Introduction: This article starts from the market size of household appliances and the growth rate of the robotic vacuum cleaner category. It focuses on a comparison between Yunji and Ecovacs, revealing the new pattern of tech consumption led by smart hardware.
Everyone's understanding of quality of life and happiness differs. In my view, household appliances are the easiest way to add happiness and convenience to our lives, such as aroma diffusers, air purifiers, ultrasonic cleaners, and robotic vacuum cleaners, etc., which not only add fun to life but also free our hands. According to Moojing Market Intelligence data, since 2017, the annual growth rate of household appliances' sales has been around 20%, which means that the market size of household appliances will reach 50 billion RMB in 2020 .
Moreover, in the category of household appliances, cleaning products all have impressive performances. According to the "2020 China Home Appliance Industry Semi-Annual Report", in the first half of the year, the retail amount of home appliances in China's domestic market decreased by 18.4% year-on-year, but the vacuum cleaner category saw an increase in sales rather than a decrease, with retail amount growing by 14.7% compared to the same period last year.
In addition, according to data from Zhongyikang, online sales of robotic vacuum cleaners in the second quarter domestically increased by 13.5% year-on-year, a rate significantly higher than other home appliance categories.
According to Moojing Market Intelligence, from January to August 2020, vacuum cleaners accumulated sales of 2.9 billion RMB on Taobao and Tmall platforms, ranking third; while robotic vacuum cleaners accumulated sales of 4.2 billion RMB, accounting for 15% of the total sales in household appliances, ranking first among many household appliance categories.
According to Moojing data, we found the TOP stores in the category of household appliances (2020.1-2020.8), with Dyson's official store, which mainly sells vacuum cleaners, leading the Ecovacs official store by a slight margin. Apart from the established giants like Gree and Midea, Yunji, which specializes in robotic vacuum cleaners and was established just over a year ago, has also soared rapidly, surpassing publicly-listed brands like Roborock and Gree, ranking 6th.
Under the trend of upgrading consumer products and commercial high-precision machinery turning to civilian use, robotic vacuum cleaners can currently solve the single, specific task of sweeping.
However, as hard floors are the main cleaning surfaces, the sweeping function alone no longer meets the needs of different scenarios. Brands such as Mi Home and Ecovacs have also noticed this pain point and have launched integrated sweep and mop devices, but none of them have solved the problem of "who actually cleans the mop," and if there's human involvement, can it still be called artificial intelligence? Is the integrated self-cleaning sweep and mop born out of necessity, or is it just a marketing gimmick?
Yunji's Financing Situation
Currently, Yunji's company scale is still small, with only a few hundred employees, but almost 60% of its workforce is R&D personnel, consisting of highly educated talent from domestic and international universities. The senior management team also has experience with well-known companies such as DJI, Huawei, ZTE, Microsoft, NetEase, Xiaomi, Gtech, Emerson, Skyworth, and others.
Image Source: Internet
after ByteDance's investment in Yunji in March of this year and continues its expansion into the smart hardware field after the acquisition of Smartisan, further implementing its strategy of "soft and hard integration" in the market . What kind of charm does Yunji, favored by Sequoia Capital and ByteDance, possess? What features does the "Small White Whale" refined over three years have? Yunji's Sales Situation
and in August, it broke its own record set in June, reaching the top with 140 million RMB, a month-on-month increase of 130% . Data Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
but Yunji's robot has also achieved the top single product sales on the Taobao and Tmall platform for robotic vacuum cleaners (2020.1-2020.8). Surpassing Xiaomi's robot, Ecovacs T8, Roborock T7, and Midea I5, the single product sales reached a cumulative total of 420 million RMB, with cumulative sales of 100,000 units . Image Source: Tmall
However, as the number of China's middle-class continues to grow, there is room for development for domestic brands targeting them . In the robotic vacuum cleaner market, which is plagued by homogenization, the disruption by appliance giants, and the emergence of new brands, each brand is taking the conventional approach of attracting consumers with price, for example, the 1000+ RMB robotic vacuum cleaners by Mi Home and Midea, appealing for their cost-effectiveness. However, Yunji has taken a different path, leveraging its self-cleaning "black technology" to position itself in the tech consumer track, leading tech consumption and proactively seizing the structural opportunities brought by the middle class's brand demand
. Interestingly, when analyzing online sentiment about Yunji, out of a thousand comments captured, four mentioned Dyson, with these consumers having purchased both Dyson and Yunji.
Their cleaning steps are to first use a Dyson vacuum to do a sweep, then use Yunji to do a mop over . Data Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
But this also shows that there is some overlap between the users of Dyson and Yunji, and compared to sweeping, the mopping effect of Yunji is very eye-catching . Data Source: Moojing Market Intelligence
. At present, according to publicly available information from Tianyancha, Yunji Intelligent Technology has 310 intellectual property rights, including 67 patents. The protection of patent technologies and breakthroughs in various fields such as mechanical structure innovation, intelligent sensing, route planning, and software algorithms make it difficult for Yunji to be replicated at a low price, erecting high technological barriers.
Yunji's integrated sweep and mop robot can automatically identify dirty mops and automatically return to the base for turbo cleaning. Then it can resume mopping from where it left off, achieving a cycle from base-station to work-point to base-station. The base has two water tanks to separate clean and dirty water, and the base also has a drying function to prevent bacterial growth on the mop in a damp environment.
Image Source: Tmall
Image Source: Tmall
may also have the chance to become the next "running on the ground" DJI ? Channel Operation - Building Yunji's Own Shopping Festival, Super Link with Consumers
This July, Yunjing preheated its brand with the topic of "Barefoot Libertarianism" on social platforms like Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douyin, which are high-traffic pools. By introducing the topic, they shared background information about Yunjing and details of the Tmall Brand Day activities in August. On August 15, Yunjing officially announced Liu Tao as the brand spokesperson, perfectly matching the spokesperson's personality with Yunjing's tone. By leveraging the star's influence, they enhanced consumer brand recognition. Weibo influencers such as @Wild ZhenNi and @Everyone But Me Is A Pig also posted short videos about "Barefoot Libertarianism," discussing household cleaning and the freedom of being barefoot, further increasing Yunjing's exposure. In the early stages of building momentum, they also rolled out various discount coupons and lucky draw events, increasing the interaction frequency with consumers and garnering a lot of attention for Yunjing.
On Super Brand Day, the daily sales reached 97.56 million yuan, setting a new sales record for small home appliances on Tmall's Super Brand Day.
As a startup brand, Yunjing also invited many influencers on social media to participate in group buys, with a group buying price of 3699 yuan. Even on non-event days at the Tmall flagship store, it's difficult to purchase due to high demand.
Yunjing's marketing on social media is very heartfelt. After each consumer purchases a Yunjing product, they’ll post their purchase on social media and @Yunjing, which promptly replies in the comments. Among the fans participating in the "show and tell" relay, lucky fans are selected to receive a "Lifetime Accessories Grand Prize" or a "Heartfelt Prize." This approach not only brings consumers closer but also creates an atmosphere on social media where those who haven't bought are seeking group buys of Yunjing products, and those who have, share about their Yunjing experience.
As people become more health-conscious, cleanliness is no longer the only objective standard; considerations now also include health and disinfection . Ecovacs, a listed company, has targeted this pain point by developing a disinfecting mopping robot. It eliminates the need for hand-washing by using disposable disinfecting wet mops and improves cleaning efficiency with its sweeping and mopping functions. The launch price for this new product was 1599 yuan, and its current monthly sales on Ecovacs' official online store stand at 359 units.
Moreover, Yunjing is also targeting the health cleaning market. However, unlike Ecovacs, Yunjing isn’t pushing new machinery innovations, but instead, continuously empowers capabilities on top of their existing products .
Besides sweeping and mopping, cleaning windows and tiled walls is an important component of household cleaning. Due to the constraints of cleaning space and height, which are unreachable by hand, robots play a significant role. As of August 2020, on Taobao and Tmall platforms, window cleaning robots have achieved a total sales volume of 200 million yuan, with Bonny and Ecovacs ranked first and second, respectively.
At the 2020 International Consumer Electronics Show, ILIFE from China abandoned the crowded domestic robot vacuum market and targeted the untapped overseas market .
ILIFE, which transitioned from an OEM factory to its own brand development, has achieved first place in the Russian market and fourth in the North American market with its robot vacuum cleaners, robot mops, and floor washing robots.
Yunjing also made its first overseas launch, securing support from 1905 consumers on the American crowdfunding website Kickstarter in 2019, raising 1.14 million US dollars, followed by its launch in China.
People often say technology changes lives, and what's been dubbed as "artificially challenged" robot vacuums are getting more opportunities to vindicate themselves. Whether it's Ecovacs' new T8+ with automatic dust collection or Yunjing's self-cleaning feature, they are all minimizing the contact between people and dirt. Although Yunjing has been able to conquer territories with just one product since its launch, it also indirectly shows the value retention of technological innovation is not in the pursuit of product iterations. This is believed to also provide more insights for startup brands.
As a young person who is "inactive in housework," apart from hoping for dreams and money to come without waiting, I also hope to encounter barefoot freedom unexpectedly. And this should also be the common aspiration of all home cleaning technology brands.
