Another way to take the path of differentiation of small household appliances

Compared with earlier policies for home appliances to the countryside and old-for-new policies, the market stimulus effect of the new energy-saving subsidies policy has been slightly cold. As the energy-saving subsidy policy is dominated by color TV sets, air conditioners, refrigerators, and kitchen appliances, and the variety of small home appliances is large, the frequency of updating is fast, the market is difficult to plan, and prices are low. In the energy-saving subsidy policy, preferential policies are not enjoyed. Therefore, home appliance manufacturers have planned and developed the market of small home appliances from other aspects, and maintained the brand's market share by changing the current market conditions.

Small household appliances market dominates

For mass consumers, the introduction of energy-saving subsidies has brought another preferential benefit to consumers. However, energy-saving subsidies are mostly aimed at high-end household appliances. Relatively high energy-saving appliances will undoubtedly block the public's consumers. Consumers who buy energy-saving color TV sets, air conditioners, and refrigerator appliances are mostly wait-and-see attitudes because of price factors. At this time, ordinary home appliances that do not enjoy energy-saving subsidies have become the first choice for mass consumption.

The reporter visited the home appliance store to see that there are no high-efficiency and energy-saving household electrical appliance counters, and all types of single-product small appliances are greatly welcomed by consumers. A person in charge of a domestic brand electric appliance company in Xi'an said that many household electrical appliances on the market are ordinary home appliances and have not been selected as energy-saving subsidies, especially small home appliances. Although the situation after the introduction of the energy-saving subsidy policy is good, the home appliances that can enjoy subsidies are not Because of this, the market for small household appliances is currently better. However, this energy-saving policy has prompted home appliance manufacturers to develop and produce energy-efficient home appliances, which will help companies with strong technical forces expand their competitive advantage. The reporter also saw in the store that, based on market conditions, the current demand for “replacement of old appliances” among small household appliances is increasing. Many brands of small home appliances have spontaneously launched the folk version of the "new trade" activities, the products involved in microwave ovens, soya-bean milk makers, rice cookers and other small household appliances.

Market competition pressure

In the store reporters saw Xiao Zhang, the buyer, she told reporters that he saw the energy saving subsidy policy for home appliances that was just introduced in the newspaper, and he was thinking about adding a home appliance subsidy to the home to add an energy-efficient microwave oven and air conditioner to the store. Found that the microwave oven is not within the scope of energy subsidies, so that Zhang is disappointed that the air-conditioning energy-saving standards are also only a few brands for sale, the choice of models, the price is very expensive. For the office worker, she is far beyond her own tolerance.

It is reported that the US’s attempt to expand to the high-end market from 2 years ago stopped production of the 299-yuan microwave oven product that was pushed at that time, which was considered as a real transformation into this industry, especially the enhancement of value. A senior person in the home appliance industry believes: “With Chinese companies gradually taking control of the global microwave industry value chain, domestic brands have now generally expanded to high-end, further squeezing the survival space of foreign brands. In the past three years, some foreign brands have been from microwave ovens. High-end market exit."

Faced with the current increase in energy efficiency for manufacturers, input-output ratio is not attractive enough, so manufacturers are not willing to produce, and make the store has no goods to sell the market status, the reporter learned from a domestic brand electrical head office, to expand the small The value of the home appliance industry includes two aspects. They are expanding the value of household appliances from the perspective of expanding consumer use value and expanding the value of the industry value chain. For example, the microwave oven can be changed from a simple heating tool to “satisfy nutrition, health, and rapid intelligence, integrated cooking platform, and expand the food chain, processing chain, service chain and other links.

Market structure changes

Data show that in the first quarter of this year, the small home appliance market fell 5.2% year-on-year, but it did not hinder the leading domestic appliance companies to accelerate the deployment of small home appliances. During the visit, the reporter also found that in Suning, Gome stores and many home appliances online malls, the average selling price of Midea microwave ovens has reached 700-900 yuan. In addition, according to statistics from the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, currently occupy the Chinese microwave oven market. Nissan, the two giants with a share of 90% and more than 70% of the global microwave oven market, has announced that it will stop production and sales of low-end microwave ovens. Midea announced that it will stop selling microwave ovens under 399 yuan in department store supermarkets and stop selling products under 599 yuan in home appliance chain systems. Galanz stated that it no longer puts three or five hundred yuan of low-end microwave oven products into home appliance stores, which undoubtedly confirms the trend of small home appliances towards high-end development.

In fact, the phenomenon of the over-ageing of small home appliances in the ancient city is serious. Many families have spare parts such as refrigerators and washing machines. Xi'an, an ancient city in the period of accelerated urbanization, is constrained by factors such as slow industrial upgrading and high prices of energy-saving products, and the speed of adoption of high-efficiency and energy-saving appliances is lagging behind that of developed cities. This industry generally believes that in this context, the state issued energy subsidies policy, on the one hand the policy hopes to guide consumers to purchase energy-saving home appliances, to enjoy high-quality home appliances experience life at a relatively affordable price, on the other hand through the The support of leading companies in the industry promotes industrial restructuring. The future of high-efficiency and energy-saving appliances will become the driving force for industrial restructuring and upgrading, and gradually occupy the market share.