Author: Yu Jinping | Editor: Yang Xuanran
The "refrigerator freezer" has become a "new demand" in the epidemic area.
In the WeChat group in Shanghai, in addition to vegetables and fruits, shelves that have been snapped up, some people have posted the refrigerator of group purchase, exclaiming that "the refrigerator is the focus of the epidemic hoarding." Tmall data shows that since entering April, the search popularity of tmall 'freezer' has exceeded the "double 11" in 2021, and the search popularity of "freezer" in the past week has increased by nearly 190% year-on-year, becoming the hottest household appliance.
In contrast to the sudden explosion of the freezer refrigerator in the summer, small household appliances are gradually cooling down. In the first quarter of 2022, the total omni-channel retail sales of 13 categories of small kitchen appliances reached 13.5 billion yuan, down 11.1% year-on-year; retail sales of 59.57 million units, down 13.4% year-on-year. The financial reports of listed companies have successively revealed signals of losses.
The small household appliances that once took advantage of the momentum have injected new vitality into the dull home appliance market, pointing out a new incremental market for the big appliance brand, and brands such as Midea have entered the game. But the rollercoaster tide of small appliances poured cold water on the brand, and major appliances did not gain much from the ups and downs of the two years.
The big appliance brands that have no choice but to return to the basic disk are telling some "new narratives".
01
The fridge freezer is out of season
Near May Day, a neighbor of Shanghai Suning Tesco store publicized the company's activities: "May Day arrived, in order to protect everyone's living needs, Suning Tesco all kinds of home appliances can be delivered normally, mobile phones, computers, printers, televisions, water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, small electrical appliances, etc., if necessary, you can learn private messages, Shanghai area can be delivered." Immediately, several residents inquired in the group about the purchase of refrigerator freezers and rice cookers.
The brand digital reading learned from the Suning employee that this activity is aimed at May Day, a single free mail, ordered through the Suning Tesco Mini Program, shipped by Suning Daku, and can be delivered within two days.
Chen Hao, head of retail cloud of Suning Changzhou Company, told the brand that there was a shortage of goods in Shanghai and other areas, and additional orders were added to the factory, and sales were mainly concentrated in freezers with a capacity of 100 to 150L.
Residents of the epidemic area are full of grass and trees to promote refrigerators and freezers to break through the sales off-season. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, from April 4 to April 10, the sales volume of the freezer offline market increased by 12.25% year-on-year, and the sales volume increased by 18.54% year-on-year; the sales volume of the online market increased by 31.71% year-on-year, and the sales volume increased by 16.27% year-on-year; the average price of the freezer was 1797 yuan, up 22 yuan year-on-year. In March, the online retail sales of freezers only increased slightly by 0.7%, and offline retail sales showed a downward trend.
Open the search engine, consumers' focus also extends from the price to the brand, size, volume, power and other aspects of the freezer, and even the niche topic of "upright freezer and upward horizontal freezer" has millions of search related results on Baidu.
But the enthusiasm of the anti-season has not been much recognized by the industry, the shopping center's investment personnel told the brand digital reading, not optimistic about the anti-seasonal rush under the epidemic, Suning Tesco personnel also agreed that the demand generated under special circumstances will return to normal after the end of the epidemic, "Summer is coming, Xiaoice cabinets may continue to be bought, but mainly washing machines and other categories to the sales season." ”
02
Entering the small household appliances and returning home
The last time home appliance brands faced a wide range of discussions, it was in 2019.
At that time, the outlet of small household appliances brought challenges and variables to the home appliance market that had long been formed in the market pattern. From 2019 to 2020, small household appliance companies such as Xiaoxiong Electric Appliances, Beiding Shares, and Stone Technology ushered in a wave of listings, and sprung up through explosive products and Internet e-commerce.
According to the report of Everbright Securities Research Institute, rice cookers, electric kettles, etc. entered China early, the market scale is large and the growth space is determined, so the card slot of the three major brands of Midea, Suber and Jiuyang in the field of kitchen small household appliances is very early, but the newly ranked small household appliance brands are mostly in the blank area of traditional brands, such as Biyi Electrical Appliances rely on air fryers, Stone Technology relies on sweeping robots, and Beiding shares rely on health pots to avoid "Meijiu Su" in traditional categories.
Of course, category innovation is not enough to constitute a barrier for cutting-edge home appliance brands, traditional brands with funds and supply chain advantages have also joined the competition of small household appliance brands, and the market pattern of small household appliances has gradually become clear: traditional brands such as Midea, Suber, Jiuyang, Feike, and other traditional brands and emerging brands such as XiaoXiong and Mofei are opposed.
Traditional brands rely on the advantages of supply chain, research and development capabilities, offline channels, etc., to reduce the dimension of the blow, quickly reproduce small household appliances such as air fryers, health pots and other out of the circle of explosives; cutting brands with the help of online live broadcast, marketing, high value, cut to the demand of segmentation and other characteristics, and the formation of differentiated competition with traditional brands; in terms of price, the new brands aim at the high-end market and traditional brands dislocation competition. Taking channels as an example, the traditional brands that are deeply cultivated in offline channels have covered various channels such as shopping malls, street stores, and Gome Suning, and the channels of cutting-edge brands focus on e-commerce platforms.
In addition, traditional brands have also tried to make more innovations, but some innovations are slightly "chicken ribs". Some consumers have complained to the brand that the soybean milk machine they bought can make fish soup. "Why do I need a soy milk machine that can make fish soup?"
As saturation competition advanced, small appliances soon experienced a rollercoaster downturn.
At the beginning of 2022, as the listed companies of small household appliances successively announced their financial reports, people chasing the wind outlet found that the bubble was broken. According to the 2021 financial report of Xiaoxiong Electric Appliances, the annual operating income was 3.61 billion yuan, down 1.46% year-on-year; the non-net profit was 260 million yuan, down 34.8% year-on-year. This is the first time since 2017 that Xiao Bear Electric Appliances has experienced a double decline in profits. By product, the performance of electric kitchen small appliances declined significantly, with revenue of 597 million yuan, down 31% year-on-year.
Source: 2021 financial report of Xiao Bear Electric Appliances
Traditional brands are not immune. In 2021, Jiuyang's revenue fell by about 0.9% year-on-year, while the two brands specializing in overseas markets, Shark and Ninja, continued to grow.
Source: JS Global Life's 2021 financial report
The industry is declining, and the categories and brands continue to be under pressure. In the first quarter, the omni-channel retail sales of kitchen small appliances in 13 categories, including rice cookers, induction cookers and electric pressure cookers, reached 13.5 billion yuan, down 11.1% year-on-year; retail sales were 59.57 million units, down 13.4% year-on-year. Horizontal comparison, in March, small household appliances in a number of major appliance categories declined significantly, online and offline retail sales fell far more than all kinds of major appliances. At the beginning of the year, in the "Top Ten Useless Commodities" minesweeper list released by Idle Fish, wall breakers, fascia guns, and beauty instruments were on the list, and the air fryer became the first idle commodity.
Source: Taobao Weibo
While industry data warns small household appliance brands, large appliance brands that have entered the game are also doomed. Fang Hongbo, chairman and president of Midea Group, reflected on his own business in early 2021, "Midea's small home appliance business is not facing development problems, but survival problems. ”
03
The new narrative of the oligarchs
The demand for small household appliances will recede, and the major appliance market will also return to calm.
With the decline in consumption and the change in supply and demand, struggling brands urgently need to tell some "new narratives" in the present.
Although no way out is found in the ups and downs of small household appliances, the insight ability of small household appliances to subdivide the needs is being inherited by major appliances. Taking Haier water heaters as an example, in addition to the traditional core materials, power, electricity safety, energy consumption and other fundamentals, there is no shortage of subdivision demand selling points such as "bile water quality inspection and testing", "small snail dwelling", "face value control", "mini water heater", "low water pressure", "old community" and so on.
This is not only a means for brands to attract new users, but also a means for them to speed up the replacement of user products. During the 618 period in 2020, Jingdong platform data showed that on June 1, the number of old-for-new door-to-door orders increased by 325% year-on-year, and the cumulative subsidy for replacement was hundreds of millions of yuan. From June 1 to 2, the number of users participating in the trade-in of air conditioners increased by 495% year-on-year, and the three subsidies for air conditioners, the subsidies for old-for-new, the installation fee subsidies, and the installation delay subsidies were tens of millions of yuan for consumers. This year, according to the comments of the Jingdong APP in the past half a month, the same brand air conditioner with a list price of about 1600 yuan has participated in more than 900 reviews of old-for-new styles, more than 150 styles that have not participated in the activity, and the comment gap is about 6 times.
However, some voices pointed out that it is difficult to fundamentally solve the shackles of low frequency of major appliance replacement cycles in activities such as promotion and trade-in. According to the data of Aowei Cloud Network, the average price of the online and offline market of refrigerators in the first quarter of this year has increased, and the offline price increase is more obvious, but the retail sales are 19.2 billion yuan, down 8.1% year-on-year, and the volume of omni-channel is falling together, and the retail volume is 6.12 million units, down 9.2% year-on-year. In the non-sales season, e-commerce can do nothing more than a cup of water.
Image source: Aowei Cloud Network
It is difficult to resist the sales cycle, it is difficult to follow the change of demand, and once the outlet has passed, the home appliance brand has no winner.
The moat built by the home appliance oligarch protects the market share, but it is difficult to resist the end of the era of "one trick to eat all over the sky". The era of slowing urbanization and the barbaric exploitation of housing enterprises has passed, and the new demand generated by the iteration of the crowd has promoted the transformation of home appliance brands. Just the key to open a new market, home appliance brands still do not understand how to match.
bibliography:
1. New Weekly: Small household appliances, big grievances
2. Gelonghui: The story of stone technology's sweeping robot will be told in two years?
3. Finance And Economics Weekly: Annual income of 101 yuan? The boss electrical appliance annual report was wrong in 18 places
4, Everbright Securities: new consumer wind, looking for the next small household appliance star company - small household appliances industry in-depth research
Time and place: |, 2022 Guangzhou Poly World Trade Center Expo