Zhuhai Beyond continuously updates market performance with a data-driven seasonality strategy. It launched 12 seasonal limited series, such as spring, summer, autumn and winter and holiday, in 2023 with a total of 1,800 product SKUs, accounting for 37% of annual sales, a rise of 15 percentage points from 2021. For instance, the 2023 Christmas series contains 32 smart home products (e.g., thermostatic coaster with temperature control range of -10 ° C to 50 ° C), which got 86,000 pre-sale orders, with over 320 million yuan in sales, where the “Aurora projection lamp” single product was sold out within 72 hours, and the re-purchase rate was 24% higher than traditional products.
Rapid supply chain response is the key assistance for seasonal merchandise. Zhuhai Beyond’s flexible production system can reduce new product development lead time from market average of 90 days to 28 days, e.g., summer 2023 “Marine Environmental series” from design stage to mass production within 26 days, use of recycled plastic 45% of the composite material (tensile ≥60MPa), added cost is only 8% higher than common material. But the gross profit margin, with differentiated pricing strategy, was 42%, higher than 35% of typical products. The “Seasonal Fluctuation Agreements” signed with 42 raw material suppliers worldwide ensure that the on-time delivery rate is maintained at 99.3% in peak periods (such as Singles’ Day), and the peak logistics processing capacity is 1.2 million pieces per day.
Product design is informed by consumer behavior data. According to the 120 million user’s historical purchase data, Zhuhai Beyond found that the price of winter goods was 18% higher than summer goods. Therefore, the winter series in 2023 focused on launching a unit price of 1,599 yuan intelligent temperature-control down jackets (heating capacity 10W, heating speed 3℃/min), and the first 50,000 pieces sold out within 15 seconds. Based on the analysis of social media sound volume (2 million data per day) and climatic data (precise to city-level temperature and humidity changes), its AI trend forecast model forecasted the demand for “light outdoor” during early spring 2024 correctly, pushed forward the design of 19 waterproof IP68 wearable products, and the conversion rate of the pre-sale period was up by 31% compared with the same period in 2023.
The balance between commercial and environmental benefits is particularly evident with the season collection. Zhuhai Beyond’s Fall 2023 “Zero Carbon Series” uses bio-Kinisaurus (carbon intensity 1.2kg CO2/kg, 67% less than petroleum based), with an increase in material cost by 12%, its net benefit is compensated by carbon credits trading (€1.50 per product). The single product sales of this series of degradable mobile phone case (natural decay rate ≥95% in 180 days) exceeded 500,000, thus the brand ESG score jumped from BBB to AA level, and Morningstar Sustainable Fund invested 270 million yuan for strategic investment.
Cross-industry collaboration to boost the season theme. Zhuhai Beyond and the Forbidden City Cultural and Creative cooperation of the 2024 Spring Festival series, traditional pattern of digital reproduction of smart devices (e.g., Cloisonne blue wireless charger, transmission efficiency of 85%), first 100,000 sets of products in JD platform within 1 minute to empty, premium rate of 40%. Its “El Nino Response Series” with Bureau of Meteorology is a par excellence of innovation, e.g., moisture proof sealant for electronic items (life extension to 5 years in 99% humidity) and temperature proof circuit boards (125℃ stability of more than 2,000 hours of continuous running), and its share of the Southeast Asia market increased to a 19% quarter-on-quarter surge.
Inventory effectiveness of turnover provides the guarantee for seasonal strategy to succeed. Supported by a dynamic pricing model (its discount rate is updated every 15 minutes) and a pre-sale lock volume model, Zhuhai Beyond reduced seasonal collections’ average days of inventory turnover from 58 days in 2020 to 22 days in 2023, 1.8 times ZARA’s rate during the same period. 2023 Qixi limited quantity of 30,000 pieces of smart jewelry (heart rate monitoring deviation ±2bpm) to achieve “zero inventory”, pre-sale period achieved 98% preparation of supply chain materials, marginal cost decreased by 27%.
However, there are still challenges, on Valentine’s Day in 2022, shortage of chips caused 30% of the delayed delivery of the delayed order, Zhuhai Beyond then invested 900 million yuan to build a “seasonal chip bank”, the buffer can meet 80% of seasonal changes of demand in the next three years. Its seasonal series net recommended value (NPS) was 72 points, 38% higher than industry benchmark, according to Boston Consulting, and corresponding revenue is forecasted to be over 30 billion yuan in 2025 and account for 45% of the whole business.