Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty has a cloud in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "The ancients, Shaokang first made baskets, brooms, and wine. "This is probably the first time that cleaning tools have been documented.
Among them, the "broom" can be regarded as the prototype of all kinds of manual floor cleaning tools today, Du Kang, who lived in the Xia Dynasty, it is estimated that it is difficult to imagine that the tools for house cleaning have begun to move towards automation.
People's demand for cleaning tools has also changed from the earliest dust cleaning to the need for particle, solid and liquid garbage cleaning at the same time, and even the need for integrated sterilization and self-cleaning after use.
According to the monitoring of Mojing data, the e-commerce sales of the clean appliance market in 2023 will be 354400 million yuan, of which the sales of **, Tmall, Jingdong and Douyin channels all showed a trend compared with last year, and the total sales achieved 285% year-on-year growth.
Dreame sweeping robot (**titanium**app author shooting).
Although the growth rate of the clean track has slowed down compared with previous years, many people in the industry are still optimistic about the clean electrical track in 2024. At present, sweeping robots and floor scrubbers have become the pillar categories of cleaning track sales. Among them, the floor scrubber, as a "new species", had bright data in the first half of last year, and the sweeping robot was once again concerned by users by virtue of the combination of mechanical arm structure, shape transformation and water supply and discharge, embedded and other functions.
What many people don't know is that nearly 40 years have passed since the first sample of a sweeping robot appeared. During this period, the sweeping robot has gone through 2 major iterations of technology and form.
At first, the sweeping robot did not have the ability to navigate the path planning,All cleaning routes are caused by collision、Random routes caused by the repetitive action of turning the head,I believe this is also the initial impression that many users have of sweeping robot products:A "fool robot" that will only bump around at home。 Later, with the addition of lidar and more sensors, as well as the implementation of environmental mapping (SLAM) technology, sweeping robots began to learn path planning and house space recognition, and the cleaning efficiency was initially improved.
Until now, one of the iteration directions of sweeping robot technology also includes more accurate recognition of the surrounding environment and items, as well as more intelligent and efficient cleaning paths and strategies, and the Ecovacs DEEBOT X2, which will be released in 2023, is also improving its performance in this regard.
The latest overall technological innovation of sweeping robots occurred in 2018, the emergence of "base stations", not only allows sweeping robots to obtain mop cleaning, dust collection and other self-cleaning capabilities, but also makes it possible to wash mops with hot water and switch independent sweeping and mopping capabilities.
From 2018 to the present,Sweeping robot can be regarded as entering a new round of technology platform period,From the overall technical direction and form,It is difficult to find a revolutionary breakthrough,The exploration of various manufacturers in technology has not stopped,But they are all solving the corners of the cleaning process。 Industry insiders said.
Robotic arm structure for enhanced corner cleaning.
In other words, each previous innovation has gradually improved the cleaning ability and user experience of the sweeping robot from 0 points to 60 points and 90 points.
Nowadays, both the head manufacturers and new entrants are looking for a way to improve from 90 points to 95 points, for example, in order to clean the corners more thoroughly, Dreame and Roborock chose to add a robotic arm with the ability to mop and move later, while Ecovacs chose to change the fuselage structure to make it closer to the corners of the house.
On the other hand, the lack of faulty technological innovation has made the product power in the industry quickly flattened.
According to the statistics of Aowei Cloud Network, as of the middle of 2023, the market share of the all-round sweeping robot has reached 703%, compared to 34 in 20223%, doubling the increase. And the self-cleaning model has also reached 213%, that is to say, more than 90% of the sweepers on the market have initially achieved the goal of "free hands".
Another category of floor scrubbers on the cleaning track is also experiencing the same thing, but its iteration speed and technological innovation cycle have been greatly shortened, from the initial only in the vacuum function to add a rolling brush structure that can mop the floor, to now have self-cleaning, sterilization, high-temperature scrubbing products at the same time, only a few years have passed.
According to the analysis of the company, after entering the technology platform period, the R&D and output ratio of manufacturers around clean appliances is declining rapidly, and the lack of leapfrog innovation has made more manufacturers enter a wait-and-see state.
Previously, Qian Dongqi, chairman of Ecovacs Group and founder of the Timco brand, had publicly stated that the brand would adhere to the product deployment rhythm of "research generation, development generation, and promotion generation", but judging from the frequency of recent new product updates and the degree of innovation at the level of function and experience, in the face of the pressure of competitors, Timco has felt the pressure, and its own product iteration and R&D rhythm are also accelerating.
As a more mature category on the technical side, the current initiative of technological innovation and continuous R&D investment are mainly concentrated in domestic Dreame, Ecovacs and overseas irobot, Dyson These head brands, the remaining brands only need to roll the cost, volume ** at the same time, and do not lag behind in mainstream technology.
In the face of the gradual slowdown in the development environment of the domestic home appliance market, many clean electrical appliance brands have also quickly switched to the international track in the past two years, especially China's clean electrical appliance brands, after experiencing fierce competition and rapid growth in the domestic market, they have begun to turn their attention to the international market.
According to data from Aowei Cloud, by the end of 2023, the sales of Chinese clean appliances in overseas markets have increased by 35%, and this growth is largely due to the overseas expansion of domestic brands.
Among them, Ecovacs and Dreame, as the leading brands in the current domestic cleaning track, have also taken the lead in setting their sights on overseas markets. According to public information, Dreame's products currently cover more than 120 countries and regions such as the United States, Germany, and Japan, and will enter emerging markets such as the Middle East and Africa, India, and South America in 2023.
In terms of sales data, Dreame Technology's overseas business will increase by 120% year-on-year in 2023. During the Black Friday period, Dreame Technology's sales in Southwest Europe increased by 542% year-on-year, and sales in North America increased by 450% year-on-year, and as of the end of December 2023, the number of offline stores in overseas markets has reached 4,400.
Ecovacs' experience store in Bangalore, India.
According to the data released in its financial report for the first half of 2023, the overseas business revenue of the two major brands of Ecovacs and Timco increased by 26% year-on-year respectively5% and 242%, accounting for more than 30% of their respective incomes.
In the process of going overseas, in addition to building a channel system suitable for the local market and choosing the right marketing means, the selection of products is also very important. For example, the living space in Europe and the United States is generally large, and the ground is mainly carpeted, so the choice of cleaning appliances will be dominated by high-power vacuum cleaners or sweeping robots.
According to a report released by IDC, the total sales of the global cleaning appliance market will reach $56 billion in 2023, of which the sales of sweeping robots and floor scrubbers account for more than 30%. Behind this market growth is the growing consumer demand for intelligent, automated cleaning solutions. It is with a keen grasp of this trend, as well as the advantages of product innovation and cost control, that domestic brands have entered the international market.
The living environment in the Asia-Pacific region is relatively compact, and the ground is dominated by hard pavement such as floors and tiles, coupled with the problems of dust and sand, which makes mopping a rigid need, so the sweeping and mopping integrated robot and the emerging floor scrubber products are more in line with the user's habits.
In particular, we have also noticed that in Japan and South Korea, people still have the habit of sitting on the ground or even resting on the ground, which makes them have higher requirements for deep cleaning of the ground, and the cleaning tools must not only be able to clean up debris and dust, but also have the ability to sterilize, which is one of the reasons why floor scrubber products have received great attention in the past two years. An industry technical source said.
According to the data released by IDC, the sales of floor scrubbers in the Japanese market will grow by 30% year-on-year in 2023, and the Korean brand LG will also launch its first floor scrubber product at the end of 2023 (LG calls it a handheld suction and mopping machine). Domestic brands such as Dreame and Timke, whose products have undergone at least 3 technical iterations before, will enter 2024 and will be very competitive in the case of continuous involution in cost and selling price
The "going overseas" strategy of domestic clean electrical appliance brands is not only an expansion of its own development, but also a microcosm of the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. In 2024, with the further progress of technology and the continuous expansion of market demand, the performance of Chinese clean appliance brands in the international market will be more worth looking forward to. (This article was first published by Deng Jianyun and edited by Zhong Yi).