The fire of "618" is ignited again, no matter what the situation of the home appliance market is, trade-in is destined to be the top priority of the "618" promotion in 2024. Since the introduction of a new round of trade-in policies, major appliance companies have taken frequent actions for trade-in. In addition to actively cooperating with local governments to launch trade-in subsidies, home appliance companies have significantly increased their layout for the recycling of waste household appliances, and their strategies have become clearer.
Make full use of the "Internet + recycling" method to reach new users
The recycling of waste household appliances has been a difficult and blocking point for many years. Previously, consumers were accustomed to disposing of waste appliances through waste recyclers due to the large team of waste recyclers who were able to recycle waste appliances directly to their homes, and after valuing the waste appliances, they could pay directly in cash to consumers to complete the entire recycling process. However, there are many waste recyclers in the market, and many waste recyclers are "picky and thin" for waste household appliances, resulting in some waste household appliances being "homeless". In addition, some individual recyclers will also dismantle the recycled waste household appliances in an irregular manner, resulting in electronic waste and polluting the environment.
In this case, with the help of the country's general trend of exchanging the old for the new to promote consumption, home appliance companies are actively upgrading their recycling networks. Opening up the recycling link can not only promote the sales of new machines, but also help the "vein" circulation of the industry to dredge. In order to better promote the trade-in, home appliance companies are actively applying "Internet +" to accelerate the construction of their own recycling system.
Taking Haier as an example, Haier Smart Home provides one-stop service for door-to-door recycling, evaluation and disposal of old machines, consumers can submit service requirements through Haier Smart Home Mini Program and APP, and Haijing Green Recycling Mini Program, and the staff will come to the door to replace and recycle old machines according to the user's appointment time.
At present, the "Internet + recycling" method has become a common choice for home appliance enterprises, and home appliance companies represented by Midea, Gree, Hisense, TCL, and Changhong are actively promoting the "Internet + recycling" model, reaching more consumers with replacement needs through many channels such as official WeChat applets, APP, etc., streamlining the recycling process and providing convenience for the recycling of waste household appliances. Taking Gree as an example, consumers can place an order through the WeChat mini-program "Gree Dong Mingzhu Store" and "Mingzhu Green Ring Recycling" to register the information of the old machine participating in the activity, and purchase the new machine after registration, and after the order payment is completed, it means that the user has successfully participated in the trade-in activity. After accepting the order, the platform will send after-sales service personnel to dismantle and inspect the old machine, install the new machine at the same time, and verify that the recovered old machine is correct, and the subsidy amount will be returned to the consumer's account in the original way. The whole process is intuitive and transparent, which is more convenient and standardized than "waste recycling".
At the same time, home appliance companies also cooperate with channel providers, especially e-commerce platforms, to broaden the coverage of "Internet + recycling". Home appliance channel providers have opened trade-in channels, providing users with trade-in subsidies through cooperation with manufacturers, and launching a series of services such as all-inclusive and integrated delivery and installation. For example, on May 16, Jomu and Jingdong reached a cooperation agreement on "bathroom trade-in". Among them, at the service level, the two sides will follow the action plan of "Jingdong Home Appliance Furniture Renewal Alliance", and successively implement trade-in subsidies in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, and further promote the renovation of old bathrooms in old communities.
Enterprises are actively implementing the trade-in policy across the country, and enterprises have built an effective recycling network with the help of the trade-in policy, which not only benefits consumers, but also replaces the waste recycling army, standardizes the chaos in the waste recycling market, and promotes the realization of the "double carbon" goal.
Build a recycling network and fulfill producer responsibility
Since its launch, the responsibility system for the recycling target of household appliance manufacturers has formed a number of replicable and promotable recycling models and practices. This has laid the foundation for the implementation of the current round of trade-in policy, especially the construction of recycling capacity of household appliance enterprises. Many of the home appliance companies that responded quickly in this round of trade-in were the first batch of pilot enterprises to take the lead.
As early as 2021, Haier started from its own network contacts on the one hand, and on the other hand, it used identification resolution technology to establish a full-process visual and traceable recycling system based on the Kaos-Haima system. Up to now, through the "Internet + recycling" innovation model, relying on nearly 32,000 offline stores and more than 100,000 service personnel, Haier Smart Home has innovated the "five networks integration" recycling model, and built the "fifth network" on the basis of marketing network, service network, logistics network and channel network, covering more than 2,800 districts and counties across the country, truly realizing all-round recycling.
Gree also actively responds to the call of the state to innovate the circular development model of "green design-green manufacturing-green recycling", guides the orderly development of the household appliance recycling industry, and promotes the green and efficient development of the whole industrial chain. Up to now, Gree has six major renewable resource bases, forming an end-to-end seamless connection between the user end, the recycling end and the treatment end, relying on the unparalleled professional ability in the industry, with more than 60,000 dealer outlets, more than 13,000 after-sales service outlets, and more than 150,000 professional after-sales service personnel, Gree can directly reach the user end and achieve all-round digital recycling.
The trade-in policy is very loud, but first of all, it is necessary to stimulate users to be willing to change and solve the pain points of users. Changhong is user-centric, solves user pain points from the source, and stimulates users to be willing to change and convenient to change with new technologies, new functions and new services. With the help of its own 30,000 sales outlets, 12,000 service outlets and 20,000 service engineers, Changhong has formed a convenient online and offline three-dimensional replacement channel for users through online applets and official accounts.
In October 2021, Midea put forward the green strategy of "building a green global supply chain, providing green products and services, and building a green and beautiful home", promoting energy conservation and emission reduction of the entire industrial chain through scientific and technological innovation, and promoting the transformation of the whole process of green industrial chain from the six dimensions of "green design, green procurement, green manufacturing, green logistics, green recycling, and green services". Up to now, Midea has built this recycling system through 76,000 retail terminals and 150,000 service engineers through the online platform and offline "Meiyun Sales +" system, and Midea's recycling service network has covered all provinces and regions across the country, realizing the multi-faceted recycling of waste household appliances.
Now, the second batch of household appliance manufacturers are carrying out the recycling target responsibility system. With the implementation of the trade-in policy in various places, the exploration of China's extended producer responsibility system for waste electrical and electronic products may usher in a breakthrough in the recycling end.