From the lattice room to the user's kitchen bathroom: Jingdong purchasers welcome the spring like this

Approaching the Spring Festival, "saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new" is one of the key words of almost every Chinese family. With the continuous improvement of people's quality of life, in addition to the "update" of daily necessities, many people will also choose to update "large" household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, and smoke machine stoves during the Spring Festival because of stockpiling New Year's goods, cooking Chinese New Year's Eve meals, cleaning, taking hot baths, visiting relatives and friends, etc. Between the transformation of the old and the new, the appearance of life has quietly improved, and the quality of life has steadily improved.

In the first three quarters of 2023, the retail sales of 43 major categories in China's home appliance market increased by 6.7% compared with the same period last year, which is at a high level in the statistics of the last five years, according to the monitoring data of China's home appliance market released by the consulting agency Zhongyikang. Behind the "recovery" of the household appliance consumer market, the replacement consumption model of "trade-in" is becoming the mainstay of accelerating circulation.

In fact, when refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters and other major appliances are renewed, the most troublesome thing for consumers is how to disassemble and dispose of old electrical appliances, and waste time by disassembling and assembling them many times. In order to solve these user pain points, Jingdong has launched services such as refrigerator washing machine delivery synchronization and free removal of old smoke stove water heaters, and strives to achieve one-step trade-in.

In this process, what cannot be ignored is the input of front-line procurement and marketing personnel. They enter the life of users and are the "insights" of pragmatic needs, they respond to problems professionally and are the "creators" of trending products, and they connect users and manufacturers, and they are the "connectors" of the market and the brand.

When it is time for thousands of households to reunite, the first-line Jingdong procurement and sales are still in a hurry. During this year's Spring Festival, Jingdong New Year's Festival launched discounts for consumers to purchase refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, smoke machines and stoves and other household appliances to enjoy a 10% discount on trade-in, and automatic price insurance services for PLUS members.

On festive days, we try to get into the details of the work of JD buyers and salesmen, and into their "ordinary" day after day.

Teacher Dong: "Fool" smart washing machine makes the hands of the elderly "warm" in spring

As the Spring Festival approaches, everyone is thinking about what kind of New Year's goods to bring to honor their parents. For Mr. Dong of Jingdong Procurement and Marketing, how to "warm up" the hands of the old couple in the neighborhood has become one of the things he is most concerned about a year ago.

Recently, Mr. Dong moved. His new neighbors are an elderly couple in their 70s. The first time I went to the neighbor's house to greet her, Mr. Dong was keenly aware of the difficulties faced by Grandma Li next door: although there was a washing machine at home, the elderly were not familiar with its functions - they could only perform basic washing, but they did not know how to deal with different types of clothes. Sometimes, after a thorough operation, you find that the sweater has shrunk more and more as you wash it, and sometimes the large coat still has stains on it.

Mr. Dong found that in the face of the complex buttons on the washing machine, it even took hours for the old couple to figure out the meaning behind it. Not to mention the cost of water and electricity, the effect is not ideal. In order not to trouble their children, they simply wash most of the clothes directly by hand - seeing that the weather is getting colder and colder, the old people often rub their clothes and their hands tremble.

"Washing machines are becoming more and more powerful. However, do the elderly really know how to use it?""Which functions are the functions that the old people pay the most attention to?"What kind of operation mode and what kind of intelligent products can make the old people use them comfortably?"With these questions, Mr. Dong visited more than a dozen elderly people in the vicinity and summarized the practical difficulties of the old people when using the product.

After a few days of visits, Mr. Dong formed his own "procurement and sales notes": on the one hand, he summarized the needs of the elderly users collected into design suggestions and submitted them to the manufacturers; on the other hand, he used his own expertise to select products suitable for the needs of the elderly on the market, which are both "fools" and "smart", and recommended them to users with "labels". He found that more and more washing machines are beginning to implant smart modules, and many washing machines can identify the degree of dirtiness of clothes through light detection technology, and then automatically adjust the washing time and program according to the actual situation, which is the most suitable for older consumers.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, Ms. Dong happened to meet a neighbor's child coming to visit her parents, so she suggested that she trade in the washing machine at home and replace it with a smart one. After the new machine entered the house, Mr. Dong became the "teacher" of the old neighbor. Watching the "Didi" operation a few times, he was able to make the old neighbors take out the washed and dried clothes, and his heart warmed up together.

Brother Jun: Create a cost-effective range hood that the elderly can understand

For the elderly, the selling point of a good range hood is not only "large suction". As a product that needs to be used every day, it is also very important to help users calculate the "small accounts" in life. Recently, a "small episode" around me made Brother Jun, who has worked in the smoke machine and stove industry for more than 10 years, deeply understand this.

During a chance family visit, Brother Jun learned the news that his mother's friend Aunt Tang was hospitalized with pneumonia. I thought it was caused by the epidemic virus in winter, but I didn't expect that this pneumonia had a lot to do with my old job.

Aunt Tang is a native of Sichuan, and she usually cooks and pays attention to a fierce stir-fry. In the past, when cooking in the countryside, there was no need to open the range hood, and Aunt Tang brought this habit to the city. Under the "province", the oil smoke drilled into the respiratory tract, and he even "saved" the disease.

As a professional purchaser and salesman, Brother Jun is keenly aware that the problem is not entirely in the user's money-saving habits, but more importantly, in their "ignorance" of the product. After Aunt Tang was discharged from the hospital, he paid a special visit to explain the power consumption of the range hood: although the range hood "roared", the power of most products did not exceed 300W. He explained in a more popular way: even if you turn on for 1 hour while cooking, it will only cost 0.1-0.3 kWh of electricity, and the electricity bill for a meal is only 1 yuan.

Digging deeper into this, Brother Jun visited more older consumers. During the interview, he realized that most consumers do not have a concept of the power consumption of the range hood, and even the complicated "intelligent functions" of the hood stove make the old people a little reluctant to use it.

To this end, Brother Jun did two things: on the one hand, make adjustments in the marketing link to more clearly explain the power-saving effect of the range hood. On the other hand, combined with his own design expertise, he passed on the market trend of "simpler products" to brand manufacturers, suggesting that manufacturers should release some "load reduction" models that remove the functions that are not commonly used on the basis of ensuring the suction power of range hoods, so as to meet the needs of the elderly and renters for range hoods, and at the same time combine the old with trade-in discounts to face consumers at better prices.

Xiao Dai: The careful machine in the refrigerator allows the elders to "stockpile" healthier

As a post-00s generation who grew up in Hong Kong, Beijing's hutong life has always made Xiao Dai curious. During the National Day, when he visited a friend's house living in Beijing's Second Ring Hutong, he not only felt the "hospitality" of old Beijing, but also saw the "terrifying" side of the life of the older generation.

What shocked him was his friend's refrigerator. In the life of the post-50s and post-60s, the "refrigerator" is not only a household appliance, but also a "storage room" of life - on the top of the refrigerator, a large number of bottles and cans are piled up; when you open the refrigerator door, there is not only an uncomfortable odor, but also countless cans, plastic bags and all kinds of wrinkled and dry fruits and vegetables.

As a Jingdong procurement and salesman, Xiao Dai tactfully reminded his friends that in the long run, it will not be good for the health of the elderly. And my friend also helplessly explained that my parents were used to saving all their lives, and they didn't eat all kinds of food, and they couldn't give up and couldn't persuade them - this is just a microcosm of thousands of families, like their family, many elders are used to use the refrigerator used to keep fresh and store food as a "safe", thinking that as long as the food is put in the refrigerator, everything will be fine, and it will never be bad. The stuff is getting fuller and deeper, and the food inside has already gone bad.

"Is there a way to improve the practical habits of the older generation from the perspective of products?" professional acumen made Xiao Dai begin to rethink this problem. Xiao Dai noticed that nowadays, most refrigerator products tend to focus on fresh-keeping technology and space utilization. How to rationalize storage so that food can be "consumed" in an orderly manner is indeed a problem that many manufacturers ignore.

After visiting and learning about the hoarding habits of many "old Beijing", he gained insight into the potential upgrade point of the refrigerator in the storage function. This key point is nothing more than two words: "seeing" - many foods are spoiled, in fact, because they are blocked inside. This is not only due to the fact that food is not effectively "displayed" to the user, but also often because of the lack of convenient storage systems, which makes opaque "plastic bags" frequent guests in the refrigerator.

After understanding the needs of users, Xiaodai gave a lot of suggestions on storage in cooperation with manufacturers. For example, when a new product is launched on the market, increase the number of shelves in the refrigerator fresh-keeping area and the number of storage boxes on the door. When the product is on the shelves, he suggests giving away gifts such as food packaging boxes and sorting labels at the same time. At the same time, with the support of the trade-in subsidy, he feels that the ideal of creating a healthy life with refrigerators is getting closer and closer.

Brother Hai: Face to face with nearly 1,000 users in more than 20 cities, he recorded the pain points of users as a "book"

"There is no perfect product, but there can be procurement and sales that are always on the road", this is a sentence that Haige often shares with new employees in procurement and sales.

As a senior buyer and salesman in the water heater industry, Haige often spends his weekends going to users' homes in different cities to conduct research and inspect their kitchens and bathrooms. "There is a huge difference in climate between the north and the south of China, and in order to understand users, know what links are the weakest, and what functions are most necessary, field research is the core of our procurement and marketing work. So far, he has traveled to more than 20 cities and met nearly 1,000 users face-to-face. The user needs and pain points excavated during the visit were faithfully recorded in the book word by word.

"If you don't know about water heaters, reading Brother Hai's book may be the easiest way to get started. His book is almost the 'development history' and 'white paper' of the domestic water heater industry. A colleague commented.

In the process of visiting, Haige not only learned more and more about the market, but also entered the lives of many users, and even made friends with them. In November last year, Uncle Shi's house, who lived in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, left a deep impression on him. In order for their children to go to school, Uncle Shi's family of five lives in a small two-bedroom apartment of less than 50 square meters. The old community has a large population and the water pressure is unstable, not to mention that the family still lives on the sixth floor with the lowest water pressure. "The water heater in Uncle Shi's house is already the same as it was 10 years ago, and the water is usually big and small when cooking, and the bath is hot and cold. Moreover, the old water heater is used, and there is a particularly loud noise, and the son works overtime and comes back to take a bath late at night, which can even wake up the whole family.

What impressed Hai Ge the most was that even in this context, the old man did not change his home appliances in order to save money, but "suffered a little more" by himself. Brother Hai said that in order to let his grandson sleep well, whenever his son worked overtime, Uncle Shi would use the gas stove to boil out the hot water in advance and put it in a thermos, and wait for his son to wash after work. The house is small, and Uncle Shi needs to prepare three thermos of boiling water to be enough. ”

"Old water heaters are not only noisy, but also have hidden dangers such as poor water quality, easy leakage and easy fire. In fact, it also consumes more electricity and consumes more electricity. Knowing the specific situation, Brother Hai patiently explained the necessity of replacing the machine, and suggested that Uncle Shi replace a new water heater through the "old for new" mode. After communicating with his children, a few years ago, Brother Hai helped Uncle Shi choose a suitable and cost-effective product and completed the home installation.

"Uncle Shi's living situation is not an isolated case, in this old community, the water heater does not bring good help to life. After visiting many homes, Haige observed that many "old and small" people have the problem of small and damp bathroom space, which is easy to breed bacteria. Insight into this common pain point, Haige actively communicated with manufacturers whether real-time intelligent water quality monitoring modules could be added to water heater products to help users use it more confidently and healthily. A few months later, the first batch of water quality testing products sold well as soon as they were launched, and they were not only recognized by the elderly and children, but also by many women.

In Haige's view, "Only by really going to the customers can we hear their true words and dig out the real needs." The story of Uncle Shi's family is just a corner of the procurement and marketing work of "Brother Hai". For hundreds of JD.com's procurement and sales, it is the "Uncle Shi" who inspires them to go further and further on the road of insight into user needs, pulse market trends, and feedback product research and development.

In fact, in addition to the continuous exploration of user needs by Jingdong procurement and sales, Jingdong New Year's Festival also continues to upgrade trade-in service measures and discounts to meet the needs of different users for home appliances. It is understood that during the Spring Festival, you can enjoy a 10% discount on trade-in kitchen and bathroom products on JD.com, and PLUS members can enjoy automatic price insurance services.

In addition, during the Jingdong Ice Washing Kitchen and Bathroom New Year Festival, four major life scenes were created according to the traditional customs of consumers for the New Year: "Farewell to the old and welcome the new", "Family reunion Chinese New Year's Eve dinner", "Home soft decoration for a new look", "Warm winter sleep soundly", so that consumers can one-stop refresh the refrigerator, washing machine, water heater, smoke machine stove and other ice washing kitchen and bathroom appliances products they need, just open the Jingdong APP to search for "refrigerator washing machine New Year carnival" or "kitchen bathroom small year carnival" You can go directly to the main venue, save money and worry and renew your home.