Spring Festival home appliance store actual exploration: health package includes "IQ tax" to trade in the old "set of subsidies"

Text | Jaly

This year's Spring Festival, the Securities Daily reporter visited a number of home appliance stores, on the whole, affected by the epidemic, the passenger flow is scarce, but this has not affected the enthusiasm of major appliance stores. Eye-catching promotional signs such as "energy-saving subsidies, half-price take-away, old-for-new maximum subsidies of 800 yuan" can be seen everywhere, adding vitality to the home appliance cold market.

According to the reporter's understanding, Beijing's energy conservation and emission reduction and consumption promotion policy was postponed to March 31, in order to catch the last train of the policy, the major appliance stores rushed again. However, the reporter's investigation found that in various health packages, various types of intelligent energy-saving products, and home appliance stores with promotional slogans, problems abounded, and a variety of non-compliant operating methods were also exposed.

Is the health package an "IQ tax"?

With the improvement of people's quality of life, some "black technology" health and environmental protection home appliances are becoming the "darlings" on people's New Year goods list.

Seeing this demand, the home appliance store not only played the popular health and environmental protection slogan in recent years, but also packaged and sold the products and launched a series of health combination packages, including many collagen egg bag hair dryers with black technology colors, voice suction machines, blue light-free eye protection ultra-thin TVs, sterilization refrigerators, and self-cleaning washing machines. But are these products really tech-rich? Under the trend of health, the home appliance market also hides many hidden dangers.

Kobayashi is a shopping guide for a home appliance chain, originally he mainly served a color TV brand, but as the store was affected by the impact of e-commerce and the epidemic, sales plummeted, and he is now responsible for 4 brands of products.

"Reducing personnel expenses is an important way for manufacturers and stores to save costs. Salesmen from responsible for a brand to several brands of products, not difficult, training can be, many principles are the same, so that you can also combine the actual needs and preferences of consumers, the main products suitable for consumers. Since last year, the sales of health appliances have increased by 300% and become our main products. Kobayashi said. Due to the sharp reduction in revenue in the past three years, one person can also reduce competition by taking several brands, and to some extent make up for the decline in income.

In the view of Xiao Li, who has many years of sales experience, in the face of various concepts of emerging products, many consumers will also hand over IQ tax.

"Some brands will innovate in the functions and styles of color TVs, refrigerators and washing machines, and introduce some new health care features, but some features are not practical. To put it bluntly, it is a 'gimmick' and an 'IQ tax', which is very eye-catching and actually very chicken. Kobayashi said.

Nowadays, many washing machines have the function of mixing clothes and removing bacteria, but clothes still need to be sorted and washed, and "mixed sterilization" is more of a gimmick. For the "net red" folding washing machine in recent years, there are also small capacity, large noise, manual water injection, incomplete drainage and other phenomena, and the inner cylinder is very easy to retain water droplets and accumulate bacteria. And many anti-virus, sterilization refrigerators also have a concept hype phenomenon. Collagen hair dryer, in the eyes of industry experts, there is no scientific support. Many products are more of a product that caters to the market, but it is not practical and hidden.

Lu Jianguo, deputy chief engineer of the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, told the Securities Daily reporter: "The so-called anti-virus and blue light-free are not enough. It is not possible for a TV screen to be completely blu-ray-free. Many viruses live in a low temperature environment, and it is unrealistic for refrigerators to achieve thorough sterilization and anti-virus. A number of heads of home appliance companies said in interviews that they are more willing to use words such as "bacteriostatic" and "anti-blue light" to promote their own products.

Kobayashi said that most of the so-called health appliance packages are mixed with low-cost hyped products, and the prices are generally inflated, which seem to meet the needs and have higher discounts, but they are not practical. "If you want to buy one of the items at a set offer, we can even discount the unwanted products in the package directly. In recent years, the main set of the brand is actually not as good as the direct discount of the store, there is not much competitive advantage, and the significance of the existence of the set is not great. ”

What is the level of intelligence?

With the improvement of consumer demand, the structure of home appliances sold in stores has also changed, and intelligent products account for more than 90%, becoming the mainstream of sales.

In the TV zone, the olED TV with high price but the main focus on not hurting the eyes has attracted more consumer attention; high-end air conditioners with AI environmental induction adjustment and fresh air environmental protection have become best-sellers; refrigerators that advertise sterilization and disinfection, and washing machines that dry care are the mainstream models sold.

Although they move for six or seven thousand yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan, they are still the main force in sales in various categories. With the improvement of residents' consumption level, the proportion of price factors is getting lower and lower, and visual effects, functionality, health and environmental protection have become the main factors that consumers consider when purchasing home appliances, and they are also an important embodiment of consumption upgrading.

Taking color TV as an example, large screen has become a significant feature, but also the future trend, the mainstream size of the market from 50, 55 inches to 65, 75, 77 inches, and 65, 77 inch OLED TVs and 65, 75 inch MiniLED TVs because of their eye protection function sales soared, becoming the "dark horse" in the past two years.

However, throughout the market, the level of intelligence of color TVs is not much different from previous years, and the innovation is insufficient, and more focus is on functions such as voice interaction and mobile phone networking, while the intelligent functions of home appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines are single.

Ding Shaojiang, founder of Nail Technology, believes: "At present, smart home appliance innovation is emerging in an endless stream, but manufacturers often tend to do stacking functions. For example, color TV has long realized the full chain upgrade of 8K ultra-high-definition video from reception, decoding to display on hardware, and domestic ultra-high-definition television stations have also started broadcasting, but there is still a long way to go from popularization, and Internet video platforms are also facing the dilemma of several times the increase in bandwidth costs brought about by 8K ultra-high-definition video operations and the failure of commercial returns to grow synchronously. At the same time, the introduction of overseas copyrights and the simultaneous release of domestic theaters have failed to meet the needs of users for large-screen home theaters. ”

In terms of intelligent networking, the current home appliance brands are still fighting their own battles. Hisense smart home platform is mainly Hisense Love Home, Midea has opened the M-Smart smart home platform, TCL, Xiaomi, Changhong have their own brand networking platform, but it is still difficult to interconnect products between different brands.

"At present, major appliance brands build their own brands of smart home systems, but they are still independent, the system is closed, the data is not interoperable, and the willingness to open is not strong. Each brand needs to establish unified open standards, unified organizations and alliances, and refine the rules and benefit distribution. Although the Hongmeng system has been quickly covered, it still needs to be completely connected to the home appliance brands in practical applications. Dong Min, vice president of Aowei Cloud Network, told the Securities Daily reporter.

Unclear energy efficiency labels mislead consumers

In addition to the health smart slogan, in the home appliance store, the bunting flag marked with the "energy saving subsidy" policy hanging everywhere is also particularly eye-catching.

"If you don't enjoy the subsidy, you will miss it, and the energy-saving subsidy will be 800 yuan for a single piece." Banners with promotional information and dates are always hung in the most prominent positions in the store.

In January this year, the relevant departments announced that Beijing's energy conservation and emission reduction and consumption promotion policy was extended for two months to end on March 31, 2022. During the extension period, eligible consumers who purchase 15 types of home appliances for energy conservation and emission reduction products can receive subsidies of up to 800 yuan per piece. However, in the actual purchase process of consumers, there is a high threshold for products that enjoy energy-saving subsidies.

The reporter learned that some models of large-screen LCD TVs above 55 inches can enjoy subsidies, and the amount of subsidies varies. Many color TVs and air conditioners that were originally grade 1 energy efficiency have become level 2 after the implementation of the new standard, and the unclear energy efficiency labels of stores have also appeared in large numbers, misleading consumers.

In recent years, the energy efficiency threshold of mainland home appliances has been continuously improved, and the implementation of a number of "new national standards" has comprehensively improved the index requirements of each energy efficiency level, and many Level 1 products have been reduced to Level 2 in the new standard. However, many storefronts place samples for the old samples with a Level 1 logo before the change of the country, and the introduction of the shopping guide is also vague, resulting in many consumers finding that they cannot enjoy the subsidy when they buy.

One salesperson even said: "Although we don't meet energy efficiency standards, we can do it in-house to get you subsidized when you buy." ”

"There is excessive publicity in the store on energy-saving subsidies, and the operation methods of the sales staff are obviously illegal. At present, the mainland has a clear definition of energy-saving home appliances, and the energy efficiency standards of Level 2 and above are called energy-saving products, while only major household appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and so on have energy efficiency standards, and many products do not have standards. Among the energy-saving products, a considerable part is shoddy. Lu Jianguo said.

Major General Ding believes: "Based on the need to clear inventory and the asymmetry of user information, the current energy-saving publicity of home appliance stores has a certain degree of exaggeration, and often the high-energy-consuming products with insufficient energy saving are often sold as energy-saving products. At present, the state has introduced a relevant mandatory energy efficiency labeling system, which has a strong binding force on the production and sales platform of home appliances, but the publicity and popularization of the user side needs to be strengthened. ”

Can the old ones really be replaced with new ones?

"Trade-in" is also one of the main selling points of the store. So, is the implementation of the relevant measures really in place, and what is the proportion of trade-in in the actual purchase of consumers?

At present, most home appliance stores have launched world war-I services such as door-to-door demolition, old machine transportation, recycling, and door-to-door installation of new machines. Among them, with the acceleration of 5G mobile phone replacement, the proportion of old-for-new mobile phones has reached more than 50%, and the replacement of home appliances with old is 40%.

However, the reporter learned that in the process of replacing the new, many consumers said that it was not cost-effective. In recent years, many of the smart TVs replaced by the price itself is higher, their own sale can get thousands of yuan, if you take it for a new one is not appropriate, in the store a lot of old home appliances replacement limit is thousands of yuan.

Faced with such a situation, consumers can not enjoy the "old for new"? Salespeople also have a way to solve it. "I'm trying to find an old appliance so that you can deduct it at the highest price when you buy a new machine." A shopping guide told reporters. This is a common method used by many salespeople to operate under the trade-in policy.

"The current policy of old-for-new at the national level has been withdrawn, and the trade-in in the market is basically a corporate behavior. However, these behaviors often have limited subsidies, or even only promote products in the name of trade-in, and do not achieve a combination of public welfare and marketization, so the actual effect is very small. Some salespeople also use non-compliance methods to exploit loopholes. This year, some places may introduce a government-led trade-in policy, which will help promote the expansion and growth of the home appliance market and structural upgrading, but it needs to be strengthened in supervision and personnel training in the landing. Major General Ding said.

Against the background of a poor market environment, the relevant departments on the mainland have further studied policies and measures to promote the consumption of key commodities such as furniture and home appliances, and this year may also introduce consumption policies, including the replacement of old for new, to stimulate domestic demand. However, to expand consumption, the key is to conform to the trend of upgrading residents' consumption, open up the "blockages" and "pain points" in the consumption field, and improve the governance ability of the consumption field.

A series of problems in home appliance stores, although small, are real "pain points" that need to be fundamentally solved.

Peng Jianfeng, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronics Video Industry Association, said that health and environmental protection and old-for-new will still be the trend in the next few years, but it is necessary to carry out strict supervision at the landing level and focus on cracking down on violations.

He said, "Some old home appliances have been more than 10 years old, coupled with the return of large screens and games to the living room, the new and old replacement market potential for home appliances is huge, and it is expected to further stimulate domestic demand." At the same time, the pressure on enterprise operations has increased, and it is generally expected that the government will once again introduce policies to stimulate consumption, and the association will also implement a series of measures this year to accelerate the popularization of ultra-high-definition video, and manufacturers are also working intensively to upgrade products. However, the threshold is raised, the supervision is more stringent will be the trend, health and environmental protection, game entertainment and other standards will also be put on the home appliance standards to the agenda, home appliance stores standards unified, personnel quality improvement, management level improvement is also the new deal in the landing of the direction of attention. ”