How to choose adult diapers for the elderly?

What are adult diapers?

We're all too familiar with diapers.  In fact, the country is right this kind of sanitary article that contacts directly with the human body, made strict standards on raw material use, manufacturing technology, hygienic index.  The product principle and structure of adult diapers and infant diapers are basically the same, but there are great differences between them in performance and technical indicators, and health and safety standards.  

The main difference between the two is that, due to the baby's delicate skin and poor immunity, the standard of infant diapers is better than that of adult diapers in terms of absorption rate, permeability, hygiene, and safety.  Considering the characteristics of large urine volume and body size of adult diapers, the absorption and size of adult diapers are much larger than that of infant diapers.  Adult diapers are mainly used by the disabled elderly, bedridden patients, pregnant women, and people with mobility difficulties.  

Both baby diapers and adult diapers are generally composed of the following four layers: surface layer, diversion layer, absorption core, and bottom membrane.  The absorption core is the core of diapers and the main material of diapers. Urine is stored in the core.  At present, the absorption core of diapers on the market (no matter baby diapers or adult diapers) is basically composed of villus pulp (paper pulp) and absorbent polymer particles (SAP).  Villous pulp (paper pulp) stores urine and absorbs it quickly, but it still has a fatal problem -- it is prone to backstep when pressed, which requires polymer (SAP) to solve.  

SAP is a fine granular water-absorbent resin.  It not only absorbs water, but also locks water: SAP can absorb liquid tens of times its own volume, and, after absorption and expansion, it becomes gelatinous, and does not return to infiltration even if extruded by external forces.  Therefore, the quality of the core largely determines the quality of the diaper.  At present, in order to save costs, some manufacturers in the market may choose to recycle the absorption core in the used diapers, which will not only greatly reduce the water absorption performance of diapers, but also more easily lead to reverse infiltration, causing the skin to be hurt by moisture and bacteria.  

Market status quo: the only low price is followed, disorderly competition

In 2018, the number of people aged over 60 in China reached 249 million, surpassing the number of people under 15 for the first time, data showed.  The arrival of an aging society has created a demanding market for some products, such as adult diapers, which are mainly used by the elderly and bedridden who cannot take care of themselves. The annual consumption of more than 4 billion diapers in China.  Among them, local brands occupy more than 90% of the market share.  

The aging society is accompanied by the increasing temperature of the diaper market. On the one hand, the demand for incontinence products is soaring due to the accelerating aging and increasing average life expectancy.  On the other hand, adult diapers are a product with high viscosity and high re-purchase rate, which has typical explosive potential, thus attracting many manufacturers to enter this market. But just because of this, the market is prone to "low-price only, disorderly competition."  

What is the actual cost of an adult diaper?

These days, just type in the keyword "adult diapers" on any e-commerce platform and you'll find a page full of adult diapers that cost a few cents or more.  Then whether such a price can guarantee the quality of the product? Take the relatively "luxurious" price of 1.5 yuan per piece in e-commerce channels as an example.  

It is well known that platform commission and minimal marketing budget alone will account for at least 30% of product sales, i.e. 0.45 yuan.  

The second is the cost of postage.  Diapers belong to throw goods (light goods). At present, the SKU(inventory unit) popular among e-commerce companies is 80 pieces/box. According to the express price, a 30% discount is 12 yuan/box freight, the express cost of each piece needs at least 0.15 yuan.  There is also an average value-added tax of 10% or 0.15 yuan.  

In other words, excluding the platform commission, minimum marketing budget, VALUE-ADDED tax, and freight, the maximum cost of a 1.5 yuan adult diaper should not exceed 0.75 yuan.  And this 0.75 yuan includes the profit of production cost, manpower cost, operation cost, and manufacturer to wait a moment even.  So how much does an adult diaper really cost?  

Take the popular L adult diapers as an example, all the raw materials to be used are as follows:  

According to the entrance macromolecule that a few businessmen place nominal, entrance wool pulp is calculated, the material cost that absorbs core body only needs 0.5 yuan.  And this just according to general import material, if press businessman place propaganda "use Japanese summit macromolecule and North America coniferous log fluff oar" calculate the cost, the material cost that absorbs core body only is as high as 0.6 yuan.  And other materials even according to the lowest quality grade optimal purchase price calculation, its original cost will not be less than 0.5 yuan.  

In other words, the lowest raw material cost of a qualified adult diaper is about 1-1.1 yuan.  Obviously, the cost of raw materials far exceeds the 0.75 yuan cost price calculated according to the product sales price and sales cost.  

So in the face of such low sales prices, how can businesses selling adult diapers through e-commerce channels make money?  On the one hand, low-price merchants will use the recycled wool pulp. "Currently, the price of recycled wool pulp is about 3000 yuan per ton, and the wool pulp alone can save 0.22 yuan per piece."  In addition, these recycled villi pulp contains polymer, no need to add polymer or only a very small amount of addition, a polymer can save about 0.1 yuan/piece.  

This means that the cost of the recycled core will be reduced by 0.32 yuan per piece.  If combined with other materials cut corners, illegal tax avoidance, it can obtain more profit space.  Although the profit margin is not called "huge profit", it is quite profitable with hundreds of millions of films sold every year.  

How to buy adult diapers?

Disposable hygiene products involve the health of the elderly, women, infants, enterprises of course know that moldy pulp can not produce qualified products, but for the sake of interest, they attempt to cover dirty raw materials with a layer of clean non-woven cloth.  After all, diapers are just needed by the majority of daily users. As consumers, it is particularly important to buy diapers with guaranteed quality.  To this end, senior personage offered several suggestions to consumers from the perspective of the industry.  

First, is not bibulous the greater the better.  Many businesses advertise how much water their products can absorb, at least 800 milliliters of water, and even advertise products that can absorb 1,500 milliliters of water.  There are two problems: first, water absorption and urine absorption are two different concepts, because urine contains salt, the SAP absorption rate of water is much higher than that of saltwater;  Secondly, even if it can absorb 800 ml of saltwater, it is the amount of absorption under the saturated absorption state, and few users will replace it after fully absorbing water.  

Second, remember you get what you pay for.  When a consumer is a commodity of choose and buy, want to look for the platform with better public praise, do not "be greedy for small and cheap", the commodity of choose and buy with reasonable price as far as possible.  Because you get what you pay for, price and quality assurance in most cases are in direct proportion.  

Third, smell the inner surface of the diaper, if there is an obvious fragrance smell, please carefully buy.  Because the recycled materials in the discarded diapers have been crushed several times, exposed to the sun, and then chemical deodorized, they retain a distinct flavor smell.  The recycled materials themselves contain a large number of viruses and bacteria, and most users are elderly and weak, with weak immunity, which makes them more susceptible to infection.