Since entering 2023, floor washing machines have gone from being continuously popular to still being popular in China's home appliance market. However, from the perspective of the home appliance industry, when many companies see the market pie and vast opportunities for floor was

Since entering 2023, floor scrubbers have continued to be popular in China's home appliance market. However, from the perspective of the home appliance industry, when many companies see the market pie and vast opportunities for floor washing machines, the market traps and challenges of focusing on floor washing machines in the first-tier market are also continuing to increase. 2024 will undoubtedly become a "watershed" for the cleaning appliance industry and the floor washing machine category, and differentiation will appear in a new way.

Kong Yu ||Written by

Go to offline channels and dealer groups, look for growth space towards low-end consumer groups, look for development opportunities in sinking markets, find fulcrums to expand into multiple categories such as washing machines, hair dryers, water purifiers, etc., and compete with vacuum cleaners and Categories such as sweeping machines compete head-on to grab the cake in the market...

Since entering 2023, the Internet celebrity home appliance category floor washing machine, which has attracted much market attention, has ushered in a round of systematic transformation and ice-breaking in the development of the Chinese market. It’s not that the market and user demand have disappeared, nor that market competition has intensified, but that the sustained and rapid growth lacks more pivots and hot spots. A large number of companies, including Ecovacs, Timco, Zhumi, Roborock Technology, Cloud Whale, as well as Midea, Haier, Hisense, Gree, Joyoung, Supor, Lake, etc., all present different ideas, layouts and actions. .

From the perspective of the home appliance circle, this round of changes in the floor washing machine market is essentially a result of the complaints caused by the poor experience of the first batch of old users and the conservative consumption caused by the decline in income of the new batch of potential users. Although it is based on the floor washing machine The market prospects for cleaning appliances represented by China Mobile are good, but the lack of enthusiasm and motivation for growth in the floor washing machine market is a big problem in the short term. Specifically, it is mainly concentrated in three aspects:

First, in the first-tier market, sales on online platforms such as JD.com and Tmall should be the leading role in the past, including companies such as Tianke, Zhuimi, Midea, and Haier. Beginning to turn to offline channel dealers, especially focusing on sinking the market, seeking growth in the county, town and village level market from young people in small towns; simply put, it is to seek growth momentum and space from more groups in more markets . However, in the floor washing machine market, the first batch of market speculators to enter the market have begun to withdraw from the beginning of this year, and the speculation space has been compressed. Speculators who only have low prices but no good products and good performance have no choice but to get out of the market.

Second, in business operations, major companies no longer just blindly pursue high prices and high profits, but actively reduce prices to expand the needs of more mid- to low-end quality families. To promote the market popularization of floor washing machines, only good products can reduce prices. Road. At present, the price of floor washing machine products has dropped from 5,000 to 6,000 yuan at the beginning of the market to the current 2,000 to 3,000 yuan. The prices of floor washing machines from some miscellaneous small brands have reached thousands of yuan.

Thirdly, in the corporate strategy, the leading companies of floor washing machines are undergoing a new round of strategic transformation and cross-border diversification. We know very clearly the development space of floor washing machines in the Chinese market and the ceiling for future growth. Therefore, whether it is Tianke making efforts to make cooking machines and hair dryers, or Chuimi starting to expand into categories such as service robots, or Stone Technology launching washing and drying machines. The essence of the all-in-one machine is that relevant companies hope to find more business support. Diversified expansion will be the only way for all professional floor washing machine companies in the future, and washing machines will be the first choice.

It can be seen that as more and more small and medium-sized enterprises increase their investment and compete for opportunities in the floor washing machine market, this market, which has only developed in just 4 years, also hides various traps and crises. Related leading companies have begun to Break out of the floor washing machine market and look for growth and opportunities in other categories and industries.

market ceiling, coming so soon?

In JD.com, after entering the floor washing machine, more than 430 brands appear, including household floor washing machines and industrial floor washing machine products. In the entire home appliance industry, the number of existing brands of floor washing machines ranks among the best in each category, and no single home appliance category can surpass them.

In just 3 years, floor scrubbers have achieved leapfrog growth from 0 to 10 billion in Chinese home appliances. After entering 2023, although they include Chuimi Technology, Shitou Technology, as well as leading companies such as Ecovacs and Timco, Product iterations and market promotions continue to increase. At the same time, investment from comprehensive home appliance companies such as Haier, Midea, Hisense, Gree, Supor, and Fotile continues to be enthusiastic. There are also a large number of cleaning appliance start-ups with floor scrubbers as the main category. It can be said that "categories are very lively and companies are very excited", but consumer demand and manufacturer competition in the first-tier market are "involution and upgrading".

floor scrubbers face two main pressures in the Chinese home appliance market: First, oversupply brings uneven products, categories and prices. The market has just entered the development period from the promotion period, and has fallen into price chaos. war and product involution. The first batch of speculators have withdrawn, and the second and third batches of speculators are still rushing in;

Second, the demand from mainstream user groups is weak, and urban young people and high-quality families are the first batch of floor scrubbers. Users have complained and praised each other because of the different experiences of different products. However, the working-class people who dominate China's home appliances have not fully accepted this category. High-end households do not have a strict need for cleaning, so the products are trapped in a small number of users. At this stage, we cannot open up a new consumption situation.

The "ceiling" of a market scale of tens of billions has appeared in front of many floor washing machine companies and merchants in just a few years. It is not surprising in the home appliance circle. The essence is that the function and experience of the product have not gone out of the circle to win the favor of more users and groups, but companies participating in the market "grab" will disrupt the situation regardless of their operations.

On the one hand, although floor washing machines have a short development time, cleaning appliances represented by sweeping robots and vacuum cleaners have cultivated users and markets for decades, forming a relatively mature user group, distribution system, and cognitive acceptance of cleaning appliances. However, the marketing of cleaning electrical appliances is mostly concentrated on online channels, online stores, live broadcasts and other platforms, and the offline market is always a shortcoming;

On the other hand, the entry threshold for the floor washing machine market is low, with a large number of hundred-yuan and thousand-yuan products. High-end products emerge one after another, taking advantage of consumers' new and unique psychology to deceive and mislead users, resulting in poor user experience and causing a decline in market awareness and reputation of the category. In the end, this also caused the floor scrubber to be tricked by a large number of "pig teammates".

diversification, can it open up a new situation?

Faced with the approaching market ceiling, the floor washing machine enterprise group did not choose to "sit back and wait" for business opportunities to reappear, but chose to break the ice. Home Appliance Circle has learned that this round of market ice-breaking is mainly divided into three dimensions:

First, expand from online e-commerce to offline dealer groups, expand market coverage, thereby enhancing product and brand influence on user groups; The second is to focus on sinking channels, and use platform operators such as JD Home Appliances and Tmall Premium to seize the needs of young people in small towns, so as to achieve the integrated implementation of products and brands; the third is to focus on the low-end market and launch some cost-effective products. products, seize the needs of mid- to low-end users through price leverage, and cultivate users' awareness of floor washing machines.

In the current ice-breaking operation, the home appliance circle has found that more of them are concentrated on the leading companies of floor washing machines such as Tianke, Zhuimi, Haier, and Midea, as well as the platform faction of comprehensive home appliance giants. There are still a few discovered Those who want to achieve differentiated breakthroughs in response to market changes. However, although this group currently occupies more than 50% to 60% of the market share, it still cannot absolutely dominate the development and changes of the floor washing machine industry.

At present, in addition to a number of companies that have achieved staged wins in terms of brand and product in the market, such as Tianke, Zhuimi, Shitou, and Yunjing, there are also Bisheng, Lake Sirius, Philips, Mofei, Joyoung, Supor, and Nei There are a large number of challengers such as , Shunzao, Mibo, Xiyi, etc., and there are even a large number of rental brand investors such as Chigo, Westinghouse, and Antarctic. The mixed situation of these enterprises, if they are not shuffled and rectified for a long time, will lead to operational chaos and fierce fighting in the industry within a certain period of time.

However, many companies and merchants can rest assured that the temporary market chaos will not change the trend of the industry. The future market size and user demand of cleaning appliances will be the same as that of dishwashers, with greater space and opportunities. But it does take time and more manufacturers to make proactive changes. For example, from floor washing machines to floor washing robots, to comprehensive home cleaning robots, and even upgrades and iterations of home service robots. However, for all participants in the cleaning appliance market, whether they are multi-category or diversified, they must seize user needs and improve product performance. Because in any industrial competition, the final battle must be the product strength within the company and the trust of users outside the market.

Copyright statement: Original article in the home appliance circle. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited