With the strengthening of the concept of healthy home, people's requirements for water are also changing. Drinking healthier, more comfortable and convenient to use has accelerated the rapid development of the water purifier market. According to the latest data released by Aowei Cloud Network, the retail sales and retail volume of water purifiers in the first quarter were 3.6 billion yuan and 1.51 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.7% and 10.7% respectively.
It should be pointed out that today's consumers are becoming more discerning, and the requirements for clean water have also been upgraded from the surface to a more subtle level, filtering impurities at the same time, but also being healthier, leaving elements that are beneficial to the body. Judging from the keywords of the current water purifier market, large flux, intelligence, health and convenience have become the direction of iterative upgrading of the industry.
However, while the volume of the water purifier market is increasing, some chaos has also occurred frequently, such as "free water purifiers", selling filter elements at high prices through free gimmicks of machines, which has become a hot topic on many complaint websites. In addition, some brands also exaggerate and use word games to deceive consumers into trust.
"Now the quality of the products on the market is also uneven, big brands are more reliable, but the price is also more expensive, for some third- and fourth-tier cities and county-level markets, price is the preferred factor, as for the effect of water purification, most people do not have professional equipment, will not be entangled too much. A water purifier dealer said.
The volume has increased, and the water purifier market has returned to growth
In the past 2023, the home appliance market has ushered in a new round of challenges, especially the small home appliance market, with demand further shrinking and the retail market performing poorly. In contrast, China's household water purifier market has ushered in a recovery, with further improvements in sales and sales.
According to the data of Aowei cloud network, the overall market retail sales of water purifiers in 2023 will be 20 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%, ending the previous decline and returning to positive growth. The retail sales volume was 7.97 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%. The data also pointed out that in 2023, the growth rate of offline channels of water purifiers will be significantly higher than that of online, the offline recovery will be obvious, and the overall rhythm of online will be mainly driven by big promotions.
The development of water purifiers has been nearly 200 years, and China's water purification machine technology has also been learned from Europe and the United States. At present, there are still many companies imitating and learning foreign technologies, but mainstream brands already have products and technologies that are more suitable for Chinese people's drinking habits. At the same time, at different stages and nodes, the water purification industry in mainland China also shows different trends and product characteristics.
According to the data monitored by the research institute GfK, the traditional water dispenser can meet the drinking water needs of the Chinese people before 2010, and after 2010, the end water purification products enter the consumer's home. In 2020, the installation-free faucet water purifier will quickly drive the market volume higher, and the tea bar machine in the traditional drinking water equipment will be sought after.
In the last year, the pent-up demand in the household water purifier market was released, and the continuation of health awareness after the epidemic has given more attention to comfortable and healthy products. According to the calculation data of GfK Zhongyikang, the sales volume of drinking water products around the layout of household water purification products in the mainland has reached 8000~90 million units in the past five years, which has played a basic supporting role in the demand for water purification.
In the first quarter, the retail sales and retail volume of water purifiers were 3.6 billion yuan and 1.51 million units, a year-on-year increase of 7.7% and 10.7% respectively. However, for this year's water purifier market, the expectations given by institutions are average. Aowei Cloud Network pointed out that in 2024, the retail sales of the water purifier market will be 20.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%, and the retail volume will be 7.77 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 2.5%.
Image source: Aowei cloud network
Talking about the reasons for this change, Aowei cloud network gave two reasons: sales, affected by the external economic environment, the consumption of comfortable household appliances does not have much growth trend, plus the real estate market also has a certain impact on the development of the water purifier market, and there may be insufficient demand on the demand side; With the increase in the share of heating products, there is also a certain pull on the average price of water purifiers.
"Filter element loan" and "0 yuan purchase", the industry chaos is frequent
Compared with most household appliances, water purifiers have a feature, that is, they are deeply bound to consumables. Around the filter element, there has also been a lot of chaos in the industry, making the seemingly cheap or even free water purifier a "bottomless pit".
It can be seen on the black cat complaint platform that there are more than 6,900 complaints about water purifiers, of which nearly 1,800 are related to filter elements. "IQ tax" and "filter loan" have become the negative impression left by water purifiers on some consumers.
Generally speaking, the longer the filter is used, the slower the water discharge, which is blocked by too many impurities and bacteria, and the bacteria that are "purified" actually parasitize on the filter element. Filters have a lifespan and need to be replaced at a fixed time. However, the cost and cumbersomeness of changing the cartridge has become a major obstacle to the development of the water purifier industry, because sometimes replacing the filter cartridge is more expensive than buying a new water purifier. Although some water purifiers on the market have written long-lasting filter elements for 3 years and 5 years, the person in charge of a brand pointed out that most of them only have one core that is long-lasting, and the pre- and post-filter elements still need to be replaced in 1-2 years.
Not only that, but in some county-level markets, there are unscrupulous vendors who use the guise of giving away water purifiers for free to earn high filter cartridge money. On platforms such as Douyin, some users have reported that merchants who claim to be free water purifiers in the annual promotion charge a high amount of filter money after the door-to-door installation and trial.
All in all, the cost of these filter cartridges is much higher than the normal purchase price of a water purifier and filter cartridge. However, since the water purifier has been installed and used, the merchant will not give a refund, and even if it is a complaint, it can only be a partial refund.
The above-mentioned water purifier dealers revealed that the cost of the water purifier itself is not high, and the floating space in pricing is large, and it is more to look at the dealer's sales policy. Of course, the most profitable is the filter element, and the effect of this thing is not consistent with the so-called life standard, most users will believe the salesman's proposal to change the core for the health of drinking water, which is also the continuous income of a single customer.
It is understood that the filter element used in the water purifier determines the quality of the product, when the water purifier just entered the Chinese market, in order to better purify the effect, it is often used in the United States and other markets imported filter elements, but it brings an increase in price, because the cost of the filter element accounts for more than 60% of the manufacturing cost of the entire product.
Later, as domestic brands began to develop their own filter cartridges, the related costs began to decline, but from the perspective of the overall use cost, it still became a key reason to dissuade consumers or cause users not to continue to use water purifiers.
In addition to the "unspoken rules" on the filter element, the word games on the publicity of some water purifier brands have also attracted dissatisfaction from many consumers. For example, the "large flow rate", in many cases, is only the flow rate of room temperature water, once the hot water and boiling water mode are selected, the flow rate of the water purifier will be greatly reduced.
And "hot water in seconds", it may also be the same situation, the hot water comes out quickly, but the flow rate is very small, and it takes longer to drink a cup of hot water from the water purifier. The problem of flow rate has also become a problem that has been complained about a lot in heating water purifiers.
Volume price, volume channel, where is the main vein of the water purifier?
With the recovery of the water purifier market, the industry has also entered a period of more volume. The frequent occurrence of "unspoken rules" is also a true portrayal of the fierce competition in the industry. At present, there are many brands of water purifiers, and in order to promote them, brands and channel providers have promoted them through various channels and channels, and they have also started a price war, especially in the mid-end market.
Aowei cloud network data pointed out that the overall online mid-end share will grow significantly in 2023, and this trend will continue this year. On the one hand, due to the intensification of competition in the mid-end market, the share of 1.5-2K has increased on the basis of volume flux and volume parameters, and on the other hand, the price of the heating market has moved down, and the price of 3K+ mid-to-high-end heating models will gradually decline, and the share of 2.5-3K will increase.
Image source: Aowei cloud network
For brands, the price war will inevitably not last, and it is more important to grasp the main context of industry development to find increments. At present, after four changes in water purification methods, consumers' awareness and demand for products have been further improved, and improving experience and tending to health have become the main veins of the development of the water purification market.
It can also be seen from the new products released by many brands recently that health, high flux and long-lasting filter elements have become the main selling points. Among them, Angel's newly launched M7 Home 800 can achieve a large flux of 4T/h, covering the water purification needs of the whole house, using APCM aerospace sterilization technology, the removal rate of ESKAPE super drug-resistant bacteria is 99.99%, and the patented long-term reverse osmosis filter cartridge 2.0 Plus water purification effect can reach 8 years. Joyoung also said that the new water purifier does not rely on the filter element to make money, and the AI intelligent filter life monitoring system can monitor the water quality, water temperature, flow and other multi-dimensional information of the water purifier, and the service life of areas with good water quality is even 8 years or 10 years.
One thing is for sure, with the continuous promotion of the concept of healthy home, from drinking water to water, water purifiers have more incremental space. For those brands and distributors who play word games and try to make money in the sinking market through low-priced products, business will not last long. Aowei Cloud Network believes that healthy drinking water solutions such as mineral, heat purification and whole-house water purification are new development opportunities for the water purification market.
Under the new trend, what the water purifier brand should do is to take advantage of the trend, purify and comprehensively balance the local water quality and the needs of the Chinese people, and do a good job in segmented services outside the product. In addition, in the incremental period, the pattern between brands may also face a new order, and the concept and marketing play between traditional brands and new brands will also bring new impetus and highlights to the industry. (This article was first published in Titanium Media APP, author | Du Zhiqiang, editor - Zhong Yi)