Since the beginning of winter, many places on the mainland have set the highest low temperature in the same period of history. In the face of temperatures of -10 degrees (south) and slow -25 degrees (north), the indoors with heating are still warm, but consumers who have only installed air conditioners may have to turn on an electric heater to warm up and fall asleep when they rest at night. Compared with the past, electric heater products have gradually developed into high-tech products that integrate temperature control, fashion, health and other elements.
The low temperature weather has brought new machines to manufacturers of HVAC appliances. For example, down jackets and electric heating bags and other products, from the weather began to become cold to now completely cold, product sales increased significantly. Public information shows that the sales of heaters have tripled compared with the same period in 2021. Industry analysis, during the cold winter, heater sales growth rate is very fast, for HVAC appliances is a positive phenomenon, or can drive the year-end heater market to heat up.
The electric heater market is sluggish, what is the problem?
Electric heating products are convenient and practical, heating fast, deeply loved by consumers, but also become one of the hot selling electrical appliances in the winter market in the north and south. However, from 2017 to 2019, the size of the electric heater market began to shrink. Until 2020, stimulated by low temperature weather and catalyzed by the epidemic, the electric heater market briefly warmed up. Why the former booming electric heater market will shrink year by year, in the author's opinion, the reason for the sluggish electric heater market lies mainly in three points. First of all, after several years of development of the electric heater industry, the number of enterprises and products entering the field of electric heaters has been increasing, and the market tends to be saturated. In the future, not only will the price of electric heaters be adjusted downwards, but the industry will also require enterprises to develop more energy-saving and environmentally friendly products. While developing new products, electric heater companies must also digest the unsalable stock of products. The electric heater market is definitely shrinking relative to now.
The image comes from a screenshot of an e-commerce product
Secondly, the replacement products of electric heaters have increased, and the living space has been squeezed. Affected by local heating policies and the increase in alternative products such as wall-hung furnaces and air conditioners, the contraction of the electric heater market has accelerated. In particular, the wall-hung furnace, after the introduction of the "coal to gas" policy, grew up rapidly and gradually opened up the southern heating market. Compared with the whole house heating system, the electric heater can only carry out local heating, and the sense of existence is relatively weak.
According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, in 2020 (2020.9-2021.2), the retail sales of the electric heater market was 9.14 billion yuan, an increase of 28.4% year-on-year, and the market growth rate was relatively high. In 2021, the impact of the cold wave has promoted the growth of electric heaters, but the overall electric heaters are still in a downturn, and the market has not improved. During the double 11 period, the average price of electric heaters in the industry was 268 yuan, down 7.9% year-on-year, mainly because the ultra-high-end market share was squeezed by competitors.
Third, the innovation of electric heaters is insufficient, the homogenization of products is serious, and it will take time to revitalize the stock market. At present, all brands are adjusting the product structure of electric heaters, and the products are developing towards the trend of skirting boards and new categories of heaters, and the traditional categories of oil and European style have dropped significantly. However, product homogenization is serious, innovation is insufficient, in the context of consumption classification, enterprises can lay out new categories of quality, health and portability in advance to ensure corporate profits.
The electric heater market has driven growth due to the cold winter, and the growth rate of successive years is no longer, in the author's opinion, it means that the electric heater industry has touched the ceiling, and it also means that it has not yet got rid of the situation of "watching the sky and eating". According to meteorological experts, January 2022 will usher in a cold temperature peak, perhaps during the Spring Festival, the electric heater market will also pry open a part of the incremental space.
Cold winter, can help the electric heater to sell
With the advent of cold air and the Spring Festival, many merchants are optimistic about the sales of Spring Festival electric heaters, and various heating appliances are placed in the form of special counters or in a conspicuous position. The author found that in the rural home appliance market in Hunan, many home appliance comprehensive physical stores have placed electric heaters in an obvious position, and the product prices range from hundreds of yuan to thousands of yuan, including small solar heaters, heaters, electric blankets and kickboard electric heaters. In offline physical stores such as Jingdong Home Appliance Stores and Tmall Electric Appliance Mall, users can also choose electric heaters online and buy them offline.
According to industry analysis, at present, the mainstream electric heaters in the market are divided into three categories: oil-based electric heaters, wall-hung furnaces and kick-line electric heaters. If there is a cold winter during the Spring Festival, it is expected to bring sales opportunities to heating appliances, especially in the southern region where there is no central heating.
Instead of relying on the sky to eat, it is better to help yourself and innovate. The author found that during 2021, many heating small household appliance companies began to upgrade products around various dimensions such as health, integration, intelligence, and appearance, and in 2022, HVAC companies may have more "micro-innovative" products to drive sales. For example, in order to solve the problem of air drying, further strengthen the humidification attributes of electric heaters, upgrade to ultrasonic and electric heating and other humidification methods, and improve the humidification efficiency of products; for the limitations of single function, many brands try to add UV sterilization, clothing drying and other multi-functions to new products to improve the frequency of use; intelligent upgrades, users can control the heater heating, turn off or maintain a constant temperature state through app, so that the electric heater is more in line with the user's scene heating needs.
In the past two years, affected by the epidemic and cold air, the domestic online electric heater market has risen significantly, but for electric heaters, the offline market is still a very important part, after the recovery of the epidemic, it can be clearly seen that the electric heater market has begun to revitalize. From a long-term perspective, if the extremely cold weather is normalized every year, consumers may increase investment in heating, the update cycle of electric heater products will be shortened, and the demand for improving heating efficiency and thermal comfort will increase, which will be good for the electric heater market. Today, central heating has been achieved in the northern region, and in the southern winter market, electric heaters may be in demand more.
The author feels that with the continuous expansion of the scale of the electric heater market, more and more market participants, the market competition will become more and more fierce, and the survival of the fittest will become more and more significant. Compared with the offline market, the online market lacks the head brand that can occupy the absolute market advantage. In the face of this situation, everyone in the electric heater market has the opportunity to lead the market, as long as the entrants actively respond and use the existing advantages to further develop the electric heater business, the company has the opportunity to expand market share.
In the stock era, where is the road to the electric heater industry
Cold air ignites the "warm economy" in winter, and the sudden drop in temperature has led to an increase in demand for heating equipment such as "electric heaters, radiators, and wall-hung stoves". In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, many HVAC companies will shift their key sales channels to online and actively embrace new channels and new tools. However, the high price of some new brands into the market has diluted the market share of the head brand, resulting in a decline in the concentration of brands in the electric heater industry. With the continuous development of Panasonic, Mijia, Emmett, Midea and other brands, the changes in the online market competition pattern of electric heaters have gradually accelerated, and the undercurrent of market competition has surged forward.
At present, the number of brands entering the electric heater market has increased, the competition has gradually become fierce, and the industry has gradually entered the era of stock. According to industry analysis, the market environment of domestic electric heaters is transitioning from the incremental stage to the stock stage, and upgrading will become the first driving force for the development of the industry, and "low growth" will become the norm. However, the future development prospects of the electric heater industry are still very good. On the one hand, the frequent occurrence of extreme weather has stimulated the growth of global demand for heating appliances; on the one hand, the number of rural household electric heater products in mainland China, compared with the ownership of ice washing products, there is still a large room for improvement; at the same time, under the trend of quality upgrading such as health and energy saving, the demand for electric heater products will gradually be released.
Despite the shift in industry growth, China is still the world's largest consumer market for electric heaters. Enterprises can get rid of the situation of "relying on the sky to eat" by increasing technology research and development and product iteration to give consumers a better product experience. China has a complete industrial chain from raw materials, parts to complete machines, so it still has great potential in collaborative innovation, speeding up and increasing efficiency. Therefore, whether from the breadth or depth of the industry, there is a lot of room for improvement in the supply-side structure and quality upgrading of the electric heater industry.
With the improvement of the market demand for electric heaters, Midea, Emmett and other brands have improved in terms of humidification function, hiding the humidification box inside the product, while changing the traditional evaporative humidification, improving the aesthetics of the product, but also improving the humidification efficiency; Xiaomi launched a graphene intelligent electric heater, high-power heating, multi-gear adjustable, dumping automatic power off, the product once listed will be widely praised, improve the comfort of users. There are also some brands equipped with infrared sensing technology and voice control technology in the intelligent aspect of products to further improve the experience of using electric heaters.
According to the online monitoring data of Aowei Cloud Network, the sales of electric heaters in September and October 2021 were 790 million yuan, down 16.6% year-on-year, and the current market demand has not been stimulated, but the application of graphene new technologies has led to the upgrading of skirting boards and other categories of products, and has also brought new competitive opportunities.
The author believes that what really drives the development of the electric heater industry is the changing demand of users for electric heater products. At the moment when the leading demand for upgrading is released, users are no longer satisfied with the simple heating basic functions of electric heaters, but also hope that it has the characteristics of health, environmental protection, comfort, functional integration and other products, and these elements will also become the direction of future development of the electric heater industry.
Write at the end
In 2021, the type of electric heater products is still dominated by heaters and skirting boards, and the proportion of double lines of heaters has increased, and the penetration rate of skirting boards has declined, but the offline line has continued to expand. Driven by the promotion of new products and the promotion of expensive products, the average price of most product types has risen, and the premium ability of intelligent control, emerging heating materials, and new bactericidal and bacteriostatic products in the market is strong. In 2022, the competition in the electric heater industry will be more intense, the market will force domestic enterprises to progress, and the industry will shift from price war to value competition. Under the continuous segmentation of demand, electric heater enterprises can only have deep insight into user pain points, improve product functions, optimize user experience, improve product quality, maintain market vitality, and guide the healthy development of the industry through technological upgrading and iterative development.