With the boom of the stall economy, the stall culture has risen among young people, and "online stalls" are also sought after by many young people. Handicrafts, photography, creative design, ...... "Internet stall owners" sell a wide variety of products, but also can be customized on demand, and the small booths also convey the attitudes and voices of young people towards life and work in the Internet era.
Be an "Internet Stallholder"
On the day of "Double 11", Zhou Xiaojia, an 18-year-old Guangdong college student, updated a video on Xiaohongshu, showing 3 acrylic texture paintings painted with ocean waves created by himself, with the text: "On the 140th day of selling paintings online, sell paintings and go to Iceland to see the sea~" Not long after, some netizens sent private messages to inquire about the price, and two paintings were successfully sold, and a single "Internet business" was completed.
In the past two years, the stall economy has become popular, and the term "stall" has become all the rage. There are many "post-95s" like Zhou Xiaojia who "set up stalls online" on social media platforms and choose to become an "Internet stall owner".
Banyuetan reporters found that most of them are hand-crocheted, hand-painted paintings, DIY clay figures and other handicrafts, or provide services such as photography appointments and creative design.
Young people set up stalls online on social platforms
"I've also tried to set up a booth offline before, setting up a photo booth, and interested passers-by will come to consult. Yu Dian, a 22-year-old photography enthusiast, said that the coverage of offline stalls is limited, and it is also affected by unexpected conditions such as weather, so online stalls do not have these troubles.
Since March this year, Yu Dian has operated his own photography account, often posting some portrait photography works, and many netizens have commented and left messages such as "beautiful" and "want to shoot". "Although the account has only more than 700 followers so far, it has a strong monetization ability, and my daily free time is basically full, especially in this year's graduation season, I earned 20,000 yuan in two months. Yu Dian said.
Like Yu Dian, many young people who grew up in the Internet era have turned into stall owners and become their own bosses. They are interest-oriented, play-oriented, and supplemented by making money; Hobby niche, emphasizing personalized customized services; Some of the goods are not physical, but rather knowledge or skills......
A Yue, a 23-year-old handicraft enthusiast, shared a video of a plush animal claw on Douyin last year, which quickly garnered more than 300,000 likes and brought an unexpected harvest to Ah Yue. "I didn't expect such a niche hobby to receive orders, and I have been doing it ever since, earning about 1,000 yuan a month. Ah Yue said.
It's not a stall, it's love
"The world is diverse, and you have to allow good-looking but useless 'waste' to exist. This is how 24-year-old Luo Ye (not her real name) describes her "business". After graduating from university and working for a company for 4 months, she quit her job and went home to pick up her former hobby, clay figure making.
Luo Ye's clay figure custom work
It's not a stall, it's love. "Through your hands, you can turn a puddle of mud into a 'villain' and a work, and you will feel very satisfied when you meet a single owner who likes it. Luo Ye said.
Yang Jingwen, a graduate student at a 211 university in central China, specializes in visual design, magazine layout, poster production, and cultural and creative product design. "A large part of the reason for setting up online stalls is interest, and I feel very proud to see the graduation cultural shirt I designed being worn by everyone and leaving a little memory for the graduates. Yang Jingwen said.
"Sometimes when you want to rest, you allow yourself to rest for a while. Yang Jingwen said that young people are more inclined to be comfortable and relaxed, but this is not "rotten", but freedom.
Yu Dian also said: "There is no particularly urgent need, and we must use online stalls as the main source of living expenses. With this side hustle, I can live more comfortably, of course, and I can still live happily without it. ”
Exercise improvement is another key word for online stalls. Zhou Xiaojia, an art candidate majoring in art and design at university, said that many art students "rarely draw anymore" after going to college, but selling paintings online allows her to keep drawing, improve her skills, and understand the market better than before.
"Traditional college students mostly work part-time as tutors or hourly workers, but now online stalls are very related to my university major, I can practice my skills in practice, and my work can be written on my resume. Yang Jingwen said that in addition to hard power, for young people who have just entered the society, the soft power of communicating with others has also been improved in online stalls.
Love offsets hard work
Individual combat is the norm for online stalls. Restocking, customer service, production, packaging, operation, ...... Luo Ye is responsible for the many types of work required to maintain an Internet stall, and sometimes he is busy until 4 o'clock in the morning or even sleepless all night. "I can only do the handicrafts by myself, and I have to participate in every aspect of communication with customers, otherwise I will not be able to make satisfactory works. ”
Yu Dian also felt that the business scale of self-employed people had an upper limit, and the degree of malleability and fission was small, so he established a start-up company to expand the team.
Now Yu Dian is teaching in the west, she handed over the daily care of the stall to a junior sister, and she plans to continue to start a business during her graduate school in the future, but it is likely to be a side hustle. Yu Dian said that when hobbies turn into work, it becomes painful and consumes a lot of happiness.
Full-time or part-time? Different young people have different options.
"I am a 'jobless vagrant' full-time kneading soil, and in the past six months, I have pinched an average of 120 villains per month, earning more than 10,000 yuan. Freelancing must be diligent, not procrastinating, and do more to earn more. Luo Ye said, "At present, I am in a state of being happy, but I will be worried and anxious about the future, afraid that I will not have a single order in the future, there will be no traffic, and I will drink the northwest wind." ”
On the virtual Internet, there are no stalls guaranteed by any platform, and every transaction is a link of trust. Running orders, regretting, stepping on thunder, and encountering all kinds of customers, the young stall owners "slowly groped, slowly tried and made", and also summed up some experience in protecting their own rights and interests.
"Of course, there are risks in doing business, now I will collect the deposit first, to prevent someone from running the order, after the production is completed, before the delivery of the final payment, otherwise he will receive the goods without payment black, I have no choice. Luo Ye said.
Busy, unstable, and a crisis of trust, the operation of Internet stalls has some disadvantages, but it also has infinite possibilities. With their enthusiasm, young stall owners started the road of online stalls. They say that with love, there will be a future. (Half Moon talks about reporter Liao Jun Xiong Xianghe)