It is March 15 of the year again. With the increase in purchasing power of Chinese consumers and the upgrading of demand, the furniture industry, which has grown and expanded all the way, needs to have a deeper insight into new issues in the most concentrated "introspection" in the consumer field, in order to better serve people to empower them a better life.

According to the Analysis on the Acceptance of Complaints by the National Consumers Association in 2020 issued by the China Consumers Association, in 2020, the National Consumers Association accepted a total of 439,351 complaints from consumers in the commodity category, of which 94,366 were household electronics and electrical appliances, accounting 21.5% for the total number of complaints about commodities, which is higher than daily commodities, food, clothing, shoes and hats, etc., and ranking first among all commodity categories. Although compared with previous years, the proportion of its complaints has declined, but it still has not been able to take off the title of "king of complaints" for many years. Specifically, in terms of the types of complaints, after-sales service and quality issues are still the biggest "opinions" of consumers on household electronic appliances, accounting for nearly 70% of the total complaints; in terms of categories, emerging products and internet sensation appliances small household appliances have become the target of public criticism, and the former has received more than 10,000 complaints.

As the hottest part of the home appliance industry, emerging internet sensation products featuring intelligence, high-value, compact and portable, have injected fresh blood and vitality into the home appliance market in stock, but at the same time they are also facing excessive force. Disputes caused by inconsistent quality, lagging services, and continuous false publicity have become new hot spots for consumer complaints. Correspondingly, related organizations in many places, including the Anhui Provincial Market Supervision Administration and the Wenzhou Municipal Consumer Protection Committee, have previously issued consumer reminders to remind consumers to pay attention to business reputation, 3C certification, and unpacking inspections when pursuing "net celebrities" .

Scenery on social platforms: spot checks and complaints embarrassing people

Taking this year’s unprecedented in-situ Chinese New Year with more than 100 million people as an example, according to Suning Tesco’s New Year’s Day data, the sales of its smart kitchen appliances increased by 170% during the 7-day Spring Festival holiday, and the cooking robots and air disinfection machines increased by more than 100%; Tmall data shows that during the Spring Festival, sweeping robots have doubled year-on-year, window cleaning robots have increased by more than 3 times, and floor scrubbers have increased by more than 18 times. In addition, Buy together beauty data also shows that since the New Year's Day in 2021, the sales of home beauty-related categories such as cleansing devices, beauty devices, hair removal devices, and leg beauty devices have increased by more than 4 times year-on-year. Offline, small kitchen appliances such as air fryers and health pots have become popular new year products for JD Five Star Electric.

What’s more worth mentioning is that these categories, which are popular among young consumers such as Generation Z, often adopt the explosive model (ie product-driven model), focusing on online marketing and precision marketing, targeting young groups and occupying the internet online sales channels have become the main marketing strategy. As a result, with the influence of KOL and KOC, multiple internet content platforms and internet celebrity live broadcasts and other methods have reached a large number of consumer groups and quickly became the darling of social platforms.

However, under the blast marketing strategy, its passionate consumption accounts for a very high proportion. After stimulating the unplanned purchase needs of many consumers in a nearly "harvest" way, the actual user experience is not guaranteed. More importantly, due to the short life cycle, fast update frequency, and low technical barriers, emerging internet sensation appliances often attract a crowd of players after the explosion, and there is a lack of product standard research and product quality control. The consequence of this is that its performance in random inspections by market regulators and consumer organizations is worrying, as well as consumer disputes and complaints that are positively related to product popularity and sales.

It is no exaggeration to say that with the popular marketing model as the standard configuration, with strong insight, fast update, and high-value online sensation home appliances technology threshold or barriers are not high, coupled with the "spoiler" of many hot and fast-making manufacturers, it is currently facing the dilemma of "social platform beauty, random inspections and embarrassment for complaints".

Lack of after-sales service, earning "quick money" is not the way out

In fact, the lack of after-sales service has always been a chronic disease of the home appliance industry. As early as 2019, CCTV’s 3.15 evening party revealed that some special after-sales service providers of home appliance brands used high prices to promote accessories and auxiliary materials, and they exaggerated the difficulty of maintenance and the inconvenience of replacement and installation. The necessary parts and components earn extra service fees and other industry chaos. The results of the 2020 China Quality Association User Satisfaction Test of China's Home Appliances Industry also show that service quality pain points are still a key factor affecting the consumer experience of home appliance users, rather than quality consumer experience.

Among them, emerging internet sensation home appliances rely heavily on online channels and social e-commerce, live broadcast and other new consumption models for sales, and lack a complete distribution and after-sales system. Many brands are even difficult to find offline direct service points, inevitably became a typical representative of the industry's "pre-sales rather than after-sales".

Although starting from reality, emerging internet sensation home appliances that are mainly online channels and have low market concentration have certain restrictions on the construction of after-sales service system, but the root cause of this problem is still the degree of attention and investment of relevant companies insufficiency. In this regard, the person in charge of the small home appliance regional promotion of a leading company said to the reporter: “At present, the sales expense ratio of some internet sensation home appliance brand companies is as high as 15% or even more than 20%. The long-term investment in R&D and after-sales will definitely be squeezed, and the miscellaneous army who watched the products sell hotly came in and shot and ran away. In the final analysis, the company itself does not pay attention to strategy, is unwilling to spend more money in this area, and also lacks a strict industry standard!"

Throughout the long history of China and foreign countries, powerful empires often collapsed internally. What's more, the industry giant Midea has clearly expressed its attitude to strengthen new creative small appliances this year. Joyoung is also actively exploring innovative marketing methods to bring young people closer. Earning "quick money" in this seemingly blue ocean market will only increase It's getting harder.

For emerging Internet sensation home appliances related companies, it is the ability to quickly insight into consumer needs and quickly launch new and explosive products, and to firmly grasp the product quality, do a good job in after-sales and service and establish a brand image, that is the long-standing duty of the home appliance industry.