After several years of market silence, the water purifier industry will finally usher in an ice-breaking recovery in 2023.
According to data from Aowei Cloud Network, the retail sales of water appliances (water purifiers, drinking machines, water dispensers, water purification equipment - online) in 2023 will be 29.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%, and the retail volume will be 26.27 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2%. Among them, the retail sales of water purifiers were 20.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11%, and the retail sales were 8.02 million units, a year-on-year increase of 9%. Entering the first quarter of 2024, the market growth momentum continued, with retail sales and retail volume of water purifiers increasing by 7.7% and 10.7% year-on-year, respectively.
This series of data seems to indicate that the water purifier market is gradually coming out of the trough and entering the track of steady growth. However, is this trend a real rebound after the market bottoms, or is it short-lived? What will be the market trend next?
The internal logic of the market recovery
First of all, behind the market recovery is a profound change in consumer demand. From the single demand for "clean drinking water" in the early days to the current lifestyle change of full-scene and diversified "drinking + use", the water purifier market has also derived more personalized and segmented needs. Health, high quality, intelligence, and scenario-based have become the keywords for industry upgrading, which means that consumers are not only satisfied with basic purification functions, but also pursue healthier, intelligent solutions that meet specific life scenarios. The diversified release of this demand has brought new growth points to the water purifier market.
At present, intelligence has gradually become the standard configuration of water purifiers, the product not only adds intelligent adjustment of temperature, water volume and other functions, but also can automatically adjust the wastewater ratio, boiling point according to the region and water environment, and according to the use habits of intelligent automatic flushing of the filter element. At the same time, with the enhancement of the user's health concept, the purifier continues to add to the mineralization function, from simple mineralized strontium-rich to a variety of mineralization functions superimposed. In addition, at present, the two-piece set of water purification + front on the market continues to sell well, and at the same time, there are also four-piece sets of whole-house water purification formed by adding water softeners and central water purifiers on the market, and the popularity of water purification packages continues to rise.
Secondly, the influx of cross-border brands such as Fotile, Joyoung, and BSH has brought new vitality to the market, and they have launched all-round competition in technological innovation, price strategy, market layout, etc., accelerating the pace of innovation and efficiency improvement of the industry as a whole. Specifically, Fotile, a professional kitchen appliance brand, has successfully entered the maternal and infant water purifier market with its selective filtration technology, demonstrating the power of technological innovation; Joyoung, a small household appliance brand, has met consumers' pursuit of health and safety by launching household water purification equipment with a full-link antibacterial system with a two-wheel drive of cost performance and technological innovation; BSH, a comprehensive home appliance brand, has further promoted the diversified development of the water purifier market by virtue of its century-old accumulation and breakthrough point of scenario-based application and category synergy.
In the face of the strong entry of cross-border players, traditional water purifier brands such as Angel, Qinyuan, A.O. Smith, etc. have felt unprecedented competitive pressure and are actively adjusting their strategies to meet the challenges. Among them, Angel and Qinyuan chose to increase their marketing efforts and enhance their brand influence by signing top spokespersons, especially seeking breakthroughs in emerging channels such as live broadcast e-commerce. A.O. Smith, on the other hand, focuses more on the long-term layout, strengthening its market position by expanding whole-house water purification solutions and related fields, building a product ecosystem, and strengthening synergies between brands.
From this point of view, the recovery of the water purifier market is not accidental, but based on the joint effect of multiple factors such as market demand upgrading and technological innovation promotion.
The chaos in the industry still exists, and there are hidden concerns about future growth
Despite the obvious trend of market recovery, the chaos in the water purifier industry is still endless, which has become a major obstacle to its long-term development. On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are more than 7,300 complaints about water purifiers, of which more than 1,800 are filter problems.
It can be said that the replacement of filter elements has become a stumbling block for the water purifier industry to move forward. While consumers are generally aware of the need to replace filters regularly, the costly and complex process can be overwhelming. What's more, in some cases, the cost of replacing the filter element exceeds the price of a new unit, and the advertised long-life filter element is often limited to a single core component, and the rest of the pre- and post-filter elements still need to be replaced frequently.
A consumer reported that the purchase cost of its water purifier is about 2,000 yuan, and the total expenditure on filter replacement in three years has reached 3,000 yuan, which is equivalent to spending nearly 1,000 yuan per year on maintenance, of which the main filter element is replaced once a year, and the other filter elements need to be replaced once every 3-6 months.
It is worth noting that in the county-level market, there is still an illegal act of using free water purifiers as bait, but in fact, selling filter cartridges at a high price. A user posted on social media that a merchant gave away a free water purifier in the name of a celebration, but after installation, it charged a high fee for the filter element, and the total cost far exceeded the sum of the products and filter elements of the same quality purchased through formal channels. Once installed and used, consumers face the dilemma of difficulty in returning and replacement, and even if the complaint is successful, they can often only recover part of the money.
According to industry insiders, the water purifier itself has a low manufacturing cost, a flexible pricing strategy, and a profit margin that is greatly affected by the dealer's promotion strategy. In particular, the filter cartridge business is not only lucrative, but also lacks unity in its effect and life standards, and some unscrupulous businesses take advantage of consumers' attention to healthy drinking water to promote frequent cartridge replacement and build a sustainable profit model, which undoubtedly exacerbates the chaos of the industry and consumer dissatisfaction.
At present, the water purifier industry is in a new stage of development driven by consumer demand and led by technological innovation. The influx of cross-border brands not only accelerates industry competition, but also promotes the transformation and upgrading of the entire industry. For all participants, grasping the development trend of health, intelligence, and scenario-based, and constantly exploring and meeting the deep-seated needs of consumers will be the key to winning market opportunities.
In this process, the industry also needs to face up to and solve the existing problems, strengthen market supervision, standardize market order, improve the quality of products and services, especially to solve consumers' concerns about the cost and quality of filter elements, through transparent, rational price strategy and perfect after-sales service system, rebuild consumer confidence. At the same time, enterprises should pay more attention to the combination of technological innovation and consumer experience, avoid blindly following the trend, and truly start from consumer needs to develop products that are more in line with market demand. Only in this way can the water purifier market achieve a real bottoming out rebound and usher in a broader market prospect.