618, for consumers, is a "festival"; For the major brands, it is a "decisive day" of fierce competition and fierce battle in shopping malls - the final sales data of the day is the presentation of the strength competition, and it will also be a summary of the end of the first half of this year.
According to the data released by Midea Group, as of 24 o'clock on June 18, the total sales of Midea's entire network exceeded 12.5 billion yuan, winning the sales championship of smart major appliances, a year-on-year increase of 53%. The three major e-commerce platforms of JD.com, Tmall and Suning have ranked first in the home appliance industry for 8 consecutive years. The sales of 618 exceeded 3.5 billion yuan on the same day, a year-on-year increase of 48%.
Among them, Midea's smart air conditioners, smart refrigerators, and smart washing machines are among the top 3 most popular smart home appliances, and other home appliances such as water heaters, water purifiers, rice cookers, electric fans, microwave ovens and other categories are also the first in the whole network.
Behind such a record, what is the secret of beauty?
"Within the Prediction"
In the face of 12.5 billion yuan and the battle report that has dominated the market for several consecutive years, Wu Haiquan, president of Midea China, said four words - within the prediction.
"Although the economic environment and consumption environment were relatively poor due to the impact of the epidemic in the first half of the year, and the data in the first quarter also reflected this impact, from the sales side to the consumption side, the current volume has been gradually released, and the data in May has shown that it has returned to the level of previous years. We have already predicted the sales target for the whole June, and the sales of the entire 618 are still within our prediction. Wu Haiquan further explained.
2020 is a special year. The sudden epidemic has changed people's production and lifestyle, and has also brought huge challenges to all walks of life. Therefore, the 618 activities in this special context are also different from the past.
Wu Haiquan said that compared with previous years, the challenges and changes faced by Midea's 618 this year are also different.
First, Midea Group is promoting the T+3 production model, and the entire inventory turnover of major products such as air conditioners is very fast, which is very challenging in the supply chain. Because, from January to April this year, although affected by the epidemic, the entire user demand and consumption were relatively sluggish, but Midea produced on demand according to its own production rhythm, so the inventory was not too large. However, after entering the peak demand season in May, the production pressure on the back-end has increased, which is a great challenge to the stocking side, which is a difficult point to overcome.
Second, compared with last year, the consumption structure of Midea's entire users has also changed this year. "We see that the growth of Midea's business this year is mainly due to the consumption growth brought by old users. Membership growth is the increase in repurchase brought about by our deep cultivation of e-commerce platforms in the past two years, and the migration of consumer goods and the increase of customer unit value have also been achieved by old users, thus bringing growth momentum. ”
Third, from the perspective of the proportion of online and offline, online accounts for a large part of the United States, close to 50%. "Originally, when the proportion of offline was relatively high, sometimes the production capacity of offline products could be adjusted to supplement the current peak. When the proportion of the entire offline is not so high, the use of data such as the entire supply chain of the goods side, intelligent production and some sales forecasts has become very critical. Wu Haiquan said that in addition, there are some changes in new forms of marketing, such as live broadcasting.
Live "Methodology"
At present, live streaming has become a craze, showing an unstoppable trend.
In fact, as early as last year, Midea also began to set up its own live broadcast team to catch up with the changing trend of marketing forms in advance.
"Live streaming is supposed to be here to stay, and it will solve some of our marketing efficiency problems." Wu Haiquan said.
In Wu Haiquan's view, there are roughly 5 forms of live broadcasts. The first is the live broadcast of the store or the live broadcast on the site, which is to carry out live broadcast activities on their own e-commerce entrances, such as the official flagship store of Midea or the distribution on Taobao, Jingdong and other platforms, which solves the problem of transformation or the problem of "planting grass". Through video display, consumers have a clearer and more intuitive understanding of the appearance and function of the entire product, including the use scenario.
The second is the live broadcast of celebrities, which is actually to solve the problem of user penetration, that is, by finding some celebrities or technology experts with traffic to do live broadcasts, so that more people can realize the beauty of products. For example, after Midea finds a traffic star like Li Xian, who young users prefer, the penetration rate of young people will increase.
The third is the live broadcast of pure anchors with goods, such as Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya and other head anchors, such a cooperation model is to solve the problem of a new product being launched or a certain explosive product being created.
Fourth, through cooperation with "waist" experts, this is to solve the problem of disadvantage in the coverage of certain areas or groups.
Fifth, the live shopping guide of internal personnel is to solve the problem of connecting online and offline products and serving old user groups.
At present, these five types of forms are being carried out. In terms of evaluating the role of live broadcasting, Wu Haiquan said that it depends on the overall effect.
Wu Haiquan believes that live broadcast is a method of Midea in terms of digital intelligence, and this method will provide a new impetus for introducing new users, introducing new scenarios, or optimizing the supply chain.
"Digital intelligence" internal strength
Leading has become a key word for Midea in the industry.
Whether it is the 2019 annual report or the first quarter report of 2020 under the epidemic, Midea is a manifestation of internal strength under the surface of presenting a series of "beauty figures".
As early as a few years ago, Midea Group set out to promote digital transformation. "At present, comprehensive digitalization and comprehensive intelligence have become the strategic focus of the company." Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Group, said that he would further explore new digital possibilities for "Made in China" to go global.
The digital transformation that began in 2012 has enabled Midea to achieve end-to-end integration and business model transformation from R&D, manufacturing, logistics, retail channels to after-sales service, which not only helps Midea Group continue to tap the space for endogenous growth, but also responds more quickly to market demand and survives adversity in the face of industry black swan events.
At present, Midea already has an efficient whole value chain driven by digital intelligence. In the first quarter of this year, when the epidemic broke out, Midea Group showed a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, fully demonstrating the value brought by the digital collaboration of the whole chain.
On the production side, the smart factory supported by the industrial Internet will digitally connect people, machines, factories, upstream and downstream suppliers and other links, and resume normal production by the end of February on the premise of ensuring the safety and health of personnel; On the sales side, by innovating digital marketing, channel inventory and after-sales service models, we launched a "one-stop" service from live streaming to "contactless" distribution and after-sales to ensure the normal and orderly development of sales operations. On the product side, Midea responds to consumers' needs for health and peace of mind, and launches healthy home appliances, especially for the needs of healthy life management under the "home economy", and upgrades smart health and epidemic prevention scenarios, which are favored by the market. This is the key reason why Midea outperformed the industry in the first quarter of 2020.
At the same time, as a Fortune 500 company that provides products and services to more than 400 million users around the world and important customers and strategic partners in various fields every year, Midea Group has always been a well-known "R&D giant" in the industry.
In 2019, Midea invested more than 10 billion yuan in R&D alone. According to the annual report, by the end of 2019, Midea Group had accumulated more than 140,000 patent applications and 57,000 authorizations, ranking first in the global home appliance industry for four consecutive years, with R&D personnel accounting for more than 10%; The fields of basic technology, digitalization and intelligent technology have become the top priority. At the same time, with the acquisition of KUKA and Hekang New Energy, Midea's integration of the advantages of robotics, industrial automation and power electronics software drive will further consolidate the strength of Midea's products.
Source: Shanghai Securities News https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6CQnvqoyH7QpJfq4smE56A