Author | Liu Ran
Source | Insights New Research Institute
The extremely involuntary sweeper track ushered in a fork.
From the latest trends of leading companies, we can see the changes in the industry at a glance.
Ecovacs chooses diversified development, vigorously expands the category of home appliances, and launches products such as intelligent cooking machines and air purifiers; Stone Technology adheres to the strategy of explosive products while actively going overseas; Cloud Whale focuses on creating a second growth curve, targeting floor washing machines In this market, a new product S1 was launched in the spring of this year. While stabilizing the overseas market, Chaimi Technology has laid out multiple robot vertical tracks. After sweeping robots, bionic quadruped robots, general-purpose humanoid robots, and commercial food delivery robots, Introduced a swimming pool cleaning robot.
At present, China's home appliance industry has entered the stock stage early, and many categories have been in the bottleneck of growth for a long time. However, Yu Hao, the founder and CEO of Zhuimi Technology, made a bold statement in an interview with the media recently: the company's annual revenue in 2023 is expected It will exceed 10 billion, and in the next three years, it will be the first in the three industries of technology, market share and profit.
It is no easy task to be number one in the three industries of technology, market share and profit. Does Zhuimi Technology really have diamonds, or is it a bluff?
01 Internet celebrity is hard to grow popular
Although it is said that, like a person who drinks water, he knows whether he is warm or cold, but everyone can see the pain of chasing.
"In the first two years when the two channels of traditional e-commerce and offline channels were 'blocked', making breakthroughs in the Douyin channel is the key to the success of Chaimi." At the new product launch conference this spring, Chaimi Technology Wang Hui, general manager of China, gave a very high evaluation of channel expansion.
The time for Zhuimi Technology to enter the Douyin e-commerce is just right. During the hot epidemic of cleaning appliances in 2021, Zhuimi Technology adopts the "Internet celebrity style of play" and cooperates with KOL on the Douyin platform to promote in exchange for rapid growth. Its sales The amount has doubled from 2 billion in 2020 to 4 billion in 2021.
Success is also Douyin, and failure is also Douyin. After it became popular, Zhui Mi became a member of the "Four Sweepers", but thorny questions also came one after another: how can Zhui Mi not be left behind, from Internet celebrity to long-term celebrity?
In the early days, Mimi Technology was a part of Xiaomi's ecological chain, mainly doing OEM for Xiaomi. Until May 2019, Chaimi launched its own brand Dreame and actively broke away from Xiaomi's ecological chain.
Due to the low awareness of Zoumi's own brand and weak channel capabilities, the first thing for Zoumi to break away from Xiaomi's ecological chain is to expand C-end channels.
In order to increase its popularity, Chaimi adopts the model of "self-operated + agent-operated", opens stores on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Tmall, and promotes it on Douyin. In order to quickly distribute the goods, look for dealers with self-decreasing profits to reduce the cost of promotion and channels.
It is a good way to start spending money on online channels, but the disadvantage of this method is that it is not stable enough. Offline channels are the weak point of Zoumi, which has led to a series of problems such as consumers' difficulty in finding physical stores to protect their rights, online and offline confusion, and so on.
As of the end of 2022, the number of offline stores of Zhuimi Technology will only be around 50-60. During the same period, the Ecovacs brand had a total of 679 stores.
Chaimi Technology also realized that it is not feasible to rely solely on online sales, and began to rapidly expand its stores this year. In the first quarter, more than 80 stores were opened, far exceeding the industry average, and it also reached a cooperation with Sam's Club to launch a joint sweeping robot.
Yu Hao said: "Zuimi plans to open 1,000 offline stores this year and carry out a large number of local promotion activities to educate consumers. Only by letting consumers know that this product is easy to use and expanding the entire category of smart cleaning appliances can we Bigger."
However, the offline channels of sweeping robots have long been occupied.
According to the data of Aoweiyun, the retail sales share of Cobos offline channels will be 88% in 2022; Stone Technology has drawn up its own production base project and offline channel construction plan in 2022, and the relevant plans are expected to be gradually put into production within 2-3 years Realize landing.
The most important problem for Zou Mi is: due to the weak channel control ability of the e-commerce platform, the product price system is relatively chaotic. For the same product, the price difference between the official flagship store and the agent can be as high as nearly 600 yuan, which is difficult to see in any mature brand.
Price comparison between Zhuimi flagship store and non-flagship store on Tmall platform (left: Zhuimi flagship store, right: non-flagship store)
Since Zhuimi Technology is a cutting-edge brand, its operating system needs to be built from 0 to 1, which also means paying more sunk costs. Before the scale is formed, the rate will always be at a relatively high level.
02 The homogenization of products behind the "price-for-quantity"
Proud of its technology, Chaimi invests only high in research and development every year.
Zhui Mi has publicly stated that R&D personnel account for more than 70% of the company's total headcount, and the annual R&D investment exceeds 10%. In 2022, the R&D expense ratios of Cobos and Stone Technology will be 4.85% and 7.73% respectively. In comparison, the investment in product research and development of Chaimi is at a high level in the industry.
This is also in line with the trend of high-end sweeping robots in recent years. Kaiyuan Securities pointed out that the average price of domestic sweeping robots will rise from 1,687 yuan in 2020 to 3,175 yuan in 2022.
It's just that high-end can't bring about a significant increase in performance or revenue for Chaimi. On the contrary, higher investment will be counterproductive and affect profits.
While the price of sweeping robots has risen, sales have continued to decline, and there has been a situation of "decrease in price increment". The data shows that since 2023, online sales and sales of sweeping robots have declined year-on-year, respectively -6.25% and -3.43%.
The decline or slowdown in growth rate means that the category is about to touch the ceiling, and companies at this time are not far from starting a price war.
In January of this year, Cobos, Stone, and Zhuimi all launched the first round of price cuts.
On the other hand, the sweeping robot does not fall into the "high-end trap", but the upgraded product function, which is not equal to the corresponding price.
For example, the latest X20 sweeping robot released by Chaimi Technology is priced at 6,499 yuan on Tmall’s official flagship store, and 4,999 yuan after pre-sale coupons. Spending 5,000 yuan to buy a sweeping robot is a choice worth considering for most consumers.
A technology blogger said that after evaluating many types of sweeping robots, the product homogeneity of sweeping robots is actually more obvious, and the functions of high-end (prices above 5,000) sweeping robots are relatively similar. Not obvious.
As of the beginning of March 2023, Mimi Technology has applied for a total of 3,431 patents worldwide, including 1,311 invention patent applications, 299 PCT applications, and a total of 1,729 authorized patents.
Compared with Cobos, the financial report shows that as of March 2023, Cobos has obtained 1,540 authorized patents, including 531 invention patents.
Judging from the various data and information disclosed, the R&D investment and R&D capabilities of Chaimi seem to be quite powerful, but the specific manifestation is that the R&D efficiency does not seem to be high when the R&D is implemented on the product, and "effective R&D" is not enough. Many, the most intuitive manifestation is to look for ace products that are not ahead of competitors.
Comparing the Mimi X20 pro with other products of the same price range, although the Mimi X20 pro has slightly different functions such as navigation + obstacle avoidance and cleaning methods, the Mimi x20 pro has no obvious advantage in dust box capacity. It is not as good as Cobos X1s pro and Stone G20, and the price difference between Chaimi X20 pro and Stone G20 and Cobos X1s pro is 300.
Functional comparison of Cobos X1s pro, Stone G20, and Zoumi X20 pro
In terms of usage scenarios, the gap in these functions may be the key to consumers' decision-making, and the functions of the Zoumi X20 pro are not significantly better than those of competitors, and even many products of Zoumi are still complained by many consumers.
According to the black cat complaint data, a total of 49 complaints have been received in the past 30 days, including the latest X20pro.
Consumer complaints on the black cat complaint platform
The biggest dilemma for the sweeping robot to enter the high end is that it is bound by the all-around base station. After the appearance of base station products, all functions are extended around the base station products. The core upgrade iteration functions are nothing more than obstacle avoidance function, cleaning ability and self-cleaning ability.
The measure of "exchanging price for quantity" will only make the price more expensive, but the total revenue may not necessarily increase, which is not conducive to the development of the industry in the long run.
Being a high-end company is not a problem for enterprises. Why should consumers pay for it if they only pile up materials and do not innovate? Secondly, high-quality after-sales service is the core competitiveness of an enterprise. Among the products with serious homogeneity, there is no brand competitiveness without good after-sales service.
03 Meet the decisive battle with the washing machine?
Relying on sweeping robots as its core business, Zhuimi Technology can only erode the share of other companies if it wants to get more cakes in sweeping robots.
According to the June report data of Aowei Cloud.com, the top five cumulative retail sales shares of China's sweeping robot online market are Cobos (37.0%), Stone (26.3%), Cloud Whale (11.3%), and Chaimi (10.6%). %) and Xiaomi (9.2%); the top five in cumulative retail sales share are Cobos (32.7%), Stone (21.2%), Xiaomi (16.9%), Cloud Whale (9.5%) and Mimi (7.7%) ).
It is not difficult to see that the sales and sales volume of Mimi Technology is at the bottom of the "Four Sweepers", and the opponents behind it are not weak. % of kovos and stones up.
The smart cleaning industry is not a single-category competition. The "Four Sweepers" all adopt a multi-category matrix for development, especially the washing machine, which is becoming a new battlefield for the "Four Sweepers".
At present, brands such as Ecovacs, Stone Technology, Xiaomi, and Zoumi Technology have covered different types of products. Among them, Zoumi Technology has deployed four product lines: sweeping robots, floor washing machines, wireless vacuum cleaners, and high-speed hair dryers. On March 28, Mimi Technology released a new generation of Mimi wireless 2-in-1 scrubber M13 Beta in Shanghai.
"At present, the floor washing machine market is in a period of rapid growth, and it has been eating vacuum cleaners. In the future, the penetration rate will also break through to dozens of points, and it will not be a problem to double the volume." Aoweiyun.com analysts previously accepted 36 Krypton once said in an interview.
The current development of washing machines is similar to that of the early sweeping robots. Similarly, if Zoumi wants to disrupt the washing machine industry, he must either seize good channels, infiltrate brands, and seize the market; dust.
From the perspective of brand competition, there are more floor washing machines entering the game, the industry concentration is low, and the products are relatively homogeneous, so they need to rely on high marketing expenses. In the short term, small brands and new entrants will face more difficult tests, but the possibility of a dark horse running out cannot be ruled out.
It is precisely because of the intensified competition in the industry that many brands have launched cost-effective products, and the floor scrubbers are clearly differentiated to high and low ends.
The data shows that the proportion of low-end products below 2,000 yuan and high-end products above 4,000 yuan has continued to grow in the past three years, while the proportion of mid-to-high-end products in the 3,000-4,000 yuan segment has shown a downward trend.
Obviously, the washing machine market is a blue ocean, but the competition has entered the red ocean. In this context, the final competition of floor washing machines still has to return to price.
The price war tests the full-link capabilities from R&D to supply chain, from production to sales. There are still many shortcomings that need to be made up, especially the channels, which cannot compete with the home appliance giants that have been spreading the channels all over the country for many years.
While attacking new businesses, we must not forget the "secret diseases" in Zoumi. If we can't cure our main business, how can we expand outward?