The home appliance industry in 2024 has opened, the New Year's industry trend, market competition, consumption changes and channel changes will present what situation and trend? In this regard, home appliance industry insiders predict that the overall trend of the home appliance industry this year is that demand growth is under pressure, first-line market competition is more "internal volume", and consumption will usher in a new era of home appliances, and home appliance retail channels are more diversified.
Overall trend: Demand growth is under pressure
At the 2024 International Consumer Electronics Show, Chinese home appliances competed on stage
AVC predicts that the home appliance market will show the following trends in 2024:
Prediction 1: In 2023, the household appliance market will increase by 2.9%, and the market will run at a low level. In 2024, it is expected that the home appliance market is still facing great pressure of demand growth, and the annual retail sales scale will increase by 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.
Prediction 2: Resilience to see the strong, the future development of the fight is the domestic + overseas dual market control. From a regional point of view, in the second half of this year, the overseas market destocking effect will become obvious, with the overseas market inflation tends to ease, is expected to enter the replenishment cycle again, superimposed on the depreciation of the RMB against the US dollar, the overseas market is expected to continue to improve in the short term. The future development of the enterprise will eventually go to the global layout and the control of the domestic + overseas dual market competition.
Prediction 3: The low price impact of emerging channels + raw material prices are basically in the declining channel/low range, and the war of cost performance will become increasingly fierce. In addition, the price of raw materials is basically in the declining channel or low range, superimposed with the strong trend of emerging e-commerce represented by Shake fast, and the sales impact brought by the low-price channels represented by Pinfoduo, and the price war is intensifying.
Competition pattern: first-tier market competition will be more "volume"
Starting from 2023, a round of market reshuffle in the home appliance industry has been ignited, and the core is "good money drives out bad money" to free up more market space and opportunities for large enterprises and big brands. Entering 2024, this "big fish eat small fish" market reshuffle will enter the game period under the deep water zone. Not only the simple squeeze of big manufacturers on small manufacturers, but also the "squeeze" between big enterprises. From the squeeze reshuffle of large enterprises to small enterprises, to the positive "hard bar" reshuffle of large enterprises, the competition in the first-line home appliance market will be extremely hot and cruel.
Therefore, focusing on the business war in the first-line market, the various internal volumes of low prices, marketing and services between enterprises will not be reduced, but will show a sustainable and normal trend. However, there will be more industry leaders to accelerate the attempt and explore differentiated means of competition. For example, the focus on the grabbing of users in the circle, the focus on the segmentation of the market, when the home central air conditioning has become the Red Sea market, the mini washing and drying machine, the embedded refrigerator, and the clean and dead corner washing machine will give rise to new hopes for home appliance consumption.
Consumption trend: The new era of home appliances
New appliances such as built-in dishwashers are becoming popular
At present, it has entered the 3.0 stage of the development of the home appliance market, that is, the internal iteration period of consumption. At this stage, frost-free refrigerators, smart washing machines, air purifiers, cordless vacuum cleaners, heat pump dryers, multi-door refrigerators, embedded dishwashers and other "emerging home appliances" representing technological upgrades are becoming the new darling of the market. Including vacuum cleaners that can automatically collect dust, replenish water and dry; A floor washer that can realize intelligent dust detection and so on.
According to the report, during the "Double 11" period last year, the major e-commerce platforms have ushered in the peak sales of "new home appliances". Among them, the sales of new household appliances represented by Suning Shopping washing and drying sets, dishwashers and mop robots increased by 117%, 125% and 132% respectively. From the perspective of the entire first three quarters, according to GfK data, 43 major categories in China's home appliance market achieved retail sales of 652 billion yuan, an increase of 6.7% compared with the same period last year, reflecting the steady growth of the entire home appliance market.
Channel trend: Home appliance retail diversification
Casati appeared at Chengdu Home Fair to open up sales channels
After the continuous change of the home appliance channel in 2023, will there be a stage of stability in 2024? The industry believes that this will be a high probability event. On the one hand, all kinds of online stores, live broadcasts, shelf e-commerce, content e-commerce, knowledge e-commerce, have occupied the mainstream and leading position; On the other hand, offline sinking channels, store formats, and super experience stores have entered a period of change, and have begun to seek segmentation means of operating users. Between the channels began to fight from the open to the hidden.
In fact, the transformation of home appliance retail channels has more than one direction, and there is no channel strategy suitable for all home appliance brands. In order to seize the dividend of The Times, home appliance companies should choose the most suitable channels and methods for different categories and different scenarios like "Tian Ji horse racing".
The cover reporter found through combing that the current offline channel opportunities for home appliances mainly include the following:
First of all, it is to cooperate with home improvement companies to gain more brand exposure with the flow of installation companies, or participate in tooling projects with the help of their channels. At present, Haier, Midea, Hisense, Fang Tai, Boss Electric appliances and other well-known household appliance brands are constantly strengthening the cooperation with home improvement companies;
Secondly, it is to cooperate with the one-stop home exhibition for the C end, the brand faces the consumer through the exhibition form, which is equivalent to the cost of advertising directly to the on-site consumers, consumers feel cheap and convenient, and naturally willing to "pass ten, ten and one hundred". In fact, in recent years, major brands have already agreed with the "heavy warehouse" home fair exhibition, such as Haier, the United States, Casati, Huadi kitchen appliances, boss appliances, Hisense appliances and other local exhibition center home signed a national strategic cooperation; Many young home appliance brands are also increasingly relying on the mature operation model provided by the fair, including venue construction, product portfolio, exhibition marketing planning and other services, in order to achieve rapid transactions by direct participation.
It is worth mentioning that under the trend of more and more serialization, high-end and intelligent home appliances, home appliance brand stores also have to "get bigger and bigger", and enough display space can allow consumers to have in-depth interactive experience. Casati, for example, in recent years, its key distribution channels have gradually shifted from traditional hypermarket channels to self-operated brand stores, and most of its regional flagship stores have an area of more than 400 square meters, taking the form of real scene display, which makes people at a glance.
It can be seen that the challenges and opportunities of the home appliance industry in 2024 coexist, but for the market, there is no best era, and there is no worst era. If there is a Thai pole, there will naturally be a negative.