On May 12th, Mother's Day is approaching, the first financial reporter noticed that the current popular cleaning electrical appliances category of washing machines have started a price war, and many brands have launched the "thousand-yuan machine" of washing machines, and some brands have even lowered the price of washing machines to less than 600 yuan. AVC expects that this year's domestic floor scrubber market will "exchange price for volume".
In some e-commerce malls, the price level of floor scrubbers is lower than last year, the mainstream price is about 1000-2000 yuan, 900 yuan, close to 1,000 yuan of models are also a lot, there are 500-600 yuan of products, of course, there are a small number of models in the high-end market competition of more than 3000 yuan.
"At present, most of the floor scrubber brands are not profitable, and this year, the domestic floor scrubber industry will accelerate the 'shuffle'", an industry veteran told reporters, it is expected that the sales of domestic floor scrubbers will still grow in 2024, but the number of players will decrease.
In the first quarter, the average online price fell by nearly two percent
In 2024, the price war in the domestic floor scrubber market will escalate. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in the first quarter of 2024, the average price of China's floor scrubber online market was 2,092 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.5%, and the average price of the offline market was 3,084 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.3%; China's floor scrubber market sales were 2.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.4%; The sales volume was 1.244 million units, a year-on-year increase of 50.1%.
The price war of floor scrubbers is mainly reflected in three aspects: first, some old products of mainstream brands have fallen below 1,000 yuan; the second is that the newly released products "do not increase the price of the increase (referring to the enhancement of functions)"; Third, the price of iterative products is lower than that of in-sale products.
At present, the sales proportion of products within 2,000 yuan in the online floor scrubber market has exceeded forty percent. From 19% in the first quarter of 2023 to 38% in the fourth quarter of 2023, it further increased to 44% in the first quarter of 2024.
The low, medium and high price lines have shifted downward as a whole. Aowei will be the first 20% and the last 20% of the sales are defined as high-end and low-end, in the first quarter of this year, the upper limit of the low-end of the domestic washing machine has dropped to 1600 yuan, and the lower limit of the high-end line has also dropped to only 2989 yuan.
"The reason behind the price war is the increasing homogeneity of products, the weakening of traffic, and the survival of enterprises." Analysts of Aowei Cloud Network told the first financial reporter that in the first quarter of this year, the functional selling points of the iterative products of floor scrubbers are mainly to provide solutions around lying flat, anti-tangling, anti-odor and low, corner space cleaning.
The above-mentioned industry veterans believe that the decline in the price of floor scrubbers is also related to the development cycle of the industry. In 2020, there will be only 7 domestic floor scrubber brands, and up to now, the total number of floor scrubber brands in China has reached 250. Floor scrubbers involve water and electricity, and it was difficult to open molds in the early days, but now the cost of molds has come down. In addition, the maturity of technology, the rise in scale has also reduced the cost, the hardware cost of the early washing machine is close to 1,000 yuan, and now the ex-factory price of the washing machine in some small factories in Suzhou is only 500 yuan.
"On the other hand, there is less and less differentiation between the products at present," said the industry veteran, adding that in the current macroeconomic environment, consumer confidence needs to be strengthened, and manufacturers are cutting prices to stimulate demand. Moreover, the gross profit margin of the floor scrubber is still high, and the cost of marketing is more, and the price also has room to fall.
With the intensification of price competition, the number of domestic floor scrubber brands has changed from increasing to declining for the first time this year. The number of domestic online floor scrubber brands on sale will increase from 145 in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 150 and 166 in the first and second quarters of 2023, respectively, to 166 and 167 in the third and fourth quarters of 2023, and to decrease to 143 in the first quarter of 2024.
The year-on-year growth rate of the overall sales of the domestic floor scrubber market also showed a slowdown trend, from 348% in 2021 to 72.5% in 2022, and then further slowed down to 22.4% in 2023 and 23.4% in the first quarter of 2024.
A test of balance between quantity and profit
"2024 will become a key transformation node in the floor scrubber industry", Aowei cloud network analysts expect that the price of the floor scrubber industry will continue to decline in 2024, which will accelerate the reshuffle and product upgrading of the floor scrubber industry. And how to balance the quantity and profit, but also a test of the clean electrical appliances of listed companies and quasi-listed companies.
As the parent company of Timke, a leading domestic floor scrubber company, Ecovacs (603486. SH) last year and the first quarter of this year both "increased revenue but not profits". According to its 2023 annual report, the revenue of Timco brand smart living appliances last year was 7.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.24%, accounting for 46.9% of the overall revenue, and the gross profit margin of its smart living appliances reached 52.79%, but a year-on-year decrease of 6.64 percentage points. In the face of the decline in the average price of the industry, Timco controlled costs last year and launched products such as high-temperature and quick-drying.
For the current price war of floor scrubbers, Tim Ke did not respond positively to reporters, but the other party said that the floor scrubber market still has huge development potential, and floor scrubber products will continue to upgrade and iterate, such as automatic water loading and unloading, 180° lying flat cleaning, etc.
"At present, the price of the floor scrubber industry has fallen, which is not entirely caused by the price war." In an interview with reporters, Dreame said that the real outbreak of the floor scrubber industry is in the past two or three years. At the beginning of the outbreak, the cost of technology R&D investment and market education investment of various manufacturers will be high. However, with the improvement of the cognition of the floor scrubber industry, the improvement of technology maturity, the improvement of economic scale and the improvement of product design process, the development of the industry will be more efficient, the cost will be reduced, and the average price of products will gradually fall and tend to stabilize.
"The current penetration rate of the floor scrubber market is still low, the potential consumer demand space is still very large, under the premise of the gradual maturity of floor scrubber products and technology, the market will continue to expand, far from the time to fight the stock market with a price war." said the above-mentioned person.
But there is no shortage of radicals in the market. Del Mar (301332. SZ) vice president Li Junwei said that from the industry data, this year's floor scrubber sales and sales have increased year-on-year, but the sales unit price has indeed decreased. In fact, since last year, the unit price of floor scrubbers has been going down, indicating that competition has intensified and popularity has deepened. Floor scrubbers are a relatively new category in China, and the price band will move downward, which will help popularization.
Delmar launched a 999 yuan floor scrubber last year to seize the market for products within 1,000 yuan. According to its financial report, Delmar's performance last year was under pressure, with revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company declining year-on-year, and its revenue growth rate was higher than profit growth in the first quarter of this year.
In addition, Supor (002032. SZ) and other small kitchen appliance companies are also actively expanding new businesses such as floor scrubbers in the case of slowing down industry growth. The reporter noticed that Supor also launched a "thousand-yuan machine" of 999 yuan this year, and some models are less than 600 yuan.
The above-mentioned industry veterans expect that in the upcoming e-commerce promotion, the average price of domestic floor scrubbers will continue to decline. This year, the floor scrubber products "increase the amount without increasing the price", and it is more difficult to ship high-end products above 3,000 yuan. He believes that "at present, most of the floor scrubber brands are not profitable, although the gross profit margin is high, but the marketing cost is high, and the return rate of live broadcast e-commerce is also high." The floor scrubber industry is 'shuffling' and the number of players will decrease. ”
Under the price war, analysts of Aowei cloud network suggested that floor scrubber companies should solve user pain points from the actual needs of consumers such as water stains, noise, sewage tank treatment, and self-cleaning of roller brushes. In addition, you can look for opportunities to subdivide the track and subdivide the population, do a good job in supply chain control, and reduce the return rate.
According to Aowei Cloud Network, in 2024, the scale of China's floor scrubber market will reach 13.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%, and the growth rate will slow down further; Sales will reach 6.496 million units, a year-on-year increase of 28.8%, and the sales growth rate will be faster than the revenue growth rate; The average price will fall to 2,153 yuan, down 11% year-on-year.
(This article is from Yicai)