“Intelligence” is a hot word in the new era, and the sparks created by technology and the times have caused a fever in all fields.
Editor’s note: from the micro-channel public number “civet Finance” paper (ID: lmcj066), Author: Finance new media.
“Smart” is a hot word in the new era. The sparks created by technology and the times have caused a fever in all fields. The same is true in the field of home appliances. Whether it is large appliances or small appliances, with the empowerment of technology, Smart home appliances are no longer a new product. Today, with the Internet of Everything, the wind of smart home appliances is getting bigger and bigger.
Especially in the past 2020, there are too many surprises and too many expectations. For the home appliance industry, 2020 is also a year full of “unexpectedness” and “survival from desperation.” After the home appliance market has experienced ups and downs, as policies and consumer spending power are gradually improving, the home appliance industry has turned around.
The main reason for the rapid growth of smart home appliances is that major manufacturers are pursuing their own smart home and new strategies. In recent years, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and intelligence have become areas favored by home appliance manufacturers and even giants such as Ali and Huawei.
In addition, domestic consumers are improving their own consumption levels and are also willing to choose high-end appliances to improve their quality of life. High-end home appliances, especially high value-added smart home appliances, are the first pioneers in the smart wave.
The smart home appliance industry will have to face more changes and uncertainties in 2021 after experiencing helplessness and anxiety in 2020. As for how the companies behind it can survive in the complex environment changes, It is a question that all leaders must think about.
Making home appliances breaking the circle: creating a new consumption scene
In the past 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the home economy has become hot again. As a component of the home, home appliances and the home economy have a natural distance advantage. Although the epidemic prevention and control has now become normalized, However, considering safety and other comprehensive factors, home is still the first choice for many consumers.
At the same time, the epidemic has also changed people’s lives and consumption patterns. In the past, some of the needs considered as “consumption upgrades” are becoming new “rigid needs”, and the “home economy” with “no-going consumption” as the core. It has become an important part of growth that cannot be ignored, and will become a consumption hotspot in the next stage. For the home appliance industry, especially high-end smart home appliances, consumers can fully enjoy the convenience brought by technology.Get on the ride of the explosive growth of the “home economy”.
The epidemic has made more and more consumers aware of the importance of health, and Chinese consumers’ health awareness has also been further enhanced. A special encounter has made people’s demands for health continue to escalate. At the same time, the improvement and promotion of the home environment has also received attention.
Under the catalysis of the epidemic, healthy home appliances ushered in a period of explosive demand, and healthy home appliances have become the fastest growing category of products on all major platforms. And health has become a new consumption scene in the current home appliance industry.
During the “618” period in 2020, the sales of healthy sterilization air conditioners on the JD platform increased by 400% year-on-year, and the sales of sterilized refrigerator washing machines increased by 500% year-on-year; the sales of vegetable washing machines on the Suning platform increased by 482% year-on-year. The turnover of disinfection cabinets increased by 832% month-on-month. In addition, air purifiers, water purifiers, and garbage disposers are also popular during the epidemic prevention period.
At the same time, according to data from Aowei Cloud Network, fresh air air conditioners, sterilizing washing machines, clothes dryers, fresh-keeping refrigerators, dishwashers, steaming and baking integrated machines, disinfection cabinets, air purifiers and other health appliances will be in 2020. Under the background of the overall market under pressure, it has won the favor of more consumers, showing an independent growth trend.
For the air-conditioning industry alone, data from the professional version of Tianyancha shows that there are currently more than 910,000 companies in my country that have “air-conditioning” in their business scope and are operating, surviving, moving in or moving out. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 200,000 patents related to “air conditioning” in my country, and more than 3,000 patents related to “self-cleaning, wind sense, humidity, air purification, sterilization, and silent”. In addition, there are more than 5,000 and 3,000 patents related to “energy saving” and “intelligence” respectively.
In the new year, the air-conditioning industry has gradually got rid of the cold wave of 2020, and the market has gradually recovered. Especially high-end air conditioners represented by new energy efficiency, health and comfort have become the main force for market growth.
The “White Paper on China’s Healthy Home Appliances 2020” shows that 92% of consumers pay special attention to the “health” function when buying home appliances. Among them, 74.9% are concerned about healthy air conditioners. The air conditioner industry has gradually stepped out of the previous price wars. In the strange circle, the health war will be the focus of competition for the next enterprises.
Nowadays, starting from the actual needs of consumers has become the direction for many home appliance companies to develop and manufacture products. With the continuous improvement of consumers’ health awareness, products with the concept of health have been raised to an unprecedented height. What followed is the intelligent upgrade of home appliances. Consumer demand is the most fundamental driving force for the industry. With the advent of consumption upgrades, consumer demand for products has become more diversified and more quality.
For major appliance companies, the new year is full of opportunities and challenges. In a year with health as the theme, how can companies ensure product innovation and quality under severe conditions and remain invincible? Next will be a tough battle.
Small appliances counterattack: quality of life becomes the carrier
In the past year, although the home appliance industry has ushered in the darkest moment, the major home appliance market is slightly declining from the perspective of home appliances, but the small home appliance market can be described as “outbreak”. According to industry data, in the first half of 2020, when my country’s home appliance market dropped 14.13% year-on-year, the small home appliance industry had an online retail sales of 78 billion yuan, up 12.4% year-on-year, showing a contrarian growth.
There are two reasons behind this growth:
On the one hand, because small home appliances have special attributes, their size is small, services and installation are less restricted than large home appliances, and the frequency of use of small home appliances has increased, which has expanded people’s demand for small home appliances, and the epidemic It has also accelerated the rapid popularization of small health appliances.
On the other hand, with the continuous improvement of people’s consumption level, the requirements for quality of life are getting higher and higher. Under the background of consumption upgrade, quality consumption has become an important direction for consumers in the future. And small household appliances are just an important representative and carrier of quality life.
In the contemporary society where quality is determined by details, various small home appliances are applied in multiple scenarios, enabling consumers to meet the different needs in daily life, and because the brands and types of small home appliances are diversified, Personal taste can also be reflected through the consumption level of small appliances. Small home appliances are not new outlets due to the epidemic, but the result of consumption upgrades. At the same time, products related to consumption upgrades have also seen different levels of growth.
Not only that, in overseas markets, the sales of domestic small home appliance brands have also grown against the trend. According to the data, the overall shipment of vacuum cleaners from January to October 2020 was 131.193 million units, a year-on-year increase of 16.0%, of which domestic sales accounted for 12.9% and foreign sales accounted for 87.1%; overall shipments of blenders (including juicers) It was 234.99 million units, a year-on-year increase of 16.3%, of which domestic sales accounted for 9.9% and foreign sales accounted for 90.1%.
Compared with traditional large appliances, most small household appliances are still in the introduction stage in the market. Even after the explosive growth of small appliances this year, the penetration rate of domestic small appliances is still less than 30%. It is equivalent to less than half the level of developed countries.
However, in recent years, with the continuous improvement of my country’s manufacturing and technological level, the quality and quality of my country’s small household appliances have been unprecedentedly improved, and have reached a high level, even to a large extent Already leading the world. With the official signing of the RCEP agreement, lower tariffs, open markets, and reduced standard barriers have given Chinese home appliance brands new opportunities.
However, I have to say that with the rapid growth of the home appliance market, whether it is a large home appliance or a small home appliance, many problems have been exposed behind it.Up. At present, China’s home appliance market can be said to have entered fierce competition. As competition in the home appliance market intensifies, technological innovation has become the top priority, and it is also the foundation for enterprises to settle down. But behind the technological innovation is the illegal behavior of enterprises.
For example, in June 2019, Gree Electric reported that Oaks air conditioner energy efficiency was not up to standard, and finally ended the case with Oaks fined 100,000 yuan for false propaganda; and China State Grid reported recently that “Xinbao shares” was related to The company “Dongling Weili” and “Meige” illegally obtained, disclosed and used Galanz’s trade secrets, from product technology, production equipment, tooling and fixtures to production processes, copying and illegally using Galanz’s full set of technology.
The home appliance industry is relying on technology and patents to survive. Gree and Midea were once “unavailable” because of their core technologies. When these phenomena were about to be eliminated, patent infringement emerged. As competition intensifies, some companies always want to take some detours and implement some unfair competition.
So the protection of intellectual property rights is already imminent. If infringement is allowed to spread, it will greatly dampen the company’s R&D enthusiasm. For companies that have been infringed, they should not be afraid to turn a blind eye and close one eye. We must use legal weapons to protect our intellectual property rights. Only in this way can China’s home appliance market go further and play better on the international stage, and we cannot let counterfeit products block our progress.
Second half opportunity for smart appliances
Nowadays, Chinese home appliance companies have entered the era of global configuration, and the Chinese market is also welcoming foreign companies. A number of more high-end European and American home appliance brands are also flocking in, and the trend that the Chinese market is becoming the world’s home appliance racetrack is becoming increasingly obvious. With the help of domestic consumption upgrading, overseas brands have also begun to strive to compete in China’s high-end home appliance market.
The rise of Chinese home appliance brands is also obvious to all. With the rise of the national boom, the age of Chongyang has gone forever. Behind this is the pursuit of Chinese home appliance companies. However, it must be mentioned that although Chinese-made home appliances account for a large share of the global market, it is undeniable that most Chinese brands still win at prices abroad. In the field of high-end home appliances, it is still difficult to shake foreign brands. For example, the rapid popularity of Xiaomi mobile phones in India is based on its absolute price advantage, focusing on the low-end market and winning by price.
When China’s home appliance market is rolling in, it is necessary for companies to re-examine the market and find new ways out.
my country’s home appliance brands have already occupied a certain position in the overseas market. The next thing they face is how to hold this position. As mentioned earlier, in overseas markets, state-owned brands have always been in the low-end market, while the high-end The market is difficult to move forward. Not only are overseas self-owned brands blocked, but Chinese brands should also calmly think about how to open up the foreign high-end home appliance market.
The home appliance industry is different from the beauty and fast-moving consumer goods industry. The home appliance industry does not have such a fast cycle. Home appliances are just-needed products. However, the length of their replacement period also seriously affects sales, but their essence is still consumer goods. .
One characteristic of the rapid growth of consumer products is to adapt to the development of the local market, realize brand localization, and gradually integrate into the market. For example, foreign high-end brands set up offline showrooms in different regions and cities in China to simulate life scenarios to allow consumers to have a better consumption experience when choosing brands and purchasing products.
The driving force for realizing brand localization does not come from market competition, but from consumers. Any product is born for consumers. Therefore, how to realize brand localization requires the product itself to be used from the perspective of users The localized team is close to the localized market. Today’s consumers are less loyal to brands and products than before. Therefore, product innovation and technological iteration are the key to grasping consumers. Consumers are rational and emotional. No matter how rationality changes in consumers, product quality always ranks first in their hearts.
We are returning to the Chinese market. In the increasingly saturated market, finding new consumer groups is another way out for companies.
Under the implementation of the “Implementation Plan on Effectively Solving the Difficulties of the Elderly in Using Intelligent Technology”, under the guidance of policies and the joint efforts of the whole society, making intelligent ageing become one of the key tasks.
At this time, this may be another opportunity for smart appliances. According to data, it is estimated that by 2025, the number of people aged 60 and over in my country will reach 300 million, accounting for one-fifth of the total population; by 2033, it will exceed 400 million, accounting for about one-fourth of the total population; Around 2050, it will reach 487 million, accounting for about one-third of the total population.
Not only that, but with the continuous improvement of living standards, the elderly’s demand for home appliances is also increasing. Aowei Consulting has predicted that the annual demand for home appliances for the elderly in empty-nest elderly households in cities and towns alone will exceed 60 billion.
It is undeniable that the intelligent development of home appliances has indeed brought more convenience to people, but at the same time, it has also made the operation of home appliances cumbersome. Home appliances are necessities of life, but intelligence hinders the use of the elderly. With the continuous enrichment of the functions of home appliances, especially TV sets, more and more complex, even young people need to explore, let alone the elderly.
So for smart home appliance companies, as an upgraded iterative product, how to be smarter and more convenient is a problem that needs to be considered, and it is also the key to how to solve the problem of aging.
Smart home appliances are an important part of the development of smart homes, and they are also the foundation for realizing the Internet of Everything. In the new year, under the new policy, smart home appliances are full of opportunities and challenges.