Chores, most of us had them, and even more of us despised them. Growing up, I was no exception in my hatred of chores; except for when it came to one: vacuuming. I loved to vacuum. Vacuuming was far from an inconvenience for me, it was a joy. Each week when the household tasks were divvied up, I relentlessly begged those in charge to assign me vacuum duty.
I loved everything about vacuuming, from the therapeutic back and forth motion to wielding the hose to tackle the formidable stairs to the steady “WHURRR” sound drowning out all else. My favorite part, however, had to be standing up on the living room couch after a solid vacuum session and basking in the glory of the residual vacuum lines meticulously etched out onto the floor beautifully capturing all of the hard work.
With that being said, it is more or less fate that almost two decades later I find myself reunited with vacuum cleaners here at gap intelligence. However, instead of vacuuming the floors, I am now the vacuums analyst, and in collaboration with an awesome data operations team, we look forward to diligently creating those same meticulous “vacuum lines”, in the form of bringing to life our Great Freakin’ Data (GFD).
Image Source: allaboutcarpetsbook.com
Vacuum’s Suck, But Their Sales Don't
From the first manually powered vacuum cleaners of the late nineteenth century to the current robot vacuums of the present, the vacuum cleaner industry has witnessed prolific growth paired with endless innovation. And that growth isn’t stopping anytime soon. Research firm Global Market Insights Inc., reported that the global vacuum cleaner market is anticipated to surpass $17.5 billion by 2024. Additionally, according to global market research firm Euromonitor International, the US vacuum cleaner market is also on the rise with a 3% YoY increase in volume and 5% YoY increase in sales totaling to $5.4 billion in 2016.
The vacuum industry’s unrivaled steady growth has spurred a diverse pool of manufacturers filled with both veteran and neophyte brands actively competing for market share within their segment. By launching the new vacuum service at gap intelligence, we will bring data to life and will provide manufactures the insight to better compete and find that edge. Our vacuum-lined data will provide these manufacturers insight into future innovations and movements within the vacuum industry, explain their sales trends, and help their product lines remain competitive.
gap intelligence’s Vacuum Lines
Our all-encompassing vacuum GFD will be comprised of the 4Ps of marketing (products, pricing, positioning, and promotions) across eleven merchants both in their nationwide physical stores, as well as their e-commerce presence. The panel of eleven retailers, which is the largest panel of any gap category, includes: Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Costco, Fry’s Electronics, Home Depot, Kohl’s, Lowe’s, Sears, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart. The below tower chart, which summarizes brand presence of vacuum manufacturers across all retail locations tracked by gap intelligence, represents a tiny sliver of all that our vacuum-lined GFD has to offer.
A few of the many insights from the above chart:
- Retail exclusivity is a strategy for some manufacturers like Miele only at Bed Bath & Beyond, LG at Fry’s Electronics, and Eureka at Walmart and Sam’s Club
- Dyson is the only manufacturer to have retail presence across all eleven merchants, while Shark holds the largest number of total SKUs out of any other manufacturer
- Best Buy carries the largest assortment of vacuum brands, as well as the most diverse
- When looking at robot vacuum manufacturers, iRobot has the largest retail presence with placements in eight unique merchants, compared to other robot manufacturers like Neato and Samsung
On May 1st, 2017, gap intelligence will launch our new vacuum category (dreams do come true). We are ecstatic to be launching the new vacuum cleaner category. If you have any questions about our new vacuum service, or just want to share your love for vacuums, please don’t hesitate to email me at: nsanfacon@gapintelligence.com.
