, accounting for about 75%, with consumers aged 25-30 accounting for 30% and those under 25 accounting for 25%.

Massage and foot therapy shops and leisure health centers scattered throughout the streets and communities are becoming the new hotspots for young people to relax and maintain their health. This trend has also given rise to Zheng Yuanyuan, who has opened more than 8,000 stores.

According to its official website, Zheng Yuanyuan has over 8,000 chain stores nationwide and is undoubtedly the first brand in the same category to reach ten thousand stores. The number of employees at Zheng Yuanyuan has reached 64,000, with a revenue of 12.9 billion yuan last year. This brand, which can be found everywhere and is becoming a popular check-in spot for those born in the 1990s and 2000s.

Foot massage shops are blending the north and south techniques.

Due to different regional preferences, "foot therapy" also has distinctions between the north and south. Representing the "northern style" is the foot therapy from Beijing, which includes the northern and northeastern regions. The northern style is known for its skillful and meticulous techniques in treating various foot discomforts.

Representing the "southern style" is the foot therapy from Yangzhou, covering the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the vast southern regions. The southern style emphasizes delicate and aesthetically pleasing techniques, especially in foot kneading and scraping.

Different from the traditional "northern style" foot therapy, Zheng Yuanyuan provides a comprehensive service that combines both northern and southern foot therapy, including foot treatment, massage, kneading, and foot soaking. In the early stages, in order to quickly capture the market in county and third- and fourth-tier cities, Zheng Yuanyuan launched a "foot soak + foot treatment + massage = 8 yuan" package to attract customers. According to insiders at Zheng Yuanyuan, this package was almost non-profitable at the time but helped capture customer flow.

Most of these are small shops located in the community with an area of only a few dozen square meters. In order to attract more young people, they even give away milk tea and hamburgers.

Insurance broker Xiao Xiao (pseudonym) had such an experience. "At the end of last year, I happened to find that Zheng Yuanyuan was holding an event, washing feet in the store and giving away hamburgers. How could I resist such a good deal?"

It is understood that recently, consumers can receive a free hamburger combo after completing the verification in the store by placing an order through Meituan or Dianping. According to the data released by Zheng Yuanyuan, this activity attracted more than 240,000 consumers to verify in the store, and the verification rate increased to 88%; among them, more than 160,000 new online customers entered Zheng Yuanyuan's store.

Of course, such changes are not only happening to Zheng Yuanyuan. The cinema-style foot massage brand "Golden Impression" from Chongqing has even been ridiculed by netizens as the "Haidilao of the foot bath industry" because it is "too delicious," and it is among the top recommended landmarks for tourists. Here, there is "the most delicious beef noodles in Changsha," as well as unlimited servings of specialty foods such as fermented glutinous rice soup dumplings, dipping dumplings, red soup wontons, and spicy beef rice. There are also a variety of hot and cold drinks such as osmanthus milk tea, jasmine milk beer, snow-capped barley, and coix seed and lotus root water for unlimited enjoyment.

How did "Haidilao" in the foot massage industry come into being?

The influx of young people into foot massage parlors has brought new vitality to this originally traditional offline service industry.

The previous project settings and service standards of foot massage parlors often varied, which caused consumers to feel like they were "opening a blind box" with each experience. They might give a five-star rating one time, but want to blacklist the business the next time.

The emergence of young people who are keen on sharing and accustomed to rating their consumer experiences has played a very crucial role in promoting the standardization and regularization of the foot massage industry.

Opening an internet platform, businesses categorize the prices, durations, projects, corresponding effects, and the specialties of their own stores. Consumers can compare and choose based on their own needs and the reviews of other users.

On the supply side, in order to meet the needs of more young people, foot massage parlors are also required to become "youthful."

A typical example is that some young people have a strong sense of ritual when it comes to foot soaking. They want aromatherapy candles, music, and smoke to create an atmosphere, and they also want a period of meditation and solitude.

They also have many requirements for the "ingredients" used in foot soaking, such as ginger, mugwort leaves, milk, and vinegar, each corresponding to different effects. In addition to foot soaking, they also have requirements for foot care, massage, and ear cleaning. This means that foot massage parlors cannot only offer foot soaking services, but also need to develop related package services tailored to the needs of young people.

Zheng Yuanyuan has been able to open more than 8,000 stores nationwide, with an annual revenue of over 10 billion yuan, mainly because it started exploring "youthfulness" very early on.

"Almost every city has many Zheng Yuanyuan stores, and each one is an old store, and also the most resilient small store nearby," this is the general impression that Zheng Yuanyuan has left on the public. After standardized management, Zheng Yuanyuan's service is considered to have the reputation of "Haidilao in the foot care industry," but its charges are on par with "Milk Tea Ice City."

According to media reports, when Zheng Yuanyuan expanded to more than 3,000 stores in 2019, some stores were still using POS machines for cash register, then recording in Excel, and then each store would summarize the data upwards, and the reports seen by the group were almost data from a few days ago.

In October 2020, Zheng Yuanyuan's digital system went online. After the data of all stores was connected, the management could grasp the operational issues of the stores in real time, and also identify benchmark stores that were doing well. This allowed for timely improvement of problems and replication of excellent practices, leading to an overall improvement in the efficiency of store operations.

The business system has been upgraded, but as a community small shop scattered in second- and third-tier cities, Zheng Yuanyuan, whose customer base is mainly middle-aged and elderly people, also needs to solve the problem of attracting young people.

Zheng Yuanyuan also believes that since most of the customers spend most of their time online, he should expose himself online. Therefore, starting from 2020, all of Zheng Yuanyuan's stores have unified their awareness to "definitely go online".

The so-called "going online" is not just about opening a store online. On the one hand, Zheng Yuanyuan enhances the brand awareness of young people through the operation of online activities; on the other hand, through customer feedback, he timely improves and iterates his services to enhance customer repurchase.

In addition to opening stores online, Zheng Yuanyuan has also formed a dedicated team to try live streaming, and even trained the employees of the stores to become live streamers themselves. "We hope that every one of our employees can become a small live streaming carrier, forming a live streaming matrix, and ultimately creating a 'grass planting' effect," Zheng Yuanyuan sees the long-term value of live streaming for his business operations.

As a result of these operations, the young users attracted online have just filled the gap in Zheng Yuanyuan's offline consumer profile.

Today, Zheng Yuanyuan not only plans to open 1,500 new stores in the domestic market this year, but also prepares to enter the overseas market and aims to impact 50,000 stores worldwide.

In fact, not only Zheng Yuanyuan, but also a large number of foot massage brands with innovative thinking have reshaped their business processes through digital transformation in response to the trend of consumption.

For example, in Changsha, there is Yierkang with more than 3,000 stores, and in Wuhan and Xi'an, there are more than 35 stores of Zhenpin Zudao, and more than 20 stores of Shuimu and Zudao...

These well-known brands in these areas, in addition to adhering to the traditional skill of foot massage, have injected new vitality into the industry by combining online and offline services and operations.

Foot care businesses are "competing" online

The "2023 National Health Insight Report" released by Dingxiang Doctor shows that compared to the elderly, young people seem to have more health problems, with the youngest "post-00s" having the most health problems.

Data from the "China Better Life Survey" initiated by the National Bureau of Statistics last year also shows that health and wellness ranks third in the consumption plans of young people aged 18-35, surpassing learning and training, cultural and entertainment activities, and second only to travel and digital product purchases.

Internet platforms provide a main online operating base for businesses, helping brand merchants expand their operational traffic pools and attract young users and even out-of-town consumers to their stores through product design and brand image display; for consumers, they can quickly find high-quality brand stores that suit them and avoid pitfalls; for merchants, it improves their operational efficiency.

According to data released by Meituan, as of the end of 2023, the number of foot massage stores on the platform is close to 500,000. Since the second half of 2023, the number of leisure and entertainment businesses participating in live streaming has exceeded 50,000, and the number of live streaming sessions has exceeded one million.

For example, the Zheng Yuanyuan store in Dongmen Old Street, Shenzhen, is close to the Longhua Port, and many young people from Hong Kong will come here to consume after comparing service prices between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

These frequent Hong Kong customers have a major characteristic: they have basically downloaded Dianping. Before choosing a store, they will compare the service prices, projects, and reviews between stores. Even if Hong Kong people who have not downloaded group-buying apps, they will ask friends to buy vouchers online and then redeem them in-store.

The offline value experience is fermented through online word-of-mouth. Last year, 70% of the revenue of Zheng Yuanyuan's Dongmen Old Street store was created by Hong Kong customers.

On the one hand, there are diverse demands from young people, and on the other hand, the intensification of industry competition has visibly increased the "innovations" of various brand merchants. On social media platforms such as Dianping and Xiaohongshu, many young people are also sharing their fancy check-in experiences at various foot massage stores.

Tired from the massage? Accommodation is provided; Hungry after the massage? Meals are provided; Finished with the massage and have nowhere to go? Then stay and watch a movie.

In tourist cities such as Changsha, Chengdu, and Chongqing, 30% of foot massage stores provide catering or snacks.

Among them, the cinema-style Zudao brand Jinse Yinpian from Chongqing has been jokingly called the "Haidilao of the foot bath industry" because it is "too delicious," and it ranks high in the landmark recommendations of tourists.

Yierkang in Changsha has been able to expand rapidly, and its excellent catering products cannot be ignored. Here, there is the "best beef noodles in Changsha," as well as authentic local snacks such as Laosao Garden and Hongtang Wonton.

The changes in the foot massage industry, on the surface, show a new image of industry self-upgrading. Its greater significance lies in the fact that, under the connection of internet platforms, even if merchants are engaged in traditional business, they can break through the original consumer group and gain considerable incremental traffic.

This means that embracing online and continuously updating and iterating the foot massage industry also provides a very good reference sample for other local life services.