How to sell at a high price in the highly competitive overseas market? We have sorted out the secrets of the success of 10 hardware companies | Hardcore Annual Planning
Text | HardcoreTech Editorial Department
In 2024, survival remains a challenging obstacle to overcome. This is particularly true for consumer electronics companies. China's massive hardware industry chain is eager to find an outlet, and going global has become one of the few definite solutions.
The anxiety of bosses is reflected in their schedules. Data from Ctrip Business Travel shows that from January to mid-October this year, the number of cross-border business trips in China increased by 72% year-on-year, reaching a historical high. From Vietnam, the Middle East to small South American countries that require more than 30 hours of flight, the faces of Chinese business investigation teams can be seen.
But a business trip cannot eliminate confusion and unease. Globally, the price war in the consumer electronics industry has been ongoing for many years and is intensifying.
The story of easily making money by reselling white-label products has long become history. For hardware companies in 2024, how to precisely operate in more than 200 countries and regions around the world has become a more urgent proposition.
The admonition to "understand the local market" has been repeated to the point of annoyance, but the local businesses of most companies still face constraints. Over the years, the rules of conquering the domestic market have repeatedly hit a wall in the overseas market, and tactics seem to have failed completely.
HardcoreTech has been closely monitoring companies in the going-global field. We found that even though the industry is filled with pessimistic emotions such as disappointment and suffering, as well as vicious competition with panicked actions, there are still some outstanding companies making stable profits this year. They come from the hardware field, covering categories such as courtyard cleaning, consumer electronics, outdoor, etc. Some have a customer unit price of up to thousands of dollars, and some are several times higher than similar products. However, in the cruel reshuffle, many companies can instead achieve double or even triple growth.
When we screened this list, we found that the key reason why these companies can succeed in their respective细分赛道 is that they are willing to invest time and resources in R & D, even at the risk of suffering losses and delaying the product launch time. But in the end, their products can stand out and quickly open up the situation.
When the mainstream narrative is to seek the password to getting rich quickly, we still hope that the experience of these companies can become another more realistic and simple answer.
Courtyard Cleaning Category
Ninebot: The revenue of lawn mower robots increased by 379% year-on-year
The lawn mower industry is currently in a stage of rapid development, especially showing huge growth potential in the overseas market. With the increasing global demand for automated and intelligent services, lawn mower robots have become the first choice for many families and enterprises to replace the traditional manual lawn mowing method. According to Statista data, from 2022 to 2032, the European lawn mower robot market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3%, and by 2030, the European lawn mower robot market size is expected to reach 662 million US dollars.
In this context, Chinese lawn mower robot brands are also ushering in new development opportunities. According to the financial report data of Ninebot, the cumulative revenue of lawn mower robots in the first three quarters reached 595 million yuan, an increase of 379.28% year-on-year.
Specifically for Navimow, a lawn mower robot launched by Weilan Continent, a subsidiary of Ninebot Group. Based on self-developed positioning systems, AI-assisted mapping and zonal lawn mowing management functions, it can adapt to diverse garden scenarios and provide users with an efficient and convenient lawn mowing experience. This product has been on sale in several European and American countries since 2022. At the beginning of this year, Weilan Continent released the more affordable i series with a customer unit price of less than 999 euros, quickly achieving a small explosion in the European market, and the penetration rate has increased significantly.
Overall, with the continuous progress of technology and the continuous expansion of the market, lawn mower robots are expected to enter a golden period of rapid expansion in the next few years.
Navimow lawn mower robot i series (Source: Navimow User Community)
Narwal: The overseas business revenue increased by nearly 7 times year-on-year
In recent years, the intelligent cleaning appliance industry represented by sweeping robots is at a critical node of development bottleneck and transformation and upgrading. Although the market growth rate has slowed down, the trend of consumption upgrading has not changed, and the rigid demand for household cleaning is still strong. Technological innovation has become the key for enterprises to break the deadlock. At the same time, various manufacturers are exploring diversified development paths such as category expansion, low-cost solutions, and going global, in order to occupy a unique ecological niche in the fierce market competition.
Take Narwal as an example. Based on the integration of multiple technologies such as SLAM, 3D perception, AI object recognition, robot structure, and big data application, Narwal focuses on the ground cleaning scene, and its product line focuses on two categories: sweeping and mopping robots and floor washers. The online retail sales market share ranks among the top 3 in the industry. Among them, the total channel sales exceeded 1.7 billion during this year's Double Eleven, a significant increase of 200% compared to last year, and the sales target was completed by more than 160%, setting a new brand record.
Since 2023, Narwal has officially launched a large-scale overseas business and has grown rapidly. Official data shows that as of the end of September this year, Narwal's overseas business revenue has increased by nearly 7 times year-on-year, and it has been exported to more than 30 countries or regions including North America, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Southeast Asia. According to Narwal's prediction, with the continuous investment overseas in the next year, it is expected to achieve a revenue growth of three to four times.
Narwal product image (Source: Official)
Simai Innovation: The No.1 high-end brand in the mid-to-high-end category of Amazon's pool cleaning category
With the rise of the global outdoor lifestyle and the expansion of the high-end residential market, pool cleaning robots have become the new favorite for overseas families and commercial pool management to realize the intelligence of the courtyard. It is estimated that by 2030, the global robot pool cleaner market size will reach 2.2889 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.5%. This trend reflects the urgent need of overseas pool owners for efficient cleaning solutions.
There are a large number of global pools and a large maintenance demand, but the cost of manual cleaning is high and the appointment is inconvenient. Although the existing pool robot industry is dominated by concentrated brands and international manufacturers, there are problems such as insufficient innovation and low intelligence level. In the case of a clear blue ocean trend in the pool cleaning robot track, Chinese manufacturers represented by Simai Innovation have captured business opportunities and quickly entered.
Simai Innovation positions in the high-end market and is the only high-end pool robot manufacturer in China. Simai Innovation captures high-end users by relying on a deep understanding of user needs. The team found pain points such as water surface cleaning through their own practice, spent 6 months攻克 technical problems to achieve the water surface cleaning function, and innovatively added a water quality clarification function to the product. Its products have been polished for 18 months from R & D to launch.
In February this year, Simai Innovation launched the first-generation products, including Beatbot AquaSense Pro and Beatbot AquaSense, with prices of 2199 US dollars and 1299 US dollars respectively. In just half a year, it achieved sales of hundreds of millions of yuan, occupying 85% of the market share of high-end products in the 1400 US dollars and above segment in Amazon's pool cleaning category, becoming the No.1 high-end brand in Amazon's pool cleaning category.
Simai Innovation products, image from the official
YuanDing Intelligence Aiper: The cumulative shipment volume has reached 1.5 million units
Unlike Simai Innovation's high-end positioning, the pool robot company YuanDing Intelligence is more targeted at the mid-range market.
In the international market, YuanDing Intelligence Aiper takes the wireless pool cleaning robot as a breakthrough point and quickly occupies the market share. In 2023, its independent station sales are close to 200 million yuan. In addition, Aiper's products have successfully entered the mainstream retail channels in Europe and the United States, including Home Depot, Lowe's, etc. It is expected to expand to more than 7000 offline stores in 2024. In this year's Amazon Prime Day, Aiper's sales exceeded 150 million yuan, and its revenue and sales volume are both the first in the industry. Up to now, Aiper's cumulative shipment volume has reached 1.5 million units.
YuanDing Intelligence Aiper has a rich product line, including the Seagull, Scuba and Surfer series, and has repeatedly ranked No.1 in the Amazon Smart Pool Cleaning Best Seller Top. Aiper's star product, the Scuba series pool cleaning robot, stands out with its intelligent navigation and four cleaning modes, which can fully cover the pool cleaning needs; the Seagull SE is welcomed by the market for its affordability and ease of use, and is specially designed for flat-bottom pools with fast cleaning speed and simple operation; the Seagull Pro is effective in cleaning the pool walls and waterlines with its climbing ability. And Aiper's third-generation fully intelligent high-end product will make further technological innovations in aspects such as three-dimensional pool cleaning, underwater communication, underwater mapping, intelligent frequency conversion cleaning, and water quality management.
Aiper pool robot, image from the enterprise
Outdoor Category
ePropulsion: Nearly 10,000 electric outboard motors have been shipped
The unmanned boat motor industry is currently in a critical period of electrification substitution and rapid growth. With the global emphasis on environmental protection and sustainable development, electrification has become an important trend in the boat industry. Especially in the European market, due to its high requirements for environmental protection and consumers' love for recreational boats, the demand for unmanned boat motors is rising rapidly.
ePropulsion is one of the representative companies in the unmanned boat motor field based on a differentiated product matrix and technical route. Since its establishment in 2012, the company has focused on the research and development of marine electric outboard motors. Its products include multiple series such as eLite, Spirit series, Navy series, and X series, covering a wide range of needs from small recreational boats to large and medium-sized yachts.
According to official data, ePropulsion's European business accounts for more than 50% of the total revenue, and the shipment volume of electric outboard motors ranks among the top two in the world. As of the first half of 2024, the company's electric outboard motors have shipped nearly 10,000 units this year, and the completion speed of the same shipment volume compared to the previous year has increased by nearly half. The market share in the European market has been further penetrated, which is mainly driven by the rapid growth of the new product eLite.
With the continuous maturity of battery technology and the gradual reduction of costs, high-power and diversified boat models of electric boats are increasingly favored by the market. In the future, ePropulsion will continue to deeply cultivate the C-end market, accelerate the research and development of electrification power solutions for large and medium-sized ships, and strengthen cooperation with boat races and B-end customers to seize the dividend of the growth of electric boats.
X series electric outboard motor, image from the enterprise
KastKing: The annual sales are about 100 million US dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 30%
In overseas markets, fishing has become a way of life. The dazzling array of fishing gear brands and various fishing competitions made Cui Tianshi, the founder of Poseidon, discover business opportunities.
The fishing gear brand "KastKing" (Chinese name: 卡斯丁, Poseidon is its parent company) was thus established.
KastKing's products are mainly lure fishing gear, and fishing reels are the core category. Previously, due to technical limitations, Chinese manufacturers were unable to independently produce and design fishing reel cogwheels. KastKing achieved a breakthrough in 2020 through cooperation with universities, adopting cold forging cogwheel technology, reducing the weight of the fishing reel, and improving its strength, smoothness, and hand feel.
Since then, the company has continuously increased R & D investment and has continuously made breakthroughs in the speed, weight, and comprehensive performance of fishing reels. Its newly launched smart fishing reel uses its own self-adaptive braking technology to avoid line breaks and also achieves multiple technological innovations, such as variable line outlets and magnesium alloy electroplating, improving the success rate of fishing.
Since 2018 to 2024, KastKing has been growing rapidly. This year, its annual sales are about 100 million US dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 30%, and it has become the No.1 enterprise in the online fishing gear brand sales in North America.
KastKing products, image from the official
Consumer Electronics Category
Maono (Shanke): 5 to 6 million users worldwide
In the going-global field, Shanke has entered a little-known track - microphones. When the company launched its first desktop microphone in 2017, the global PC shipment volume declined, and the desktop microphone market seemed to have a dim prospect.
However, the founder Alex, with his experience of living and working overseas, judged that the development trend of short videos and live broadcasts in China many years ago would reverse.