The home appliance market once again ushered in a new turning point in the business war

Everything will be reset to zero. With the opening of the second half of the year, all home appliance companies and merchants competing in the Chinese market will once again usher in a new development turning point and stand at a new starting point. The core is that the business environment, consumer habits, and external variables faced by many home appliance manufacturers in the first half of the year will quietly change in the second half of the year, exceeding the expectations of many manufacturers.

For many home appliance manufacturers, there are turning points in market development every year, but there are particularly many this year.

Because the entire Chinese home appliance market has entered a "variable and complex" business track. Far beyond the characteristics of the home appliance market in the past 10 or 20 years, both local manufacturers and foreign brands must adopt a "beginner's" mentality and face the new and changing market environment again.

Just looking at the raw materials for home appliances, the quotations this month are completely different from those of last month. Sometimes they change every three days, and the price correlation between the beginning and end of the month is very large. Similarly, for external social variables, the regulatory effect of the real estate market has dragged down the shipment volume of the home appliance market, and it has become more and more obvious over time. Generally speaking, the lag effect of real estate on the home appliance market is 10-12 months, and the rigid demand of the home appliance market in the second half of the year is definitely weaker than that in the first half of the year.

At present, in the first half of this year, white appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines, black appliances such as televisions and OTT, kitchen appliances such as range hoods and gas stoves, and small appliances such as rice cookers and vacuum cleaners have shown a "mixed rise and fall" situation. Among them, black appliances have plummeted, kitchen appliances have been reshuffled, small appliances have been consolidated, refrigerators and washing machines have been hesitant, and only air conditioners have been driven by high temperatures and have stood out. Will this complex situation of "mixed rise and fall" continue in the home appliance market in the second half of this year?

The answer is obviously no. First, the correction of the air-conditioning market is inevitable, and the decline will be a high-probability event. Of course, air-conditioning manufacturers will not give up on expanding channels and increasing promotions; second, after the panel price falls and consumer demand hits the bottom, the rebound of the black-and-white appliance market will also become inevitable, but the fluctuations and repetitions of upstream and downstream factors cannot be ignored; third, the refrigerator and washing machine market will continue to fall to the bottom in the absence of major positive drivers, and we must be careful not to sacrifice profits for scale and lose both volume and profit.

Similarly, the kitchen appliance market, which was highly anticipated, has actually ushered in a round of elimination competition in the third and fourth tier markets. The elimination of manufacturers will be more frequent in the second half of the year, and the elimination of some unknown brands is inevitable. The small appliance market will be affected by the traditional peak season in the second half of the year, and there will be a round of hot sales and rebound. However, product iteration and upgrading cannot stagnate.

Of course, the markets of various home appliance categories may also see new changes in the future, such as repeated ups and downs. As the regulation of the real estate market becomes stricter and tighter, the rigid demand of the downstream home appliance market will be tightened and weakened. For all home appliance manufacturers, the biggest challenge is: on the one hand, they must remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing situations, keep a close eye on the changes in the home appliance front-line market, respond quickly, and even take the initiative to deal with various changes; on the other hand, they must optimize the organizational structure, simplify the channel level, deepen product innovation, continue to work hard, and deal with various complex market situations with a lighter attitude.

How should we choose between adapting to changes and remaining constant in the face of ever-changing situations? For all home appliance manufacturers, facing a new turning point, the biggest business strategy is to find the most suitable means of commercial competition for themselves between change and constancy!

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.