The sweeping robot cleans and reduces the burden of housework for people; the smart door lock recognizes fingerprints, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting the key when you go out; the smart speaker can not only play songs after receiving voice commands, but also play dramas... 

In recent years, the smart home industry has been fast with development, more and more smart home products are entering consumers' homes. According to AVC monitoring data, the deployment rate of smart homes in China last year increased by 15.1% compared with the previous year, reaching 84.2%.

Integrate into daily life

"No more worrying about the elderly and children living alone at home." Recently, Ms. Wang, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, installed a smart camera at home. When she is away, she can open the APP to connect to the panoramic view of the house; click the call button and it will can talk to her family in real time, so that she can take care of the situation at home at any time.

It is reported that smart cameras have been widely sought after by the market in recent years. The market research organization IDC released a tracking report on the Chinese smart home equipment market at the end of last year pointed out that home security surveillance based on smart cameras continued to grow rapidly, and shipments increased gratifyingly.

The hot sale of smart cameras is just a microcosm of the smart home industry. At present, a variety of smart home products such as smart speakers and smart door locks are favored by consumers. According to Qcc's data, there are currently 5,759 smart speaker-related companies in China. When you open an e-commerce platform and search for popular smart home products, you will often see comments such as "easy to use" and "saving time and effort".

Specifically, during the "Double 11" period last year, the turnover of artificial intelligence TVs on the JD platform accounted for more than 85%; the turnover of intelligent lighting products doubled year-on-year. During the Spring Festival this year, the sales growth rate of floor sweeping robots, window cleaning robots and floor scrubbers on Tmall platform exceeded 100%, 300%, and 1800% respectively year-on-year.

Why can smart home products become good for consumers? Liu Qian, an associate researcher of the China Internet Economics Research Institute of Central University of Finance and Economics, said in an interview with our reporter: “The purpose of smart home is to improve the living standards of users by building smart and efficient residential facilities and home management systems. With the popularization of 5G technology, the combination of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things helps, product functions are more complete, this goal is more fully realized, and it will naturally attract more consumers."

Open the sinking market

Some time ago, Xiaopan, who lives in Guigang, Guangxi, wanted to buy a smart phone for his home. "I thought my parents thought it was unnecessary to buy it, but they didn't expect that they immediately agreed."

In the Internet era, relying on highly efficient and unicom express logistics, smart home products are no longer exclusive to residents of first- and second-tier cities. Users of "sinking markets" like Xiaopan's parents have also begun to use these products.

Tmall and other platforms recently released the "Smart Home Consumer Insights in the Sinking Market in 2020", which shows that Chinese households below the third-tier cities are accelerating the "smart evolution", and the sinking market has surpassed the first- and second-tier cities to become the main consumer market.

A set of data on the Tmall platform corroborates this new phenomenon. In 2020, small appliances such as smart switches, smart floor lamps, smart electric steamers, etc., whose prices are between RMB 50 and RMB 300, will increase their annual sales in the sinking market year-on-year,  which both exceeds 300%. In terms of product selection, men prefer smart air conditioners, while women are willing to choose smart washing machines and smart dishwashers.

Experts say that the sinking market can become a new blue ocean for the smart home industry, indicating that many residents' consumer needs have changed. From pragmatism to focusing on practicality and improving the quality of life, it is a change in consumption concept and reflects people's attitude towards buying smart home products. The performance of "small town youth" is even more obvious.

Expand sub-categories

“I used to pile a pot of cat food and add it after eating it. Last year the cat became ill, and the doctor suggested feeding it on a regular basis.” To take care of the pet’s diet, Mr. Niu, an Internet company employee, bought an intelligent feeding machine online. "Only then discovered that besides the feeding machine, there are many novel smart products."

"Category segmentation is not just 'product creation', but also 'personal demand mining' to develop new incremental potential in the stock market." Liu Qian believes, "Like automatic feeding machines, smart curtains, smart bathroom mirrors, etc., the series of products are the improvement made by the supply side based on market demand."

The "2020 China Smart Home Ecological Development White Paper" released by the China Smart Home Industry Alliance (CSHIA) mentioned that smart homes are currently being divided by regional space, involving all corners of the family's living, such as bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen scenes, etc.; Scene interpretation and layout will be conducted around various needs such as safety, comfort, and convenience. "Category refinement provides the possibility to meet the needs of scenes, and in turn, the needs of scenes are also point-to-face, to promote the interconnection and intercommunication between smart items, and to build an overall smart home system."

At present, some products are "pseudo-intelligent," difficult to complete in-depth human-computer interaction, some devices collect sensitive personal information of users, and problems such as the inability to communicate between different systems are also occurring from time to time. In this regard, Liu Qian suggested: “The industry should continue to improve the smart interconnection technology and smart interactive technology based on the original intention of ‘people-oriented’ design to improve the operating efficiency and quality of smart home products.”