In October 2024, the annual Amazon Prime Day autumn season kicked off, and smart home appliance brand Zhumi Technology, as a leader in the industry's overseas expansion, recently announced its major sales performance in Europe. Data shows that on Amazon and independent websites in Southwest Europe, Zhumi Technology achieved a 2-day sales revenue of 200 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 280%. The independent website increased 90 times year-on-year, with a total GMV of 13.9 million yuan, and won multiple first places.
During this period, the sales revenue of Zhumi robotic vacuum cleaners reached 160 million, with sales exceeding 22000 units. Among them, X40 Ultra Complete ranks first in the cleaning category. The sales revenue of Zhumi floor scrubbers reached 29 million, with sales exceeding 9000 units, ranking first in the French floor scrubber category. Among them, in the high price range above 400 euros, Zhumi H14 Pro ranks first in the industry in terms of sales.
According to data from authoritative third-party market institutions, in the first half of 2024, Zhumi Technology ranked first in the market share of robotic vacuum cleaners in multiple countries and regions such as Germany, Singapore, and Israel; In countries and regions such as Finland, Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia, the market share of floor scrubbers also ranks first, with Vietnam having a market share of up to 46%.
As a global technology innovation enterprise, why can it achieve such rapid growth in multiple countries overseas? This is closely related to the corporate genes of pursuing "Day1 globalization".
Targeting the global market, leading industry upgrading with innovative technology
Founded in 2017, Zhuimi took its first step in exploring global markets in 2018- the European and East Asian markets. In the following years, Zhumi also successively laid out its presence in the North American and Southeast Asian markets, and entered emerging markets such as the Middle East and Africa, India, and South America in 2023.
Based on the global development strategy, from 2019 to 2023, Zhumi Technology's compound annual growth rate will exceed 100%. In 2023, Zhumi Technology's overseas business revenue will increase by 120% year-on-year, showing a rapid growth rate.
Why did Zhumi implement a global layout strategy at the beginning of its establishment? From an industry perspective, at that time, the clean appliance industry was developing rapidly and the market growth trend was obvious, which was an objective opportunity to pursue global development.
Taking robotic vacuum cleaners as an example, according to Euromonitor data, from 2017 to 2019, the global robotic vacuum cleaner industry grew from $2 billion to $3.3 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 28.5%. Western Europe, North America, and the Asia Pacific region are the main consumer areas, with a combined market share of over 80% for vacuum cleaners. This is also the main shipping market for innovative cleaning products such as robotic vacuum cleaners and floor scrubbers in the future.
Yu Hao, founder and CEO of Zhuimi Technology, believes that the current operating mode and industrial ecology of the world are undergoing new changes, and in the future, the world will definitely form a pattern of "global resources, Chinese research and development, local manufacturing, and global consumption".
It is this concept that has driven Zhumi to establish the concept of global development from its inception, leading the industry towards a future of technology benefiting humanity.
In just a few years, Zhuimi's products have rapidly covered over 100 countries and regions worldwide, with sweeping robots, floor scrubbers, and other products ranking among the top in market share in multiple countries, truly becoming a leading brand in the intelligent cleaning industry.
While developing the global market, Zhumi has been continuously innovating and researching around two core technologies: the "heart" high-speed digital motor and the "brain" intelligent algorithm. With the advantage of technology compounding, it has gradually created four categories: sweeping robots, intelligent floor scrubbers, wireless vacuum cleaners, and high-speed hair dryers, and has also expanded its products such as mite removers.
At the same time, in response to the household life scenarios in different regions, Zhuimi has also developed lawn mowing robots, swimming pool robots, and intelligent food delivery robots for outdoor courtyards. Based on the clean home appliance industry, Zhuimi has achieved diversified and three-dimensional development and operation.
For example, since its initial launch in early April this year, the Zhumi Intelligent Lawn Mowing Robot A1 has been sold in online and offline stores in European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Sweden, as well as in North America and Australia. Within a few months, it quickly achieved "sales exceeding 10000 units" and "sales exceeding 100 million yuan".
In the Amazon Prime Day promotion in July this year, the GMV of the Zhumi lawn mower robot in the Southwest European market reached 20 million yuan, with sales exceeding 1500 units, ranking first in the European market in the price range of over 1000 euros.
The origin of globalization: core technology supports high-end layout
For a long time, traditional enterprises have often chosen a safer path to go global, namely the "Copy to China" model, to quickly capture overseas markets with a cost-effective approach.
For example, in the robotic vacuum cleaner market, before the establishment of Zhumi, the overseas market was dominated by veteran player iRobot. As of the end of 2017, iRobot's global shipment volume reached 20 million units, making it the absolute leader in the global robotic vacuum cleaner industry. To enter the overseas market and confront iRobot head-on is definitely an unavoidable war for any robotic vacuum cleaner company.
Chinese robotic vacuum cleaners such as Ecovacs and Stone Technology have rapidly grown in the global market due to their excellent performance and high cost-effectiveness.
In the view of Zhumi Technology, as a new generation of technology consumer brand, it should not focus on "low-end, cost-effectiveness" as its core competitiveness in the global market, but adhere to "long termism" and establish a more recognizable and time efficient high-end brand worldwide.
Zhumi has chosen a more difficult path, launching a direct attack on the high-end market through breakthroughs in core technology and excellent product capabilities, instead of engaging in a "price war", but a "technology value war".
Thanks to always starting from the user's perspective, adhering to technology driven and product innovation, and creating "effective innovation" that users can perceive, in recent years, Zhumi has launched multiple explosive products to the market.
For example, in order to solve the problem of corner cleaning for robotic vacuum cleaners, Zhuimi launched the world's first bionic robotic arm technology in 2023, with a corner cleaning coverage rate of 100%, leading the "4.0 deep cleaning iteration" of robotic vacuum cleaners. Nowadays, bionic robotic arm technology has become one of the important considerations for consumers when choosing a robotic vacuum cleaner.
As of July 2024, the global cumulative sales of Zhumi Technology's robotic arm family for sweeping robots have exceeded 1.16 million units, with overseas market sales reaching 10000 units.
Among them, L20 Ultra, as the high-end flagship sweeping robot of Zhumi Technology overseas in 2023, has become a hot commodity in many regions around the world. During the 2023 IFA exhibition in Germany, it was recognized by numerous authoritative media outlets and awarded the title of "Best of IFA"; During its debut in South Korea, Naver's 15 minute live broadcast sold out over a thousand units; During the Double Eleven period in Southeast Asia, sales exceeded 5000 units; At the same time, it won the annual Best Buy in the category of robotic vacuum cleaners from the authoritative Japanese media "Home Appliance Criticism" with the highest score.
According to the latest quarterly tracking report on the global smart home device market released by IDC China, in the second quarter of 2024, the shipment volume of Zhumi Technology's sweeping robots increased by 73.3% year-on-year, and the average unit price of the products has exceeded $700, the highest among all manufacturers, approaching $800 in the North American market. In recent quarters, Zhumi has continued to experience rapid growth in overseas markets, especially in Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia, with flagship models maintaining a leading position in online channels.
Globalization is localization, seeking the path of advancement
Beyond technological innovation and product strategy, Zhuimi Technology believes that the key to the first stage of global market development lies in finding "seed partners".
These partners often have rich experience in cross-border e-commerce. Based on their understanding of local market demand, they can help brands quickly identify product positioning and meet their needs for expanding new categories and brands.
At the same time, in the process of expanding into the global market, Zhumi Technology will deeply understand local users. Before entering a new market, Zhumi Technology will use its local "Bai Shi Tong" team to understand consumer preferences and develop a "one market, one sample" strategy based on regional and localized characteristics, adapting to local conditions and deeply cultivating the local market.
Conduct consumer insights and user research tailored to local conditions, and the research results can directly contribute to the development direction and product strategy; At the same time, according to different usage habits, Zhumi will output different sales and marketing strategies to ensure better compliance with the preferences of consumers in different regions.
Pursuing targeted product development for different global market demands. For example, in response to the widespread use of large areas of carpet in households in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and other regions, the Zhumi team has tailored a "cloth removal" function for users in these areas. After the sweeping robot recognizes the carpet, it will return to the base station to remove the cloth and clean the carpet again, providing a more ultimate cleaning solution for households that have laid carpets.
In addition, when developing vacuum cleaner products for overseas markets, the "Baishitong" team of Zhumi Technology learned that unlike households in Europe and America who like to lay carpets, the Asia Pacific region mainly uses hard floors, especially in Japan and South Korea where users are accustomed to sitting on the ground and have higher requirements for floor cleanliness.
Therefore, Zhuimi has launched vacuum cleaner products that meet the needs of different markets, equipped with V-shaped anti entanglement carpet brushes on vacuum cleaners in Europe and America, increased cleaning power with denser short fibers in the Asia Pacific region, and stronger soft brushes in Japan and South Korea.
However, product localization is only the first step of Zhumi's "one city, one market" strategy. In addition, there are service localization, marketing localization, and channel localization to enhance Zhumi's brand influence towards users, achieve full channel coverage both online and offline, and establish its own official member community to enhance direct communication with consumers.
By building our own team and collaborating with professional local customer service providers, we aim to provide consumers with 7x24 hotline services and respond promptly to local market demands. At present, there are local after-sales maintenance points in overseas "main battlefields" such as the United States and Germany.
By maintaining deep cooperation with e-commerce platforms, seeking to participate in platform promotions, brand day events, etc., we increase opportunities for brand exposure, focus on optimizing store and listing pages, and allow consumers to see the most detailed functional displays and authentic user feedback. By doing every detail well, we gradually deepen the brand image into people's hearts.
After improving the layout of online channels, Chasing has also cooperated with well-known domestic supermarkets including Wal Mart, Carrefour, and local channel vendors in overseas regions such as MSD, Boulanger, Coolblue to enter physical stores and online e-commerce platforms and complete the localization of channels.
In recent years, "going global" and seeking incremental growth in overseas markets has become a common development strategy for Chinese enterprises. Traditional enterprises usually choose to enter markets with similar cultural backgrounds when going global, such as entering East Asian and Southeast Asian markets first, and then expanding into markets such as the Middle East. Since its inception, Zhumi has positioned itself as a global company, and its path to going global has not followed the principle of "from near to far". Instead, it has chosen to directly enter the markets of developed European countries and quickly gain market share through industry-leading technology and products.
The era of "supply chain going global" based solely on price competition is coming to an end, and Chinese companies represented by Zhumi are gaining recognition from global consumers by building global high-end brands. Zhumi has chosen "high-end" as the entry point, focusing more on localized development, with a mindset of serving global users. Through in-depth insights into local consumer needs and scenarios, it solves the pain points of consumers in different regions when using products.
This concept of "creating value for local users" is not only the driving force behind Zhumi's technological breakthroughs and product innovation, but also the engine that drives Zhumi's sustained high-speed growth. In 2023, Zhumi achieved three goals of improving efficiency, high-end development, and increasing market share, breaking the industry's "impossible triangle" problem first.
Nowadays, relying on its own accumulation in core technology, global supply chain system, global channels, and other aspects, XuXi is constantly expanding the boundaries of global development, continuously exploring emerging regions, and exploring channels and brand marketing methods suitable for the local market. It can be said that Zhumi's global business has never simply aimed to earn profits, but to continuously build high-end brands that can cross industry cycles, create value for global users, and achieve technological inclusiveness.