Transformation and upgrading of household appliances stimulate consumption potential

From January to June this year, enterprises in the home appliance industry achieved revenue of 914.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%; The profit was 67.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%. Facing the future, with the accelerating pace of promoting stock renewal, expanding quality supply and guiding home appliances to the countryside, the development potential of home appliance industry will be further stimulated.

Precise planning path superposition mop self-cleaning, upgraded sweeping robot makes daily cleaning easier; The air purifier equipped with brand-new sensors not only has low noise and low energy consumption, but also can remove aldehyde and supply air remotely with one button; Real-time video guidance, automatic steam cleaning, and the new steaming, roasting and frying machine make the kitchen novice fall in love with cooking … Walking around the appliance store, different categories are dazzling, and new ideas are coming.

The continuous innovation of major home appliance brands reflects the surging vitality of the home appliance industry. As a traditional dominant industry in China, the home appliance industry is also an important engine for steady industrial growth and consumption promotion. What are the new features of the home appliance industry this year? Where should we start to better stimulate the role of the home appliance market in promoting consumption and expanding domestic demand? The reporter interviewed industry experts and some home appliance companies.

Enhance innovation ability

Develop whole-house intelligence

The data shows that from January to June this year, enterprises in the home appliance industry achieved revenue of 914.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.1%; The profit was 67.49 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%.

Where does the growth resilience of home appliance industry come from? From continuous innovation towards the middle and high end.

"Since the beginning of this year, the demand for high-end products has been strong. In the second quarter, online sales of smart air purifiers increased by 8.6% year-on-year, and the growth was mainly contributed by mid-to high-end models with a price of more than 3,000 yuan. " Lu Yi, product manager of Xiaomi Environmental Electrical Appliances, introduced.

"At present, China’s home appliance market has entered a stage of upgrading characterized by high-end." The relevant person in charge of Hisense Video Technology Co., Ltd. said.

According to Xu Dongsheng, vice chairman of China Household Electrical Appliances Association, this year, the structural transformation and upgrading trend of China’s household electrical appliances industry is more obvious, and the supply of high-end products characterized by green intelligence is sufficient and effective, driving the industry to run steadily.

Walking into the intelligent open laboratory of Huawei Ark No.1 space, with a handheld intelligent central control panel, the whole house appliances are interconnected: when watching TV, you can turn on the viewing mode with one button and enjoy the immersive audio and video; When sleeping, voice awakens AI assistant, and remotely controls lighting and air conditioning …

"From smart home appliances to whole-house intelligence, the growth space of the home appliance industry is constantly expanding." Shao Yang, president of the whole house intelligent product line of Huawei Terminal Co., Ltd., said that relying on the ecology of HarmonyOS, all intelligent devices in the living space are organically connected, which better meets people’s demand for intelligent life. By the end of June this year, there were more than 200 nationwide stores of Huawei’s whole house intelligence, and more than 5,800 smart items could be connected to the whole house intelligence.

Haier founded the whole house intelligent scene brand "Three-winged Bird", and Midea released the whole house intelligent product system of "Midea Meijia" … "A variety of intelligent products cooperate, and more powerful intelligence capabilities are integrated, which is making smart home appliances more user-friendly." Xu Dongsheng said that the transformation of the whole house intelligence has not only brought personalized and customized experience to users, but also become a new engine to stimulate the growth of the home appliance industry.

Promote stock renewal

Perfect applied ecology

The data shows that from January to June, the sales of household appliances and audio-visual equipment were 427 billion yuan, and the year-on-year growth rate changed from a decrease of 3.9% last year to an increase of 1.0%. "The efficiency level of major home appliance enterprises has improved significantly, but there is still room for further expanding home appliance consumption." Xu Dongsheng said.

"China’s mature household appliances have a high penetration rate, and industry demand is more from stock renewal." Xu Jianwei, a researcher at the Industrial Research Institute of China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said that with the continuous improvement of the durability of household products, the product renewal cycle is long, and if the new features of products cannot effectively improve the pain points of consumption, the demand for renewal will shrink.

Take the air purifier as an example. "With the continuous improvement of air quality and stricter control of formaldehyde emission from building materials, the demand for formaldehyde removal from products is gradually weakening." Lu Yi said that at present, the company is developing more kinds of gas sensors and filtration technologies, and at the same time adding intelligent standby function to reduce the frequency of filter element replacement, thus reducing the use cost.

More brands are rejuvenating traditional household appliances with integration. Casarte Xingyun air conditioner integrates the functions of air conditioner, humidifier, purifier, sterilizer, air fan, etc., so that one machine can be used all the year round; Hisense integrated the ultrasonic eyewear washing device on the basis of the original product, which can wash clothes as well as glasses and jewelry … "The integration of functions is not a random combination of household appliances, but according to the user’s operating habits in a specific scene, to meet the user’s needs to the maximum extent." Xu Dongsheng said that integration is allowing traditional household appliances to release more room for growth.

"The new categories, new scenes and new applications that continue to expand are the potential for the growth of the home appliance industry." Xu Jianwei said that at present, intelligent innovation is active in the field of home appliances, but the application ecology of different brands of home appliances is not connected or even compatible enough, which has become a shortcoming that hinders the consumption of home appliances.

There are more and more intelligent devices, and it is inevitable to connect ecological islands and realize cross-brand interconnection. "The construction of whole house intelligence is inseparable from the participation of many parties such as home appliances, home, communications, the Internet, and content service providers." Xu Dongsheng introduced that in June this year, China Household Electrical Appliances Association and china communications standards association jointly issued the White Paper on Smart Home Interconnection in China (2023), which further promoted the interconnection standard of smart homes from "yes" to "good".

Expand quality supply

Expand the rural market

As the main field of traditional consumption, household appliances consumption is also an important force to restore and expand consumption. How to treat its growth prospects?

"From the perspective of industry trends, the market penetration rate of major household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines is increasing year by year." Xu Dongsheng said. Relevant data show that the scale of China’s smart home appliance market exceeded 550 billion yuan in 2021, exceeded 650 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to exceed 730 billion yuan in 2023.

"Compared with some developed countries, there is still a gap in the ownership level of every 100 smart home appliances in China, and there is a lot of room to improve its penetration rate. Home appliance consumption has great growth potential and strong motivation." Xu Jianwei said.

Stepping into the stock market, how can the home appliance industry move from high-speed growth to high-quality development to better stimulate the consumption potential of home appliances?

On the one hand, we will continue to expand high-quality supply and promote the upgrading and added value of smart home appliances.

"With the continuous optimization of the competition pattern in the home appliance industry, the industry concentration has been further improved. Driven by leading enterprises and innovative enterprises, the proportion of green smart home appliances has increased significantly, providing solid support for expanding home appliance consumption." Xu Jianwei pointed out that in order to adapt to the upgrading of household appliances consumption, it is necessary to make precise policies in the aspects of exchanging old appliances for new ones, promoting intelligent integrated household appliances, and recycling used household appliances.

Recently, the "Notice on Measures to Restore and Expand Consumption" clearly proposes to promote smart home appliances, integrated home appliances, functional furniture and other products to improve the level of intelligent greening of homes. He Yaqiong, director of the Consumer Products Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the next step will be to support the home appliance industry to promote customization and lean development with users as the center, realize real-time response to demand, real-time visualization of the whole process and seamless docking of resources, and continuously introduce more scene-oriented, intelligent and serialized home appliances.

On the other hand, we will continue to expand the rural market and accelerate the promotion of green smart home appliances to the countryside.

With the continuous improvement of farmers’ income and living standards, the rural market is becoming a new growth point to stimulate the demand for household appliances. The data shows that in the first five months of this year, the sales of home appliances for trade-in and green smart home appliances to the countryside increased by 83.7% and 12.6% respectively. Xu Jianwei proposed that we should speed up the construction of multi-level consumer centers, vigorously promote green smart home appliances to the countryside, and better improve the after-sales service system of rural home appliances.