In the post epidemic era, the home service robot industry has just set sail

With 90 after ,00 And then become the new main force of consumption in the market , A new era of consumption is slowly approaching . Internet consumption and technological progress , Make life more convenient , To promote the “ Lazy economy ”、“ House economy ” The explosion of . Home service robot , To satisfy the Z Generation after generation pursues a higher quality of life 、 The consumption concept of spiritual needs and health awareness , Through the addition of technology , To be more efficient 、 Build a smart life system in a professional way , Push “ Lazy economy ”、“ House economy ” Intelligent transformation of .

In addition to the popularity of home service robots in the consumer market , The capital market has also added weight to this emerging industry . Just the sweeping robot industry , Coworth 、iRobot、 Stone technology 、 Yunjing and other industry leading enterprises compete to be listed , 2021 In, there were dozens of domestic financing events , Many enterprises have been favored by capital .

But in the process of rapid development of the industry , We should also see the chaos in this new industry . How should enterprises solve the problem of homogenization ？ How to seek industry breakthrough ？ These problems lie ahead , It is urgent for us to solve .

The sweeping robot broke the game

The policy and epidemic situation have helped

Coco love has no head , The sweeping robot, which shuttles tables and chairs to clear the dead corners, seems to be a new member of the family . want “ Homestead ” But also under the concept of free consumption , New objects such as sweeping robots have gradually entered thousands of households . The lazy economy, which is triggered by the multi-point zero outbreak of the epidemic ”、“ House economy ”, Let people gradually realize the value of sweeping robot —— It can sweep and drag , Give yourself more time to enjoy life .

From kevos in 2013 In, it launched China's first LDS Slam Since the sweeping robot , Professional robot brand 、 Traditional home appliance enterprises 、 Internet giants are competing to enter the home service robot track . Product upgrade iterations are accelerated , Enterprises meeting different consumption scenarios are serving robots “ Fertile soil ” Has been completed by “ pioneer ” towards “ Deep Plougher ” Identity transformation of , The industry presents a high Outlook .

2021 year , Family services have become the focus of capital investment , Related financing events 113 rise , The total amount of financing exceeds 440 One hundred million yuan . In the leading enterprises , The shares of sweeping robot companies such as coworth and stone technology climbed to an all-time high . But under the capital's blessing , The head brand keeps playing games , More subdivisions have been expanded , Opportunities are also emerging , The industry is stepping into the fast lane of development .

On the supply side , Along with 《 Notice on promoting the healthy development of the robot industry 》 And so on , The degree of hardware localization is further improved , The upstream capacity of the industrial chain is released and the Internet of things is superimposed 、 big data 、 Core technologies such as cloud computing have enabled the industry , While continuously improving the product quality of China's home service robots , Production costs are also falling . The sweeping robot is regarded as an industry breaker “ Knock on the door ”, It has won the trust of consumers with its excellent performance and user experience , Not only promote market digestion , It also helps the rapid development of the home service robot industry .

On the demand side ,“ House economy ”、“ Lazy economy ” The prevalence of has made people generally reluctant to engage in programming 、 Repetitive simple labor , People want to be liberated from housework , Therefore, home service robots have a strong rigid demand . meanwhile , High quality, convenience and value for money product characteristics stimulate consumer desire 、 Lower the purchase threshold , Expand the market capacity of home service robots .

The low penetration rate makes the potential of the home service robot industry unlimited . at present , The penetration rate of China's sweeping robots is insufficient 5%, As the disposable income of residents continues to grow 、 Urbanization 、 Consumption upgrading and other positive factors , The sales of sweeping robots are expected to be 2024 The annual penetration rate reaches 12%. Large market space and low penetration rate , At the same time, it has maintained high-speed growth , This is obviously a blue ocean market in rapid growth .

Diversified development based on family scenes , More types of home service robots are expected to be born under the breakthrough of core technology . At present, in addition to cleaning robots , The rise of the children's consumer market has made the preschool education and entertainment robots a new outlet . With the increasing intelligence and autonomy , More and more scenes are infiltrated by home service robots , Consumers are more and more accepting of it , The scale of the home service robot industry also shows a good growth trend .

The blue ocean is full of chaos

With the help of policies and the general environment , New scenes of the industry have been opened up 、 New technologies are constantly being explored , At the same time, new players continue to enter , The racers on the home service robot track are gaining full power , race each other . However, although this industry is now a fast lane , But the road is still blocked and long . As an emerging market , The home service robot industry is trying to explore its own way , In the process of exploration , Inevitably, it exposes the low added value of the brand 、 A series of problems such as low maintenance .

Re Marketing , Light R & D is a common problem in the domestic market . Kevos, the leader in the field of sweeping robots , There are also hidden worries about the uneven level of R & D and marketing behind the scenery . Results show that ,2019 Year to 2021 year , Kevos' R & D expenses are only slightly higher than the national high-tech enterprise certification baseline 3％ The requirements of , And showed a downward trend year by year . Compare with the global sweeping robot giant iRobot, The R & D expenses of the latter are from 2013 It has been stable since 12%-13% On . Compared with the decrease in R & D investment of enterprises , The marketing expenses of kevos basically reach... Of the R & D expenses 5-6 About times . Relying on marketing is to respect the current online game rules , But to truly achieve sustainable development , We also need to make the transition to "product is king" .

After sales maintenance is also an important service experience for consumers , At present, there are endless roast about the after-sales of home service robots on various platforms , Major brands have been shot in succession . On the complaint platform “ Black cat complains ” On , Search coworth common 516 Bar result , Of which... Has been completed 252 strip , The completion rate is less than half . meanwhile , The industry relies on online sales , Lack of offline maintenance points , The after-sales maintenance process handled by express delivery is not transparent , Consumers have lost their right to speak and know , It is also difficult to successfully resolve the disputes arising from the charging problem in the later stage .

besides , Although the home service robot industry is still in “ Schools of thought contend ” The stage of , However, there has been a trend of industrial concentration . data display ,2021 year , The market share of the top four head brands in China's home service robot industry has reached... In total 84.0%. Such a high market concentration indicates that industrial barriers are forming , The degree of enterprise differentiation will become more and more obvious . Third and fourth tier enterprises seek survival in the cracks , It is inevitable to seize the market by means of over marketing and price war . This is undoubtedly to deepen the contradiction between the increasing consumer demand and low-end homogeneous products , This is tantamount to lifting a stone and hitting yourself in the foot .

At present, the field of home service robots is still in the stage of disruptive innovation , The product is rapidly iterating , It is difficult for the entrants to avoid the chaos of fishing in troubled waters . And in policy 、 Under the joint action of epidemic situation and Technology , The industry is also facing the challenge of industry upgrading “ Shuffle ”, How to improve the brand competitiveness and grasp the brand marketing mode is a problem that enterprises are and will face for a long time and need to continue to think and solve .

The two ends of the smile curve go together

Both R & D and marketing

In the midst of opportunity and chaos , Exploring a new way to break the situation is a problem that the home service robot industry must solve at present . In terms of the development status of the industry , At present, there are two development directions ： towards “ Smile curve ” Parallel entry at both ends , First, increase R & D investment at the left end , Enhance brand hard power , Second, strengthen customer-oriented marketing and service at the right end , Strengthen brand soft power .

In a highly competitive market , move forward , or you 'll fall behind , Minimally invasive new normalization is an indispensable part of brand research and development . Micro innovation is a gradual and continuous innovation based on user experience , similar APP Constantly update and repair through user feedback bug And provide new functions , Products can also improve efficiency or reduce costs through continuous incremental innovation , Make the product more attractive or efficient than the previous version . Micro invasive new will not create a new market , The form is not so exciting , But its importance is no less than breakthrough innovation .

Stone technology that comes from behind in the field of sweeping robots , Yunjing and other brands are well aware of the benefits of micro innovation R & D . Stone technology took the lead in breaking through the technical barrier of intelligent perception and algorithm planning of sweeping robots , It has become the first enterprise in the world to apply laser radar technology on a large scale .“LDS Laser radar +SLAM Algorithm ” Large scale application in sweeping robot , Effectively reduce the production cost , The whole sweeping robot industry has been pushed to a new level .

Riding the hot trend of artificial intelligence and the Internet of things , Smart furniture ecology has become a new outlet . Expand use scenarios 、 Product layout scene has become the only way for the development of home service robots . Home service robot as a component of smart home , The focus is on the interconnection between products , We need to pay attention to the connection between different household appliances and richer application scenarios .

In terms of marketing , Home service robot as a new consumer category , The sales mode is mainly Internet . The current mainstream brands are investing heavily in the online marketing mode . For example, covos held a cloud conference , Combined head KOL Live broadcast , The omni-directional layout is like Tiktok 、 Xiaohongshu and other online platforms , Plant grass through the little red book , Live short video realization , The marketing force is fierce , The effect is good .

meanwhile , The marketing channels of offline experience stores are also essential . Kevos laid out an immersive offline experience store , Promote brand new products , Let passers-by transform into new users of the brand through field experience . in addition , take “ marketing ” and “ Experience ” To combine organically , Achieve consumer oriented “ "One-stop" work style ” Services can also effectively enhance the user experience . Such as the brilliant cloud whale , In addition to adding functions , We have also established a complete service team , Door to door installation and trial before purchase , After sales pick-up , Truly cover the needs of consumers , It facilitates the life of consumers .

therefore , Enterprises can only find a balance between R & D and marketing , The combination of hard and soft strength can help the long-term and stable development of the brand . Like Bill · As Gates once said ：“ Robots are about to repeat the rise of personal computers , In the future, every family will have robots . This revolution is bound to be the same as the personal computer , Completely change the way of life in this era ”. Compared with this goal , At present, home service robots still have a long way to go , Development is endless , We will continue to stand on a new starting point , Welcome to the next sprint .