Industry News: High-speed hair dryers have entered the era of 'people-friendly', electric toothbrush technology has been upgraded for the second time, and portable shavers are 'surge all the way'

With the improvement of national living standards, consumers' life concepts and consumption concepts are undergoing huge changes, so we have seen the strong launch of hair dryers and curling irons that cost three thousand yuan. The prices are really expensive, but even so, it has not hindered consumers' enthusiasm for purchasing, and the beauty and health personal care market has also ushered in a golden period of development.

In fact, although beauty and health personal care appliances are small, the market is not small at all, and the product category lineup is constantly expanding, including hair care, beauty care, oral care, facial care, scalp care, nail care, etc. Among them, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, electric shavers, and beauty devices are all popular products that have exploded in the market. According to the total online push data of AVC, from January to November 2023, online retail sales (traditional e-commerce + douyin) of small personal care appliances (hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, electric shavers) 22.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%; retail sales were 124.48 million units, a year-on-year increase of 18.1%.

High-speed hair dryers enter the 'people-friendly' era

The rise of high-speed hair dryers has promoted the second upgrade of the hair dryer industry, and the scale of the industry has grown year after year. High-speed hair dryers have gone through the following stages: In 2016, the first year of the development of high-speed hair dryers, Dyson had three core technologies, namely airflow doubling technology, high-performance digital motors and first-class intelligent temperature control technology. It is with these three core technologies that Dyson has created a new market for hair dryers. Entering the growth period from 2020 to 2021, Internet brands develop rapidly and enter the high-speed hair dryer market, with prices positioned above one thousand yuan. Brands will continue to pour in from 2022 to 2023, which will be the explosive period of high-speed hair dryers.

From the LF03 priced at 599 yuan to the SE priced at 399 yuan, Laifen has conducted an 'inward roll' style downward exploration in the price of high-speed hair dryer products. This strategy aims to lower the barrier to entry for products so that more people can experience the benefits brought by technology. So far, Laifen has shipped nearly 8 million units of its products, and its GMV this year has reached 2.733 billion yuan so far!

There are various products in various categories, and the prices have also dropped dramatically, with some models being priced as low as about 299 yuan. At the same time, the rapid development of emerging channels such as Douyin Live, Kuai Tuan Tuan, community marketing, etc. cannot be underestimated.

Electric toothbrush technology is upgraded for the second time to promote demand with functions

Data from Aoweiyun.com shows that online retail sales of electric toothbrushes have declined by more than 30% from January to August 2022. The number of electric toothbrush brands in the domestic market peaked at 658 in early 2021 and then plummeted. Only about 250 remained as of February this year. Judging from the actions of brands this year, formulating industry group standards for cleaning power and improving consumers' perception of toothbrushing through intelligence may be the future direction. However, product homogeneity and marketing-driven rather than technology-driven are also real problems that need to be faced head-on. The 20% decline in scale for two consecutive years is thought-provoking. Is the blue ocean of electric toothbrushes gone?

Although the industry is in a downturn, there are still excellent products that bring about a turnaround for the industry. First of all, the penetration rate of electric toothbrushes is still at a low level, and there is ample room for popularization. The second is the intelligent involution of electric toothbrushes this year. With the continuous development of technology, electric toothbrushes are also constantly upgraded. Modern smart electric toothbrushes can connect to mobile apps to provide personalized recommendations and brushing reminders, making oral health more efficient. Especially nowadays, the intelligence of electric toothbrushes brings more rich functions, such as intelligent reminder functions, including 30-second zone change reminder and 2-minute timer, pressure sensing, intelligent brushing report, etc. These smart features can help users better understand their oral health and provide personalized advice and guidance.

This year we have seen the launch of many groundbreaking innovative products, such as Ximalong's digital visualization function and Laifen's new ‘sweeping vibration' brushing mode in addition to sonic and rotational brushing. Oclean X's smart touchscreen electric toothbrush supports Bluetooth 4.0 and is compatible with Android 4.4 or iOS 8.0 and above.

usmile has added a plaque detection function to make brushing more secure, and Philips' frequency conversion gum protection function improves the comfort of brushing. A series of innovative actions have pushed the electric toothbrush market back to positive growth. It is believed that the growth potential of electric toothbrushes will still exist in the future.

Portable shavers 'surge all the way'

Portable electric shavers are different from high-speed hair dryers. High-speed hair dryers will most likely become standard features of products in the future. As a branch of shavers, portable electric shavers have a bottleneck in their growth space.

According to Aowei Cloud monitoring data, the period of rapid growth for portable electric shavers will be 2021-2022. Starting from 2023, although the number of brand entrants has doubled, it can be seen from the perspective of sales share and sales volume that portable products have basically become saturated, and the period of brutal growth is a thing of the past. It is expected that the share of portable products will still grow slightly in 2024, and product appearance can still be used as one of the innovation directions.

From a marketing perspective, according to big data from Aowei Cloud Rocket, 90% of the notes on electric shavers are related to 'giving gifts'. Electric shavers have strong social attributes, and women have strong spending power. Brands can attract users through gift box packaging and convey gift-giving needs, and seize nodes such as 520, 618, Chinese Valentine's Day, Double 11 and birthday gift needs, becoming the top priority of electric shaver brand marketing. A clean and fast shaving experience and a smooth and comfortable skin feel are particularly important, so electric shavers for sensitive skin have a place. Secondly, a men's grooming set can also be added, which integrates shaving, facial cleansing, nose hair trimming, and sideburn trimming to meet the needs of set-based products, which is another demand point. Gift-giving scenarios, outdoor travel scenarios, sterilization scenarios, and electric shavers for sensitive skin can all be considered as one of the future directions of the product.