Do you want to put the disinfection cabinet in the annual inventory? Recently, the epidemic prevention and control measures have been fully opened, and the whole society is facing a formidable enemy. N95 masks, antigen reagents, alcohol and other products are popular, and the demand for blood oximeters, disinfectants, ventilators and other related products has also increased.
There are also more and more people focusing on such healthy household appliances as disinfecting cupboards and air purifiers. Baidu index shows that in the past month, the search volume of air disinfectors as a whole has increased by 112% year-on-year and month-on-month, the search volume of disinfection cabinets has increased by 11% year-on-year, and the search volume of air purifiers has increased by 22% month-on-month.
For a time, a variety of products with disinfection and sterilization functions became popular. According to Suning E-Buy data, the overall sales of household appliances with sterilization functions such as disinfection cabinets, dishwashers, clothes dryers, etc. increased by 127% compared with the "Double 11" period, and the sales of small health appliances such as water purifiers, air purifiers, household ventilators, oxygen generators, etc. increased by more than 200% compared with the same period.
Before the comprehensive opening of the epidemic control, the sales of health household appliances were not as good as expected. After the opening of the epidemic, the "demand momentum" pushed the disinfection cabinet to the air, and household appliance brands such as Fontaine, Boss, Haier and Bear also took advantage of the opportunity to seek new growth.
Disinfection and sterilization Circle Jedi to survive
Unlike rice cookers, washing machines and other household appliances just in need, disinfection cabinets have been hovering in the "list of disposable household appliances", and after a short period of freshness, the purchase demand for disinfection cabinets has declined with each passing day.
According to the data of China Economic Information Network, the retail volume of disinfection cabinets in China was 5.796 million in 2017, decreased by 4.9% to 5.514 million in 2018, and decreased by 2.7% to 5.366 million in 2019. In 2020, it may be driven by the epidemic, with retail sales increasing by 4.3% to 5.598 million units, but in 2021, it will suddenly drop by 18% to 4.59 million units.
Tracing back to the source, there are several major reasons for the decline of the disinfection cabinet market: first, people's quality of life has been continuously improved, and higher requirements have been put forward for kitchen electrical products, while the homogeneity of the disinfection cabinet is seriously lack of innovation; Second, multifunctional dishwashers, integrated stoves and other categories have disinfection functions, which has a certain impact on the sales of disinfection cabinets; Third, the overall environment of real estate is not optimistic, and the market demand becomes low.
When the disinfection cabinet is facing the pressure of growth, the air purifier, clothes dryer and other popular products collectively make efforts to explore the second growth curve of the disinfection and sterilization market.
On the one hand, the epidemic has provided impetus for the disinfection and sterilization industry to continue to move forward. Affected by the epidemic, people's health awareness has been improved, and consumers have taken disinfection and sterilization as the first line of defense to protect the health of individuals and family members. The sales of disinfection and sterilization products have greatly increased, and the market has even experienced a short supply shortage.
On the other hand, the game between disinfection and sterilization brands has virtually promoted the development of the industry. With the continuous improvement of people's living standards and living environment, disinfection cabinets, air purifiers and other products are gradually moving towards the mass market, attracting the pursuit of disinfection and sterilization brands. While major brands in the industry actively innovate to seek change and enhance their competitiveness will also bring new impetus to the market.
In a word, the epidemic is like a "tonic", which has replaced the long-dormant disinfection cabinet market with new machines, and also put the traditional disinfection cabinet brand, the old comprehensive household appliance brand, and the new small household appliance brand, which are busy with self-change, back on the competitive stage. The veteran has the confidence of the veteran, and the new soldier has the courage of the new soldier. This battle for survival of the Jedi has officially started.
Three types of players "big competition and cooperation"
The market of disinfection cabinet has risen, and the competition pattern in the industry has become increasingly complex.
At present, disinfection cabinet players can be mainly divided into three categories: the first category is professional disinfection cabinet manufacturers, such as Fangtai, Boss, Kangbao, etc; The second category is well-known large household appliance brands, such as Midea and Haier; The third category is the emerging small household appliance brands that mainly focus on the maternal and infant disinfection market.
The first type of players, such as Fontai, Kangbao and other traditional and old brands of disinfection cabinet manufacturers, can be said to be synonymous with professional manufacturing. They have worked hard in the field of disinfection cabinets for many years, developed independent and embedded product lines, and occupied a large market share. They have strong scale and brand advantages in the new round of competition.
Taking Kangbao as an example, Kangbao is the inventor and innovator of disinfection cabinets. It not only takes the lead in formulating many national and industrial standards for disinfection cabinets, but also has complete product lines, many models, rich functions, mature disinfection technology, and affordable. Such rich R&D experience and scale effect have brought it brilliant performance.
According to the Capital Securities Research Report, in the disinfection cabinet market, in 2020, the total proportion of disinfection cabinet brand owners and Fangtai in the offline market will exceed 50%, and the TOP2 pattern will be stable; In the online market, Kangbao ranks first with a market share of 32.09%, Midea ranks second with a market share of 17.67%, followed by Boss, Haier and Fontai.
The second type of player, Midea, Haier and other large household appliance brands, has a good public reputation and complete household appliance facilities. Almost all appliances on the market are involved. They are very friendly to consumers who like household appliance facilities and pursue cost-effectiveness. The extremely high cost-effectiveness advantage is the embodiment of their competitiveness.
Compared with high-end kitchen appliances brands such as Fontaine and Vantage, which have higher prices, Midea disinfection cabinet products have a variety of models and are affordable, which can better serve the "mass market". It is understood that the prices of Fangtai and Vantage disinfection cabinets are more than 2000 yuan or even more than 10000 yuan, while the prices of Haier and Midea disinfection cabinets remain within the range of 1000 yuan, but the price bands of disinfection cabinet brands have increasingly overlapped in recent years.
The third category of players, the popular small household appliance brands such as Bear and Ox, also have certain competitiveness in the disinfection and sterilization market, especially in the mother and baby small household appliance market. With the popularization of the concept of meticulous and scientific childcare, consumers have higher requirements for sterilization and disinfection of maternal and infant supplies. The demand for small household appliances for mothers and infants is strong, and the sales volume is naturally rising.
In recent years, infant washing machines, disinfectors, air purifiers, infant air conditioners and other home appliances for mothers and infants have been sold in large quantities. According to Jingdong Supermarket's 2022 Jingdong Supermarket Annual Consumption Report on Fast Moving Consumer Goods, the turnover of baby disinfection pots increased by 30% year on year. With the deepening of the concept of scientific childcare, household appliance products for mothers and infants will be more and more concerned, and will benefit small household appliance brands.
It can be found that the three types of players have their own advantages and strengths, but have the same goals. On the one hand, we actively concentrate on the research and development of new technologies to pursue differentiated development, and on the other hand, we will launch more high-quality products to maintain the healthy development of the industry. In the future, the three brands will maintain a dynamic cooperation and competition relationship for a long time, and the disinfection cabinet industry will enter a new "era of great competition and cooperation".
While traditional disinfection cabinet brands, large comprehensive household appliance brands and emerging small household appliance brands pursue coordinated growth, they will also face the challenges of their own transformation and innovation, and who can better and faster adapt to the development of the times, match the changes in market demand, and achieve sustainable development will become the winner.
Don't fight for low prices, fight for new ideas
When household appliance brands encounter difficulties in selling goods, they usually adopt a low-price promotion strategy to try to awaken people's desire for consumption at a lower price. This is the most direct and simple way to obtain high sales volume, which may lead to continuous price war and increased manufacturing costs, and household appliance brands face difficulties in profitability.
According to the financial report data, in the first three quarters of 2022, the company achieved operating revenue of 7.237 billion yuan, up 2.35% year on year; Net profit attributable to the parent company was 1.234 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.11%; The non-net profit deducted was 1.132 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.28%. In addition, the comprehensive gross profit rate of Boss Electric was 50.63%, down 5.48 percentage points from the whole year.
Therefore, low-cost marketing is not the lifeline of the disinfection cabinet brand. It is the winner or loser that combines channel, technology and public praise and "seeks to reduce costs and increase efficiency internally, and promotes brand value externally".
First, the process of "intellectualization" in the disinfection and sterilization industry has been accelerated, and the disinfection cabinet brand ushers in the technological upgrading of the whole link from upstream to downstream. At this time, the stronger the "intellectualization" technology, the higher the production and management efficiency, and the stronger the comprehensive competitiveness.
Over the years, the transformation of disinfection and sterilization industry into intelligent, digital and networked has become the trend of the times. The kitchen scene has become a smart life scene with great potential. New and old disinfection cabinet players such as Fong Tai, Kangbao, Midea and Xiaoxiong have also firmly taken the "intelligent digital" road. With the acceleration of digital and automation processes, brand production efficiency and revenue capacity will be improved.
Second, the competition in the disinfection and sterilization industry is becoming increasingly fierce. The disinfection cabinet brand needs to find an increase in the stock market, and the channel ability and management ability are the key to success or failure.
The disinfection cabinet brand focuses on the integration of intelligent technology and traditional disinfection cabinet, which makes the disinfection cabinet market present a trend of diversification of consumption demand and diversification of trading channels. For disinfection cabinet brands, management efficiency affects operating costs. Multi-channel sales determine product exposure, and then affect enterprise performance. That is to say, management level and channel capacity play a key role in enterprise revenue.
In the past three years, the functions of disinfection cabinets have changed from single to multiple, and the trend of integration has become more and more obvious, which greatly tests the innovation ability of disinfection cabinet brand products. With the upgrading of intelligent technology and disinfection and sterilization technology, the disinfection cabinet brand has launched high-temperature disinfection, ultraviolet disinfection, far infrared disinfection, ozone disinfection and other disinfection methods, and has also added drying function, WIFI intelligent control function, and dishwashing function, so that the disinfection cabinet is no longer limited to disinfection and sterilization.
At present, major disinfection cabinet brands such as Boss Electric Appliance and Cassati have launched new products with disinfection cabinet functions. For example, Cassati's flat-embedded kitchen electric suit can disinfect, dry and clean, and keep food warm; The boss has 13 sets of large-capacity dishwashers, including dishwashing, pot washing, sterilization, drying, etc.
It should be noted that product innovation is essential for the ever-changing needs of users, but how to maintain the leading role of disinfection cabinet is a difficult problem. In the future, the emergence of integrated stoves, centralized cooking centers and other emerging products with sterilization and disinfection functions may replace disinfection cabinet products, which is not conducive to its development.
All kinds of signs show that price reduction and discount can not become the long-term survival of the disinfection cabinet brand, and the innovation of channels, products and technologies is the foundation of foothold. However, the market demand determines the market size. After the dividend brought by the comprehensive opening of the epidemic recedes, where should the disinfection cabinet brand go?
Where to go when the tuyere stops suddenly?
Recently, the topic of "the price of N95 respirators and blood oximeters has plummeted" has been on Weibo hot search. Many netizens said that the blood oximeters and N95 masks bought at a high price a week ago have now been greatly reduced in price, which has attracted netizens to complain that "diving is not as fast as you!".
It can be seen that the sales volume brought by the heat is unstable, and the trend of the sales volume of disinfection cabinet is probably not long. According to the forecast data of AVC, the overall scale of disinfection cabinets will be 2.92 million units and 2.9 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year decrease of 15.5% in retail sales; Retail sales decreased by 8.5% year on year, and disinfection cabinets showed a downward trend.
So, how can the disinfection cabinet brand find the growth curve?
First, seize the opportunity of health consumption and establish the brand image of "health and safety butler". After the epidemic, people's hygiene awareness and health awareness have generally improved to benefit the disinfection and sterilization market. The disinfection cabinet brand should seize this opportunity, occupy the position of "health and safety steward" in the minds of consumers, and strive to make the disinfection cabinet a household necessity.
Secondly, we should pay attention to mothers and infants, the elderly, patients and other people with weak immunity, provide professional disinfection and sterilization products, and tap the commercialization potential of sub-sectors. From the perspective of sales volume and popularity of sterilization and disinfection of small household appliances, "disinfection+" products have great attraction for people with weak immunity. Deeply ploughing into the blue ocean market is beneficial to breaking the bottleneck of industry development.
Furthermore, strengthen the professional sterilization and disinfection attributes of products, amplify the efficacy of multi-function, energy saving, intelligence and other functions, and meet the diversified disinfection needs of consumers. As the saying goes, "forging iron needs to be hard". To seek new growth of the disinfection cabinet brand, we need to start from product innovation, promote the intelligent and multi-functional upgrading of products, emphasize the professional nature of disinfection, and improve the product value, which is conducive to long-term development.
Under the influence of the market environment, the disinfection cabinet industry will transition from extensive development to refined management. At that time, the stock market competition will be further intensified. Both the old disinfection cabinet manufacturers, large integrated e-commerce companies and emerging small household appliance brands will face the challenge of self-innovation, and the brand structure will also change.
In the spring and autumn, the warm air brought by the epidemic helped the disinfection cabinet industry climb from the bottom to the top, and the disinfection cabinet brand also actively looked for vitality in the competition. After the warm air dissipated in the new year, the self-drive of the disinfection cabinet industry and the innovation of the disinfection cabinet brand will face a big test.