Living room economy is outdated, home appliance companies are trying to grab a piece of the kitchen economy pie

After the policy dividends were withdrawn, due to the weakening of consumer demand and the need to transform and upgrade, the industry often uses the phrase "moving forward in a downturn" to describe the current home appliance industry.

Kitchen appliance industry saw volume growth and profit growth in the first half of the year

The kitchen appliance market continues to thrive.

According to the data released by CMM recently, the scale of kitchen appliance market reached 47.1 billion yuan in the first half of 2017, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%, which is higher than the growth rate of the overall home appliance market. The "2017-2022 China Kitchen Appliance Industry Development Prospect Analysis and Development Strategy Research Report" written by relevant experts from CIM predicts that in 2017, the scale of China's kitchen and bathroom market has the potential to grow to nearly 200 billion yuan, reaching 192.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%.

The kitchen appliance market performed well, thanks to the concentrated release of many positive factors, including the macro-consumption environment, internal structural upgrades in the industry, and the explosion of emerging product categories.

Since 2016, despite the continuous introduction of loan restrictions, price restrictions, and sales restrictions, the real estate market is still hot, and the total residential sales area in the country is still rising, thus driving the kitchen appliance market up. According to data from the National Information Center, the sales area of ​​commercial housing in the first half of this year reached 647.91 million square meters, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%.

Cai Ying, deputy director of the Information Resources Development Department of the National Information Center, said that although the growth rate of the real estate market in the first half of this year was lower than that of the same period last year, it still maintained a year-on-year growth momentum. The continuous advancement of shantytown reconstruction, new urbanization and the development of urban economic circles in various places is a clear benefit to the kitchen appliance industry.

In addition, with the continuous development of social economy, people's living standards and living environment have undergone tremendous changes, especially the continuous growth of young emerging consumer groups, middle-class and wealthy families, which has provided a good opportunity for upgrading product structure.

Jia Dongsheng, general manager of CICI, believes that the upgrading of market consumption has pushed the product structure of kitchen appliances to further upgrade towards high-end, which has led to an increase in the average price of products and has greatly promoted the stable growth of the kitchen appliance market.

In the view of Guo Meide, vice president of AVIC Cloud Network, the penetration rate of kitchen appliances is still relatively low compared with refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and color TVs, and the market potential has not yet been fully released. There is still a lot of room for development in the kitchen appliance market in the future.

CMM predicts that the kitchen appliance market will continue to advance at a high growth rate in 2017, and the annual kitchen appliance market size will reach 96.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%.

Enterprises are scrambling to get a piece of the "kitchen economy" pie

For the kitchen appliance industry, in addition to the concentrated release of factors such as the macro-consumption environment, the upgrading of the industry's internal structure, and the explosion of emerging product categories, the continued efforts of the online market have also provided strong support for the stable development of the overall kitchen appliance market.

According to data from CMM, in the first half of 2017, the proportion of e-commerce channels in the overall kitchen appliance market reached 23.6%, an increase of 6 percentage points year-on-year. In addition, data from JD.com showed that from January to August this year, the sales growth rate of JD.com's kitchen appliance category was as high as 66%.

Some kitchen appliance companies believe that in the tide of consumption upgrading, insisting on product technology innovation and promoting the optimization and adjustment of product structure are the most important driving forces for the sustained and healthy development of the kitchen appliance industry.

On September 20, ROBAM Electric Appliances released more than 20 new products including the newly upgraded 4th generation high-suction range hood and central range hood.

According to He Yadong, vice president of Robam Electric, the central range hood is mainly composed of three parts: the main unit, the terminal and the cloud backend. After four iterations, the central range hood has removed the motor from the terminal. Compared with traditional range hoods, it has achieved advantages such as extreme noise reduction, embedded intelligent system, and air volume adaptation. On the one hand, it optimizes the noise problem caused by motor equipment, and on the other hand, it achieves the maximum effect of indoor oil fume extraction and exhaust by relying on the frequency conversion strong extraction and five-level purification technology of the central range hood main unit.

Wang Qiang, CTO of Robam Appliances, believes that in the new wave of consumption upgrades, an obvious feature is that the upgrade of the kitchen takes precedence over the living room, and the upgrade of kitchen appliances takes precedence over other home appliances. Robam Appliances has always emphasized the "meaning of cooking" and advocated using "innovative layouts to enhance user enjoyment and change lifestyles through more intelligent products."

Shortly after Robam released its new products, Haier also launched its IoT kitchen appliance strategy on September 22. In Haier's view, the kitchen is an important battlefield for smart homes after the "living room economy", but most of the so-called smart kitchen appliances on the market currently only add smart modules such as Internet communication technology, and the interactive form is very simple. In the scenario of Haier IoT kitchen appliances, Haier Xinchu Internet refrigerator has become the control terminal of the entire kitchen, which not only provides smart recipes, audio-visual entertainment, traceability of fresh food and other services, but also can realize linkage control with ovens, range hoods, and stoves.

The person in charge of Haier kitchen appliances said that traditional kitchen appliances can no longer meet the needs of consumption upgrades. In the new era, kitchen appliances provide not only cooking itself, but also emotional interaction beyond cooking, personalized food demands, kitchen social interaction, etc.

Brand elimination competition begins

Compared with the declining profit growth rate of color TV companies and the generally less than 20% profit growth rate of white appliance companies, the 30% to 60% profit growth rate of kitchen appliance companies has made the entire home appliance industry salivate. The kitchen appliance industry is therefore known as the profit highland of the entire home appliance industry.

But at the same time, as market competition becomes increasingly fierce, the "knockout round" in the kitchen appliance industry has already begun.

Industry insiders believe that as a high-profit area, the kitchen appliance industry has attracted deep involvement from comprehensive home appliance giants and other capital forces, and may usher in a deep reshuffle.

Offline monitoring data of the kitchen appliance industry released by Aowei Cloud Network shows that in the first half of 2017, the market share of the TOP10 brands in the range hood category was 88.4%, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%, and the number of range hood brands decreased by 3% during the same period; the market share of the TOP10 brands in the gas stove category was 86.8%, a year-on-year increase of 1.9%, and the number of gas stove brands decreased by 8% during the same period; the market share of the TOP10 brands in the disinfection cabinet category was 91.6%, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%, and the number of disinfection cabinet brands decreased by 12% during the same period.

According to incomplete statistics, as of 2016, the number of brands on sale in the domestic kitchen appliance market has reached 577, far exceeding the number of brands on sale for home appliances such as washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners and televisions. While the market is saturated with competition, the polarization phenomenon of low-end imitation and high-end innovation is becoming increasingly prominent.

Looking ahead to the kitchen appliance market in the second half of the year, although people from all sides have different views, they generally believe that against the backdrop of upgrading consumer demand, increasing market policy thresholds, and stricter quality control, brand competition in the kitchen appliance industry has begun to accelerate, industry reshuffle has intensified, and the industry landscape will continue to be refreshed in the future.

As the competition in the industry continues to expand, market resources and channels begin to gather towards first-tier brands, and small and medium-sized brands will continue to be squeezed out. Hong Shibin, executive chairman of the Marketing Committee of the China Home Appliances Association, predicts that more than half of the brands in the market will be eliminated.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.