You haven’t used smart home yet, but your cats and dogs are already enjoying smart products. Abai, who was born in 1985, is not yet married, but is already the "mother" of five pets. In order to better take care of them, Abai began to try...
You haven’t used smart home yet, but your cats and dogs are already enjoying smart products.
Abai, who was born in 1985, is not yet married, but is already the "mother" of five pets. In order to better take care of them, Abai began to try to use smart pet products. He successively purchased a water dispenser, a smart bowl, a smart traction rope, and a smart monitor. He also plans to make a big purchase of a smart cat litter box in the near future. Including the money spent on buying these smart products, the monthly basic expenses for five pets exceed 6,000 yuan, which is almost as much as the monthly income of an ordinary second- or third-tier worker.
Driven by “digital shit shovelers” like Abai, the sales of smart pet products during this year’s 618 period were particularly eye-catching. Sales of related products surged more than 13 times during the "good start" period on the Tmall platform; 15 minutes into the climax of JD Pets' 618 event, the transaction volume of related products increased 10 times year-on-year.
"To me, cats and dogs are like my own children. I am willing to spend money to give them a better life, and at the same time, I also rely on smart products to save myself some effort." Abai told Xiaguang News.
Young people’s “pampering” of pets is creating an attractive technology product market.
100 million pets and a market of 230 billion
In recent years, my country's pet industry has experienced significant growth. Since 2010, the number of pets in my country has tripled, and in 2020, the number of dogs and cats in cities and towns exceeded 100 million for the first time.
The growing demand promotes the continuous expansion of the pet market. According to the "China Pet Industry White Paper", from 2010 to 2019, the consumption scale of my country's pet market has increased from 14 billion yuan to 220.4 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 231 billion yuan in 2020, with an average annual compound growth rate of 32% in 10 years.
For comparison, in the past 10 years, the per capita disposable income of national residents has averaged an annual real growth rate of 7.2%, and the cumulative real growth rate in the past 10 years has been 100.8%.
With the development of technology and changes in the pet-raising needs of contemporary young people, smart pet products have suddenly become popular in the past two years. Related products cover various daily use scenarios for pets such as eating, housing, and transportation. From products with relatively basic functions such as smart collars, automatic feeders, and water dispensers to "high-end" products that make pets' lives better, such as negative ion hair brushes, smart toilets, smart purifiers, smart drying boxes, and cat-friendly robots, it is dazzling.
Many of these smart products are gradually becoming “rigid needs” for pet owners.
The "China Pet Economy Innovation and Development Research Report" released by Yiou Think Tank pointed out that according to the pet product consumer preference survey, 38% of consumers value intelligence. Pet owners are eager to free their hands, and at the same time, they need to provide their pets with sufficient emotional companionship within the limited time at their disposal, which has become the main contradiction in raising pets at this stage.
"The smart bowl can help me monitor the feeding amount of cats and dogs, and record it in the app. I can detect any abnormalities in time; the smart water dispenser's water dispensing method like a fountain can encourage cats to drink water. After being filtered by the water dispenser, The water cats drink will also be safer; smart traction can record my dog walking route and help answer the phone..." Abai told Xiaguang News that the reason why smart pet products attracted her was that they provided an exquisite pet-raising solution that was "safe, controllable, and saves time and effort."
Although easy to use, Abai believes that smart pet products still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of product design and quality control. "As long as there are programs, there will be bugs, and sometimes the machine will crash. A certain well-known brand's hot and cold nests have suffocated many cats to death, and water dispensers have also experienced spontaneous combustion. When the automatic cat litter box malfunctions, cats will be locked in it."
In addition, even though the categories of smart pet products are quite rich, there are still some pets and pet owners whose needs have not been taken care of.
Take Abai as an example. As the owner of five “exquisitely raised” pets, including golden retrievers, Alaskan dogs, poodles, British shorthair cats, and orange cats, she needs to add 8 different pet health products to her meals every day based on the physical conditions and needs of different pets. "Feeding is really troublesome for me. If there is a smart device that automatically helps me mix good health products for feeding, I would be so happy."
Who is paying for smart pet products?
Behind the surge in sales of pet smart products is the pet-raising crowd, mainly young people. According to the "2019 China Pet Consumption Trend Report", 80% of pet owners in my country were born after 1980, especially those under the age of 35.
While the proportion of highly educated pet owners has increased, pet owners mainly born in the 1980s and 1990s generally pay more attention to scientific pet care. More than 60% of pet owners are willing to study scientific ways of raising pets and pay attention to their pets' health at all times.
Most of the pet owners in this age group are also "workers" themselves. In response to the problem of no one feeding pets when owners are at work or on business trips, smart devices provide a solution of "scientifically feeding pets at regular intervals and quantitatively", which is very attractive to pet owners.
"Cat Slave" Xiao Qian is a freelance writer. She has been raising pets for a year and a half and has spent more than 20,000 yuan on her own kittens. A short-term business trip where her cat was left unattended made her determined to buy a smart device.
"I prepared a large bowl of cat food for my cat before I went on a business trip, but when I came back, I found that it was in poor condition and the cat food was almost untouched. It may be that cat food is easily oxidized in the air, and it doesn't want to eat it if it doesn't taste good."
In order to "serve" her pet cat well, she immediately ordered an automatic feeding machine, a water dispenser and a pet monitor, which cost nearly 2,000 yuan. But it solved her biggest worry about pets’ eating and drinking. She can also check the status of her pets through the mobile app at any time. Xiaoqian thinks the money is well spent..
Xiao Kai, who was born in 1995, is also a "cat slave". He calls his two pet cats "daughters" because "feeding them food, celebrating their birthdays, pooping and peeing all over the floor makes him feel like an old father."
Xiao Kai said that the smart pet products he is currently using are mainly water dispensers and monitors. In order to make raising cats more convenient and labor-saving, he will consider buying more smart products, such as smart cat litter boxes, cat-friendly robots, and pet odor purifiers.
The growing demand for companionship among pet owners is the real driving force for the rapid growth of the pet market. The "2017 China Pet Market White Paper" survey shows that "spiritual sustenance and enriching emotional life" have become the primary reasons for Chinese pet owners to keep pets.
Xiao Qian, who has been working alone in first-tier cities all year round, said that he often felt lonely when he stayed at home writing manuscripts until midnight. A year and a half ago, her friend's cat gave birth to several kittens, so she adopted one. "When I'm alone at home with him, I won't feel bored. Cats are more reliable than boyfriends." Xiao Qian said.
The "2020 China Pet Consumption Market Analysis Report" points out that with changes in social relationships and the environment, public loneliness is on the rise. More than 17% of the respondents respectively believed that they "feel lonely most of the time" and "experienced their loneliness particularly severely" in the past week.
The development of the pet economy is also accompanied by a trend of late marriage or no marriage to some extent. Analysis by EO Think Tank pointed out that 41% of pet owners in China are single. As China ushered in the fifth wave of singles, it will play a greater role in promoting the pet economy.
Keeping pets has become one of the ways for many people to relieve loneliness and fill the emotional gap. Research by Tencent Think Tank shows that more than 40% of pet owners regard their pets as "as important as their family members."
"Having so many pets may be due to the growing environment in my native family that makes me lack love. In addition to running a Taobao pet store, I spend all my time taking care of the pets except sleeping. They are like my family." Abai said.
Abai’s basic monthly expenses for her five pets exceed 6,000 yuan, which is a big burden for her. However, with the help of her friends, she plans to save money to buy a smart cat litter box in the near future. "Smart litter boxes can automatically scoop poop, and can also help monitor pets going to the toilet, but it costs 2,000 yuan. I have a friend who recently bought 4 smart cat litter boxes with a unit price of 5,000 yuan for the cats at home."
《2019 "Pet Consumption Market Report" data shows that the per capita annual consumption of cats and dogs in China has increased from 4,348 yuan in 2017 to 5,016 yuan in 2018. In 2020, the per capita annual consumption of cats and dogs is expected to reach 6,653.9 yuan. During the same period, the proportion of pet consumption in total residents' consumption also continued to grow.
For contemporary young people who "raise pets like raising babies", they pursue exquisite feeding and are willing to spend a lot of money on cats and dogs, just so that they can live a better life.
The "2019-2020 China Youth Consumption Report" shows that the proportion of post-95s expected to increase consumption for pets is 5.89%, which is higher than the post-85s (3.79%) and the national average (3.73%)
The second Tmall Beauty
Guotai Junan predicts that the total scale of China's pet market will grow to 400 billion to 600 billion yuan in the next four years.
As the pet economy continues to heat up, many companies are also targeting the pet supplies sector. Data from Yiou Think Tank shows that in 2019, there were 150,000 new pet product-related companies in my country, and by 2020, the number of new related companies will be 120,000.
As one of the subcategories of pet products, smart pet products have only become popular in recent years. The "2019 Pet Consumer Market Report" pointed out that although the overall transaction volume of pet smart products is currently small compared with other pet product categories, it has the fastest growth rate in terms of market demand and transaction volume.
Currently, the proportion of emerging brands in the field of domestic pet smart products has reached nearly 90%. Among them, there is no brand with more than half of the market share, leaving ample room for imagination for capital layout.
2020 is the peak period for heavy capital investment in smart pet products. According to incomplete statistics, a number of pet smart hardware brands including Xiaopei Pet, Cat & Dog Technology, HachiBot, You Accompanying Cat Pet, Birds and Flowers, etc. all received financing that year. Among them, except for Xiaopei Pets, which has completed tens of millions of dollars in C+ round of financing, most of the other brands are in early stages of financing rounds.
Internet companies and traditional home appliance giants have also begun to pay attention to this originally niche track.
Xiaomi, which has laid out the smart hardware market in all fields, invested in pet smart hardware brands "Tail Life" and "Cats and Dogs" as early as 2019. Currently, Mijia smart pet water dispensers and Mijia smart feeders have achieved mass production.
Leveraging its advantages in the traditional home appliance market, Midea has also entered the field of pet smart products in recent years.
In 2020, Midea opened a dedicated pet supplies flagship store on Tmall, launching products such as cat water dispensers and pet odor purifiers.
In March this year, Midea established its wholly-owned subsidiary Meixin Pet Technology Co., Ltd., whose business mainly focuses on pet-raising software and hardware services. The company's two independent brands, "Cat Gravity" and "Fluffy", made their debut at the pet show in May this year, launching pet water dispensers, air purifiers, cat flight boxes and other products, making great strides into the pet smart products market.
In addition, traditional home appliance brands such as Lake, Xiaoxiong, and Yadu are also making plans in the pet smart products market.
In the past two years, pet smart products have repeatedly achieved impressive sales growth on e-commerce platforms. Tmall and JD.com recently announced that they will focus on the pet track in future planning.
Tmall stated in its new fiscal year plan that it will increase investment in the pet business in the future, upgrade the pet category to a first-level industry, and build the pet industry into the second Tmall Beauty in the next three years..
In mid-May this year, JD Pets announced the launch of the "New Pet Plan", which will incubate more than 50 first-tier new brands in the next year, focus on pet food, supplies, services and other market segments, and help more new brands and merchants achieve greater development.
As the new generation of pet owners develop their pet care needs in a more refined, scientific and labor-saving direction, it remains to be seen whether the original niche track of pet smart products can really take off and become the next new consumer trend.
(The pictures in this article are all provided by the interviewees)
