Author: Wang Ting
Chairman of Gree Dong Mingzhu. Source: Gree Official micro-blog In 618, the curtain came down JD.COM In the air conditioner list, Midea won the first place in single product sales by surpassing Gree's 55000 pieces.
During 618 this year, the sales of 1.5-piece Fengku primary variable frequency air conditioners in Midea reached 280000, while that of 1.5-piece Yunjia primary variable frequency air conditioners in Gree reached 225000, ranking second. In response, a netizen commented: "Gree was stolen.".
Although Gree has always claimed to be the first in the air conditioning industry, its air conditioning revenue is lower than Midea from the financial report data in 2020 and 2021. Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economy observer, said to Time Finance that compared with Gree, Midea started earlier in e-commerce channels with high cost performance, while Gree relies more on physical stores.
The online listing rate is lower than Midea, and the average price of air conditioners declines
On June 20, Gree released its 618 war report, which showed that from 20:00 on June 15 to June 18, Gree's air conditioner sales ranked first in JD's air conditioning industry, and the sales of 1.5 Yunjia first-class air conditioners ranked first in JD's single products.
However, Gree only announced the sales ranking, did not mention the sales ranking, and did not explain the situation from June 1 to 14.
Compared with Gree's 1.5-p Yunjia Grade I air conditioner and Midea's 1.5-p Fengku Grade I air conditioner, the number of pieces representing the size of the cooling capacity is the same, and both are Grade I energy efficient variable frequency cooling and heating air conditioners. Midea's product is 400 yuan cheaper in JD.
According to Ovi Cloud, the market share of Midea's online air conditioners was higher than that of Gree in the two weeks from May 30 to June 12. From June 6 to 12, the market share of Midea's and Gree's online air conditioners was 32.67% and 26.49% respectively.
From June 6 to 12, the average prices of Midea and Gree's online air conditioners were 3069 yuan and 3578 yuan respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 353 yuan for Midea and a year-on-year decrease of 125 yuan for Gree.
Liang Zhenpeng said that the advantage of Gree Air Conditioner lies in its quality and reputation, which ranks first among domestic brands, but its agency level is more than Midea and its price is lower, so Midea Air Conditioner may attract more consumers.
The weakness of online channels is also reflected in the total revenue. In 2021, there was a data fight between Gree and Midea. Gree claimed the first place in domestic sales with a share of 37.4%, leading the way for 27 years, while Midea claimed the first place in online and offline market shares with a market share of 34.6% and 36% respectively.
From the perspective of air-conditioning revenue, Gree has been surpassed by Midea since 2020, 3.333 billion yuan less than Midea in 2020, and 10 billion yuan less than Midea in 2021.
This is also related to the small overseas market share of Gree. The development of export business of the two companies is different from each other. The financial report shows that in 2021, the proportion of export business in the operating income of Gree and Midea will be 12% and 40.34% respectively.
Late start, poor live delivery effect
The sales of 618 air conditioners fell behind, epitomizing the weakness of Gree's online channels, which was largely due to the late start.
Taking Tmall platform as an example, the official flagship store of Midea and the flagship store of air-conditioner are 13 years old and 9 years old respectively, with 11.99 million and 1.79 million subscriptions respectively. The official flagship store of Gree is 5 years old, with 5.82 million subscriptions. The flagship store of Gree air-conditioner has only 100000 subscriptions, which is less than 3 years old.
The financial report shows that six years ago (that is, 2016), the overall sales of Midea e-commerce exceeded 23 billion yuan, Tmall and JD systems achieved a scale of 10 billion yuan, and online sales accounted for more than 20% of domestic sales. In the same period, the online e-commerce sales of Gree were only 4.58 billion yuan (excluding Taobao).
By 2021, Midea's online channel revenue will be about 62.1 billion yuan, accounting for 18.2% of the total revenue. In the recent three years' financial reports, Gree did not release this data, nor did it release the results of the online channel of air conditioners.
In 2020, Gree began to promote a new retail model with Gree's Dong Mingzhu Store as the carrier nationwide, that is, online and offline integration, offline experience stores, so that it has online sales functions, and uses offline channel advantages for online drainage and live delivery of goods.
"It's said that fat people don't eat big in a day," said Hai Tao, a middle-level manager of Gree, to Time Finance. Since 2019, the company's e-commerce sales planning has not followed the market rules and changed accordingly.
He mentioned that the company allows offline stores to carry goods live, but the stores simply do not have the power and manpower to broadcast. Dong Mingzhu went to the battle to bring goods in person, but the effect was not good because his age, staffing and brand marketing were unable to attract young consumers.
Time Finance observed that in the 2020 financial report, Gree aims to open 10000 offline experience stores Gree Dong Mingzhu Store, but so far the number is quite limited. Taking Shenzhen as an example, the map app shows only 3 stores.
In 618 this year, Gree's Dong Mingzhu Store is also a key sales channel of Gree. The designated air conditioning threshold free coupon will be reduced by 50-900 yuan immediately, and it can also be added with a coupon of 200 yuan or 500 yuan. However, on the small program platform it focuses on, the cumulative sales volume of the highest single product is 213000 pieces, while in the flagship store of Gree Jingdong, the most popular product reviews alone exceed 2 million pieces.
(Haitao is a pseudonym in the text)
(Time Finance)
