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Research Outline

Prepared for Alvaro R. | Delivered February 8, 2020

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

Goals

To understand the true barriers to buying a robot vacuum cleaner; the barrier to entry; the current perceptions and attitudes towards robot vacuum cleaners (or robot cleaners in general); why people aren't buying them; what the behavior, perception, or otherwise emotional hang up is that needs to change in order to get people into the category; the driver to buy; to understand whether the interest or sales in robot vacuum cleaner is or is not declining; and how manufacturers of robot vacuum cleaners are talking about their products in advertising. The information will be used to help craft a more meaningful strategy for a premium robot vacuum brand.


Early Findings

Increasing Interest in Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

  • Multiple sources suggest that there is an increasing interest in robotic vacuum cleaners and there is growth in this market.
  • This market report expects the robotic vacuum cleaner market to grow at a CAGR of 18% between 2020 and 2024. It foresees that the only threat comes from counterfeit products.
  • According to this market report, the market will grow at a CAGR of 11.4% during 2019-2024.
  • According to Consumer Report, a survey among its members show that "roughly 17 percent of the vacuums respondents purchased since 2018 and the first quarter of 2019 are robotic vs. 9 percent in 2016 and just 1 percent of the models bought in 2010."

Barriers to Purchase

  • Consumer Report mentions that consumers have privacy concerns surrounding robotic vacuum cleaners. A concern addressed in their article is that manufacturers might be selling mapping information of the consumer's home collected by the robot vacuum cleaner.
  • There are also security concerns surrounding IoT devices as they can be "exposed to potential cyberattacks for as long as they are connected. This means they need to be secured against the malware and other threats present at the time of manufacturing as well as those that may be developed long after the products are released." There is a concern that when there are security vulnerabilities, the device might be compromised and others connected to it.
  • Multiple articles mention that robotic vacuum cleaners cannot yet completely replace the traditional vacuum. For deep cleaning and stairs traditional vacuum cleaners are still needed.
  • A consumer on Amazon mentioned "it just seemed to take me more time and inconvenience to go around the house to pick things up that it could get stuck on or suck up. Also, because it goes around the house kind of randomly it did miss spots."

Summary of Findings

  • During the initial hour of research, we focused on finding barriers to buying robot vacuum cleaners and whether there was a growing or declining interest in the product.
  • Market reports show that the market is expected to grow and a survey by the Consumer Report among its members show that there is an increase in the number of consumers buying these vacuum cleaners.
  • There is not a lot of information (articles or surveys) on the barriers to buying robotic vacuum cleaners or the threats to this market. Possibly customer reviews can give more insight into barriers for purchasing, the perception and the emotional hangup that needs to change as consumers are often influenced by other consumer's reviews.