Double 11 2024: A Wind Vane for Consumer Electronics, Who Will Reign Supreme?

Double 11 2024: A Wind Vane for Consumer Electronics, Who Will Reign Supreme?The Double 11 shopping festival in 2024 saw some platforms kickstart their promotional events as early as October 14th, a full month in advance, showcasing their "forward-thinking" approach. As the first phase draws to a close, some consumer electronics brands have released their battle reports

Double 11 2024: A Wind Vane for Consumer Electronics, Who Will Reign Supreme?

The Double 11 shopping festival in 2024 saw some platforms kickstart their promotional events as early as October 14th, a full month in advance, showcasing their "forward-thinking" approach. As the first phase draws to a close, some consumer electronics brands have released their battle reports. While the ubiquitous "everyone is number one" claims are often met with skepticism, Double 11 undeniably serves as a bellwether for the consumption landscape. As Lei Technology, a company dedicated to AI hardware technology, we've gleaned some key trends in the consumer electronics industry from these reports.

Xiaomi Takes the Crown Again, Distinct Platform Consumption Behavior

In the highly anticipated smartphone sector, Xiaomi is the only brand to have publicly disclosed its sales performance during the first phase of Double 11. According to Xiaomi's data, by 23:59:59 on November 1st, 2024, its total cumulative payment across all channels exceeded 19.7 billion yuan. Among the three major platforms, Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, Xiaomi clinched the dual crown of domestic smartphone brand sales volume and revenue (Tmall and Pinduoduo), and the top spot for smartphone sales volume (JD.com).

Analyzing the differences in individual product sales across these platforms reveals distinct consumer preferences. For instance, the newly released Xiaomi 15 phone topped the overall hot-selling list for domestic smartphones on Tmall. Considering that Apple is the only overseas brand posing a threat to Xiaomi in the Chinese market, Xiaomi 15's performance can be considered exceptionally strong.

JD.com mirrors Tmall in its trend, except the top-selling domestic smartphone wasn't the newly released Xiaomi 15 (4000-5999 yuan price range), but the Redmi K70 Supreme Edition released in July (2000-2999 yuan price range). Naturally, Xiaomi 15 still secured the top spot in its price segment.

On Pinduoduo, only the Xiaomi 14 and Redmi K70 Supreme Edition achieved the highest cumulative sales volume and revenue in their respective price ranges, with no mention of Xiaomi 15.

Comparing the three platforms, we can conclude that Pinduoduo customers are more sensitive to final discounts and the actual price paid, while JD.com users exhibit a more "polarized" buying behavior.

AIPC: The Core Driver of PC Sales Growth

While Xiaomi has dominated smartphone sales on all three major platforms, Lenovo's PC performance can also be described as "reigning supreme." In JD.com's 11.11 Computer Speed Leaderboard, Lenovo achieved 23 championship titles, spanning various categories like self-operated brand sales volume and brand-selected store revenue, particularly excelling in the thin-and-light laptop and gaming laptop segments.

It's noteworthy that neither Tmall nor JD.com's sales classifications include AIPC. Some might attribute this to AIPC's perceived lack of significance. However, I see it as a testament to AIPC's integration into various product categories. By abstracting AI from tangible hardware products into virtual software or services, AIPC's functionality transcends the limitations of high-performance gaming laptops and expands across thin-and-light laptops, business laptops, gaming laptops, tablets, all-in-ones, even servers and workstations, forming an integrated ecosystem function.

Smart Cleaning Brands Unleash Innovation

In the rapidly emerging smart cleaning sector, which has gained significant traction in recent years, Dreame Technology has also delivered an impressive performance during Double 11's "Opening Red Phase." According to Dreame's data, during this initial period alone, the company achieved a total sales revenue of 2.1 billion yuan across all core channel categories, with a year-over-year growth exceeding 100%. Dreame secured multiple top-ranking positions on platforms like JD.com, Tmall, Douyin, and Kuaishou.

As a leading brand in the cleaning appliance industry, Dreame's sales performance directly reflects the market's demand for smart cleaning products, while also highlighting the role of technological advancements as a primary driver of sales. From an industry perspective, the robot vacuum cleaner market is still undergoing disruptive innovation. Compared to factors like cost and distribution channels, technological leadership holds the key to a company's competitive edge.

Long-term investment in research and development is the foundation for establishing a company's "moat." Dreame stands out in the domestic home service robot industry, having quickly gained renown based on its comprehensive technology. However, to permanently build a robust moat, Dreame can't relent its investment in technological innovation.

Currently, Dreame, Ecovacs, and Roborock all have the potential to drive new directions for the robot vacuum cleaner market, evident in their product launches during the first half of the year. While at first glance, these might not seem like substantial upgrades, they collectively represent progress towards greater sophistication. Furthermore, these products incorporate innovative features that, if further refined and introduced to the market, could generate increased consumer interest in robot vacuums.

Parental Spending Fuels Explosive Sales of Smart Education Hardware

Similar to smart cleaning, smart education hardware has become a hot commodity in recent years. With the education tutoring industry shifting from offline to online, smart education hardware has witnessed a surge in popularity. According to JD.com's data, during the first phase of Double 11 alone, the learning machine category witnessed a transaction volume increase exceeding 100% year-over-year, while electronic education and e-book reader categories saw a growth exceeding 50%.

Within the learning hardware category, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen is a name that cannot be overlooked. With its outstanding product capabilities, NetEase Youdao Dictionary Pen secured the double first-place position in both the industry and individual product rankings on JD.com and Tmall.

Overall, the explosive sales of smart education hardware reflect the pressing need for high-quality educational resources among parents and students, and technological advancements have enabled AI to play an increasingly prominent role in education. From the perspective of smart education accessibility, personalized and intelligent learning methods are gradually replacing traditional education models. It's foreseeable that, with government policy support and consistent consumer demand, the smart education hardware market will maintain rapid growth in the future, ushering in further innovation and transformations for the education sector.

Government Subsidies: A Key Feature of This Year's Double 11

Analyzing this year's Double 11 sales trends, "government subsidies" stand out as a pivotal theme throughout the entire shopping festival. Whether it's AIPC, smart cleaning, or smart education devices, the 20% government subsidy offers a substantial incentive.

For platforms, government intervention has spurred hesitant consumers to join the shopping frenzy. For consumers, the introduction of government subsidy policies effectively stimulates latent consumption demand: the combination of subsidies and e-commerce platform promotional events creates a compounding effect, further amplifying the allure of promotions.

Taking Apple's newly released M4 Mac mini as an example, the original price of 4499 yuan was reduced to 3600 yuan with the combined impact of subsidies and discounts. This transformed the Mac mini from a "non-productive ornament" into the "ideal home mini computer," leading to multiple instances of it being sold out on JD.com.

Without government subsidies, consumer purchase intent wouldn't have been as strong. As seen in 2023, influenced by the economic environment and consumer confidence, enthusiasm for major promotional events had waned. Consumers became more rational, prioritizing actual needs. Relying solely on merchants' own promotional efforts, this year's Double 11 might struggle to significantly surpass last year's performance.

Beyond Low Prices, Consumers Increasingly Value Service

Service has also become a key battleground for platforms during Double 11. With limited room for price discounts, e-commerce brands have begun to cultivate competitive advantages beyond price.

Take JD.com as an example. Leveraging its exceptional warehousing and logistics system, numerous smartphone brands have forged partnerships with JD.com, striving to deliver products to consumers at lightning speed. For instance, vivo and Honor's "Get Ahead of the Curve" program enables immediate shipment upon product release, with the fastest deliveries reaching consumers within a day. Xiaomi 15, which topped the sales volume rankings in multiple categories across platforms, benefits from JD.com's "Flash Delivery" service, enabling the fastest deliveries from Xiaomi offline stores to consumers within just one hour.

Adding to the enhanced delivery speed, value-added services like trade-ins, extended warranties, and pre-sales and after-sales services have become new battlegrounds for e-commerce platforms. This shift from price competition to service competition reflects the maturity of the e-commerce sector and the evolving needs of consumers.

For e-commerce platforms and brands, continuous innovation in service is crucial for standing out in a highly competitive market. In the future, e-commerce platforms need to double down on enhancing user experience to secure a greater market share.

This year's Double 11 shopping festival isn't merely about escalating consumption figures but also signifies a profound transformation in market dynamics and consumer attitudes. Price is no longer the sole battleground, with service, quality, and innovation emerging as new focal points. In this consumer transformation, we, as consumers