The seller's inventory is piling up, and this kind of product can't be sold this year

Internews Agency

2024-05-14 10:20Published in Guangdong

The heating category is not selling well this year

The cross-border market is changing rapidly, and the dividends brought by many consumption booms to enterprises are only short-lived. For example, heating products, which were once a smash hit in the European market, have now become a burden that some cross-border sellers cannot shake off.

In the winter of 2022, the global political and economic situation and the abnormal La Niña climate caused a double shock to the European energy market, resulting in a surge in heating demand and a shortage of supply. In this context, heating products such as electric heaters, electric blankets, and hand warmers have become sought-after goods in the European market.

Heating products will be popular in Europe in 2022 Source: Weibo

However, this is not the case, and since last year, global temperatures have gradually climbed due to the stirring of El Niño anomalous weather phenomena. Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director of the Copernicus Climate Change Services at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, has pointed out: "We know that there will definitely be heat waves in 2024, but we cannot predict when and where they will occur."

2024年气温可能更高 图源:The Verge

The expectation of continued warm winter weather will undoubtedly pose a challenge to heating products, and according to conventional logic, sellers should consider derogation operations in a timely manner. However, a recent market research by a cross-border seller revealed an interesting phenomenon: at present, suppliers of heating products such as hand warmers have expanded their production scale according to customers' forward-looking orders, which shows that sellers in the heating category have no plans to quit halfway this year.

Low-price involution is unavoidable

The reason why the seller is delayed from the table is inseparable from two points, one is because last year's inventory has not been consumed, and it is difficult to ride a tiger; Second, many sellers still hope for a low-price spiral, and want to use the low-price involution and small profits to clear other opponents out of the game.

First of all, the preliminary market research results show that although the sales cycle of heating products in the last winter has ended, cross-border suppliers and sellers are still hoarding a large number of goods, and the inventory of many peers is basically above 20%, which also means that the next winter has not yet arrived, and a large number of products in the market have entered the state of being sold in advance.

Some of the heating products that have been cleared at reduced prices on Amazon Source: Amazon

To make matters worse, last year's situation was similar to this year's, because of the warmer weather and increased competition, many sellers in the heating category fell a lot, but most of them believe that the main reason for this result is that the operation plan is not done well, and more importantly, they did not participate in the low-price spiral team earlier. A supplier bluntly said that this year is ready to continue to stock up in large quantities to reduce product costs, and roll up at a low price before the start of the peak season.

The not very optimistic market conditions, coupled with the cross-border sellers who are gearing up, the price involution of the heating category this winter is predictable.

However, one thing that needs to be reminded here is that in 2022, a large number of powerful sellers have poured into the heating product track since the outbreak of power supply demand in Europe, resulting in rapid saturation of the market and obvious head effect; And the cost and price of products such as hand warmers and electric blankets are also relatively fixed, lacking room for large fluctuations.

In 2022, a large number of products will pour into the Source: Weibo

All in all, the market demand for seasonal commodities such as heating products changes with various changes in the external environment, so sellers need to have a certain market foresight, layout production and sales strategies in advance, carefully control inventory, and avoid blindly following the trend to replenish the stock resulting in surplus, and finally being "rolled" out.

Author | Cross-border Jun

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