Why Do Young People Love Changing Phone Cases?

Some may still remember the inspirational story of a couple of post-90s university students who made millions by selling phone cases. The story was made public in 2019. and now, four years later, the phone case business has become even bigger, with market research indicating that the market size has exceeded 150 billion yuan.

For those who are not willing to change their phones, they are quite generous when it comes to changing phone cases.

In a recent survey of nearly 500 people, only 4% of users prefer using their phones without a case, while 35% of users have 2-5 phone cases, and 20% of users have more than 10 phone cases.

The variety of phone cases that people like to collect is also diverse. In terms of materials, there are ultra-thin TPU cases that offer drop and fingerprint protection, liquid silicone cases popularized by Apple, as well as emerging options like Kevlar carbon fiber cases and graphene cases.

However, for many people, phone cases are not just practical items; they are also decorations. Often, we can understand something about the owner of a phone through their choice of phone case.

For example, someone using the same phone case as a celebrity is likely a fan, while someone using a phone case with an Old Godmother (a popular chili sauce brand) style may be a carefree youth. There are also those who are skilled at DIY hand-made figurines or those who customize their cases with slogans. Different phone cases satisfy people’s need for personal expression, and the demand for diverse expression further drives the popularity of phone cases.

With annual phone sales reaching tens of millions, and considering the widespread availability of phone cases priced at 9.9 yuan with free shipping, this is a highly profitable market. Interestingly, this market has not been monopolized by phone manufacturers but has instead given rise to numerous scattered shops.

This also shows that although the phone case market is large in terms of overall volume, it is actually a product that is challenging to manage in terms of SKU (stock-keeping unit) management. When it caters to personalized demands, it becomes difficult to standardize and easily leads to inventory backlog. For phone case manufacturers who want to enter this market, they need to start from scratch.

On the other hand, as a product that can be purchased frequently, consumers generally do not want to buy expensive phone cases. Therefore, the 9.9 yuan price point with free shipping is considered a golden price.