Celebrating the Chinese New Year in situ has given rise to a new trend in home appliance consumption: Exquisite models and high-end smart models are popular among Internet celebrities

The emerging small household appliance market is still in the early stages of development. Various companies are rushing to seize the market, and the competitive landscape is still unstable. Therefore, the rapid growth of the emerging small household appliance market will also bring more development opportunities to the industry.

Mr. Liao spent the New Year alone in Wuhan this year. His wife and children had returned to his hometown early to celebrate the New Year. Due to working conditions, he even had New Year's Eve dinner at a friend's house. After the New Year's Eve dinner at a friend's house, Mr. Liao decided to go to the mall to buy himself a new mobile phone.

What Mr. Liao didn’t expect was that the home appliance shopping mall was so crowded that he had to queue up to have his body temperature taken before entering. Mr. Liao, who didn't like the excitement, immediately turned around and went home, preparing to buy a new mobile phone online. "No one is going to pay New Year greetings this year. There are really too many people in the shopping mall, so I can't go." Mr. Liao sighed sincerely.

During the Spring Festival holiday, consumption enthusiasm on various e-commerce platforms increased. On February 18, Suning.com released consumption inventory data during the Spring Festival holiday, which showed that the consumption of home appliances developed rapidly during the Spring Festival this year.

Affected by the epidemic, and under the government’s call to advocate “celebrating the New Year on the spot” and “celebrating the New Year online”, residents’ Spring Festival travel plans have been put on hold, the Spring Festival consumption structure has been adjusted, and the consumption of home appliances has been prioritized. From February 11th to 17th, Suning.com’s home appliances were sold well across the board. From large items for the kitchen and bathroom to small items for the home, the sales growth trend was obvious.

According to a series of data recently released by e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, Suning.com, and JD.com, during the Spring Festival in February 2021, consumers’ enthusiasm for consumption was unprecedentedly high, and home appliances launched a wave of sales. Hot sales trend.

During the Spring Festival in 2021, consumers' enthusiasm for consumption was unprecedentedly high, and home appliances started a wave of hot sales. Visual China

"Celebrating the New Year in situ" triggers changes in consumption structure

Wuhan is a city with a population of 11 million. Due to the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan was closed during the Spring Festival in 2020, and many other Commercial activities in the city are also restricted. During the 2021 Spring Festival, the Chinese government advocates that migrant workers should not return to their hometowns but celebrate the New Year in place to reduce the transportation burden and prevent the further spread of the epidemic.

This call has been widely responded to by people, triggering a sharp drop in the number of tourists and a surge in the number of moviegoers. In addition, while online consumption is becoming popular in many fields, offline retail sales continue to decline, and offline commercial entities are experiencing long-lost high traffic.

According to incomplete statistics, more than 100 million people responded to "celebrate the New Year on the spot" this year, and the unprecedented demand has completely ignited the consumption potential of the Spring Festival. According to monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce, the average daily passenger flow of shopping malls in 10 first- and second-tier cities across the country has increased by more than 200% year-on-year.

It is worth noting that in this wave of consumption, smart home appliances are popular among consumers. According to Tmall data, during the Spring Festival, sweeping robots doubled year-on-year, window cleaning robots grew more than 3 times, and floor washing machines grew more than 18 times; Suning.com New Year Shopping Festival data showed that from February 10 to February 17 During the Spring Festival holiday, sales of smart kitchen small appliances increased by 170%, among which products such as cooking robots, sweeping robots, and air disinfectors were extremely popular, with growth exceeding 100%; JD.com’s big data shows that during the New Year’s Day, the proportion of home appliances placed in other places accounted for more than 60% %, Midea, Haier, Supor, Hisense, TCL, Little Swan and other brands are the best-selling, and the hot-selling home appliances show new trends such as health, intelligence, and customization. Among them, affected by the epidemic, consumer demand for epidemic prevention and health products has also increased.

Regarding this phenomenon, a research report by GFK, a research organization, analyzed that as economic growth improves, consumers' worries about inflation, domestic economic downturn and unemployment have significantly reduced, and the expected income of high-income households has The significant increase will further drive high-end consumption; they are significantly ahead in the expected increase in spending on home appliances, and attitudes towards quality and timely enjoyment are very common among high-income people.

Mr. Liao said that although he cannot go home this year, he can reunite in the cloud through video and other methods, which can also shorten the distance between relatives. In this scenario, because of the multiple window functions of large-screen TVs, families thousands of miles away can pay New Year's greetings, chat, and have New Year's Eve dinner online, and the sales of large-screen TVs have also been rising. According to Suning.com sales data, during the Spring Festival, offline sales of ultra-large screen TVs and smart screen TVs for video calls increased by 63.2%, and dual-line sales surged by 373.1% year-on-year.

Ms. Wang also bought a large-screen TV for her children during the Spring Festival. She said in an interview: "Now my child's school advocates 'no suspension of classes when classes are suspended', which has continued last year. During the most severe period of the epidemic, the teaching mode was online classes and electronic homework assignments. Compared with computers, TVs are easy to operate and clear, and children can easily take online classes with simple operations. The large-screen display can effectively protect children's eyes. , which also makes it easier for me to supervise his studies.”

People who are unable to go home for the New Year due to the epidemic also purchase home appliances for their families through overseas orders. According to Suning.com’s consumption data during the Spring Festival, the number of V-shopping reservations received by Suning stores during the Spring Festival holiday increased by 350% year-on-year. Among them, orders from users choosing home appliances for their families increased by 215%.

Small household appliances have entered thousands of households

On the other hand, the demand for small household appliances, especially epidemic prevention and health products, has also increased.

Under the influence of the epidemic, Spring Festival consumption is not just a simple "buy, buy, buy", health-focused quality consumption has gradually become a trend. Under such circumstances, Internet-famous small household appliances such as disinfection cabinets and footbaths are very popular during the Spring Festival because they have become the protagonists of family health scenes and small happiness scenes.

The emergence of these new scenarios shows that under the background of normalized epidemic prevention, the demand for "home appliances" is changing from a niche and temporary demand to a mass and daily demand. Some of them were not previously considered. The small household appliances we are concerned about are gradually entering thousands of households. For example, knife and chopstick sterilizers, air purifiers, and blood oximeters have become products that attract high attention from consumers during the Spring Festival. Suning big data shows that since 2020, sales of disinfection cabinets, dishwashers and vegetable washers, known as the "Three Musketeers of Disinfection", have increased by 133%. During the Suning New Year Festival, sales of a compact smart knife and chopstick sterilizer surged by more than 150%.

Yang Yiran, a consumer analyst at Essence International Securities (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., analyzed this: "First of all, the penetration rate of China's small household appliances is still at a low level. As consumption continues to upgrade, high-quality The pursuit of life will drive the sales of small household appliances, so China's small household appliances market has a lot of room for development; and the consumption upgrade trend of Chinese female consumers is significant, which will have a greater boosting effect on the entire consumption environment, and small household appliances have ' Features such as good looks and a sense of sophistication have captured the hearts of more young women; the epidemic has given rise to the 'stay-at-home economy', with people spending more time at home, and small appliances can better assist in completing housework. Originally, they relied on takeaways and cleaning The demand for small household appliances among people has been awakened. ”

As the urbanization rate increases and consumption continues to upgrade, the pursuit of high-quality life will drive the sales of small household appliances, so China’s small household appliances market will grow. There is a lot of room for development. In addition, the traditional small household appliances show a three-legged situation of Meijiusu (referring to "Midea", "Joyang" and "Supor"), and the pattern is relatively stable. However, the emerging small household appliances market is still in the early stages of development, and various companies are rushing to seize the market. The competitive landscape is still unstable, so the rapid growth of the emerging small home appliance market will also bring more development opportunities to the industry.