Installed a smart door lock, I regret it

After rushing home from work for the third time to open the door for his mother who forgot her keys, Frank went to the market to buy a smart door lock.
“I really regret playing late, and now I can’t bear to go out with keys.” Not just Frank, parents, wife, son, everyone enjoys the feeling that they don’t need keys anymore.

When he mentioned which brand he bought, Frank was taken aback. “At that time, I went to the store and picked one I liked, and it cost only a few dozen dollars.” Three years later, the brand store has disappeared from the market.

According to Google’s big data calculations, the penetration rate of household users in China’s smart door lock market will exceed the 10% mark in 2022, which was only 1% five years ago.

Smart door locks that used to cost hundreds of dollars are becoming more and more common on the entry doors of ordinary families, and the price has dropped to tens of dollars, but are smart door locks worth tens of dollars really reliable? In addition to realizing the freedom of keys, how many futures are worth bragging about for smart door locks?

Buying a smart door lock is not just for locking the door

Kayra used smart door locks because she was getting married and decorating her room.

It has been an excellent experience for more than a year, and the battery has not even been replaced. The only problem is, kayra’s husband’s fingerprints have been unrecognizable. So she used fingerprints and her husband used passwords.

The lock was right, it was his hands, Kayra joked. The security management of the community is good, plus there are two households in one elevator, it is difficult to meet neighbors, and I am not too worried about being peeped at the password. What’s more, the feeling of not having a key is really good.

Therefore, news such as “a woman unlocked her fingerprint lock with her toes” and “a combination lock was unlocked by a stranger” would not give her any security concerns at all. Not long ago, her parent’s house was renovated for the second time, and she didn’t hesitate to spend a few hundred dollars to buy them a mother-in-law door equipped with a cat’s eye smart lock.
According to network data, from January to November 2022, the number of burglary cases across the country decreased by 9.8% year-on-year. The public security environment and community management are constantly improving, especially in big cities, where the average family has a high sense of security in life. For consumers like Frank and Kayra, smart door locks are more of a beautiful tool to “free hands”, but they are quite “sluggish” in terms of price and security.

But just a few years ago, for ordinary families, smart door locks were still expensive and dangerous.

At the end of 2018, a university specially tested fingerprint locks. They conducted risk monitoring on 38 brands and 40 models of smart door locks, and 15% of them could be opened by a “small black box” that can instantly generate a strong electromagnetic field and interfere with the circuit. , and some face recognition locks can be unlocked only with photos; in 2019, they conducted a comparative test on 38 smart door locks from 28 brands on the market. The prices of these door locks range from tens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. etc., but 80% of the samples have poor reliability, and even 32 can be unlocked with fake fingerprints.

Even if the overall hips are stretched like this, the average offline price of smart door locks in 2018 is still around $450.

At that time, it was the so-called “thousand locks war”, and the smart door lock industry was advancing rapidly. In addition to professional lock brands, cross-border companies and Internet giants poured in, including Samsung, Mepull, Xiaomi, AUGUST, NUKI, YALE, etc. According to data from the Smart Lock Industry Information Center, as of the end of June 2020, there are more than 3,500 smart door lock brands on the market.

But the heat of the Thousand Locks War did not last long. Under the influence of various factors, the production and sales volume of global smart door locks declined slightly in the first half of 2019. Afterward, price wars intensified, and e-commerce platforms competed for one after another. In 2020, the retail market prices of mainstream brands dropped by more than 50%.

After several years of rapid development, the smart door lock industry has now entered a reshuffle period, and there are about 1,000 brands in operation. The technology level is becoming more and more mature, and the production cost is constantly falling. Especially the entry of cross-border brands such as Xiaomi has made more and more cost-effective smart door lock products enter the consumer’s field of vision through various channels.

Low prices do not necessarily mean a decline in quality, to a certain extent, it is also a manifestation of the maturity of the industry.

Frank’s personal purchase and the door industry supporting channels that Kayra has come into contact with are currently the most mainstream sales channels. However, the online retail channel is also relatively the most likely to attract public attention and frequent chaos.

Relatively speaking, for consumers without much relevant knowledge, products with strong brand power are more trustworthy.

Trinkau, director of the Stanford University Research Center, told Mepull that although there is a lot of chaos, it has also affected the sales of mainstream brands to a certain extent and lowered the confidence of some consumers. On the other hand, due to the characteristics of the industry, smart There are not many offline stores for door locks. Online sales can allow consumers to experience products more intuitively. Relatively low-priced products can lower consumers’ purchase threshold and increase their willingness to purchase; from the perspective of industry development, it can also stimulate mainstream The brand launches more cost-effective products to further accelerate the process of market education.

Smart door lock, first lock the door

Similar to many industries, after experiencing crazy expansion and price wars, the smart door lock retail market is entering a period of steady development. Amazon online monitoring shows that in the first half of this year, the sales share of TOP10 brands accounted for about 68.6% of the total, and the industry concentration is relatively high.

As for cross-border brands, Xiaomi, which has always been a “price butcher” to stir up the market, has occupied an absolute position in the online market for several years. The new product released recently supports 3D structured light face recognition, and the security level is relatively higher. , the starting price is only $120.

These mainstream brands are not only more competitive in terms of appearance, quality, and performance, but also drive the industry as a whole to lower prices. In the first half of this year, the average online price of household smart door locks was only US$268, a year-on-year decrease of 12.6%.

In particular, major manufacturers such as Mepull, AUGUST, SAMSUNG, and YALE have planned smart door locks into their long-term smart home systems, which have won the favor of more young consumers to a certain extent. Just imagine carrying a bag in your left hand and an umbrella in your right hand. When you walk to the door, the door lock will automatically scan your face to open the door. At the same time, the lights and TV in the house will also be automatically turned on. This kind of smart life can still make many people feel excited.

Of course, not everyone is as lucky as Frank and Kayra.

There are many complaints from consumers on social platforms. Some people are sitting at home, but the door suddenly opens by themselves; Although the smart door lock is convenient and fashionable, two girls live in the house and the door is facing the elevator entrance. Not only are they worried about safety issues, but they are also afraid that they will be too eye-catching and leave the impression of “looking rich” to interested people.

There are more than 2,300 complaints related to “smart locks” on the black cat complaint platform, and there are various quality problems, including many complaints against well-known brands.

Leaving aside issues such as installation and after-sales, most consumers are more concerned about the convenience of not having a key. However, as a home entrance, smart door locks are a zero-tolerance product, and safety and reliability are always the core of smart door locks.

Wang Jun pointed out that even though consumers’ demand for smart door locks is constantly increasing, the long process of market education has not yet been completed, and enterprises still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of security and functions.

But overall, with the advancement of technology, the maturity of the supply chain and the expansion of the market, the future of the smart door lock market is still worth looking forward to.

Trinkau, director of the Stanford University Research Center, told Mepull that the current sales of smart door locks are still more concentrated in the B-end door industry supporting and real estate market channels. With stronger screening and identification capabilities, qualified products from regular brand manufacturers have a greater chance to meet consumers.

Consumers who come into contact with smart door locks through these channels can promote the further increase of the penetration rate of smart door locks through word of mouth.

Trikau also said that with the development of the market, offline channels are gradually moving closer to online, and gradually find a direction that is more suitable for the needs of consumers and the development of new business models in terms of delivery, community, and installation. With the high demand for remodeling and replacement, it is expected that after five years, the retail market will enter a period of rapid growth.

After all, the door still needs a lock that cannot be opened arbitrarily, and it would be better if it can be done without a key.