Competitive situation in the home appliance industry

In the first half of 2020, the outbreak of the new Crown pneumonia epidemic seriously affected the home appliance market, but with the epidemic prevention and control of the development of a good trend and the landing of various consumer policies in effect, manufacturers and merchants to actively adjust the measures in place, the home appliance industry's production, sales one after another to return to normal, and the market demand has gradually recovered;

At the same time, the advantage of the whole industrial chain to China's home appliance manufacturing industry to more overseas orders. According to the General Administration of Customs data show that in 2020, China's home appliance industry exports since June began to rebound strongly. The annual cumulative export value of 66.128 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 23.5 percent.

Industry economic efficiency slightly down

According to the Bureau of Statistics, in 2020, the home appliance industry's main business income of 1.48 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 1.06%, and the amount of profits of 115.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 5.61%. In the first quarter of 2020, the industry's operating situation is very grim situation, since April continued to improve, the year as a whole basically make up for the loss of the first quarter.

From the sub-sector perspective, the refrigerator, freezer, represented by the refrigeration industry to recover faster, air conditioning by the "cool summer" and the epidemic under the installation of the adverse impact of the performance of the weaker, beauty and health care, as well as the kitchen appliances industry in the epidemic period to achieve positive growth. The changes in these segments fully reflect the new changes in consumer demand for home life during the epidemic.

Sub large and small appliances, large appliances, in addition to air conditioning, refrigerators, freezers, washing machines and other products during the year's output has turned positive. Refrigerator and freezer production growth mainly from the export orders of the fire; small appliances, export orders accounted for a relatively high proportion of vacuum cleaners, electric baking, microwave ovens and other products have also increased significantly.

Retail market size shrinks year by year

In 2019, affected by the macroeconomic slowdown, the real estate policy continues to tighten and other factors, superimposed on China's large home appliance market has entered the inventory competition stage dominated by the demand for updating, the size of China's home appliance retail market has been a small drop. CICOM data show that the overall retail sales of China's home appliance market for the whole of 2019 amounted to 892 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 3.88%.

The new crown epidemic in 2020 added to the already weak market, with retail sales falling nearly 40% in the first quarter. With the domestic epidemic under good control, the market demand gradually recovered, according to Aowei Yunwang monitoring data, the industry's retail sales for the whole year is about 708.3 billion yuan, down 11.1% year-on-year, and the demand in the second half of the year is basically comparable to that of 2019.

From the point of view of subcategories, in 2020, in addition to the refrigerator market demand is flat, the rest of the categories are different degrees of decline. In contrast, the epidemic to the life of small home appliances brought demand. 2020, the first half of the year, cooking class small kitchen appliances such as air fryer, frying machine, etc., cleaning class small home appliances such as vacuum cleaners, electric mop, etc., personal care class small home appliances such as hair clippers, personal massage equipment, etc., driven by the "house economy" sales soared in the second half of the year, although there is a decline, the annual growth rate remained in the double digits. Growth rate remains in double digits. Among them, the dishwasher against the trend of growth, annual sales increase of more than 25%.

Online sales gradually become mainstream

With the increase in the popularity of online retailing and professional e-commerce in logistics, distribution, installation, after-sales service optimization, the accelerated integration of online and offline, more and more home appliance manufacturers through strategic cooperation with professional e-commerce to enhance the online market share of their products.

Data from CICOM shows that online sales of major domestic home appliances have reached 40% of the overall channel in 2019, a further increase of 6 percentage points over the same period last year.

According to information from Aowei Yun.com, in this particular situation in 2020, the retail market has fully transitioned to a new pattern in which the online market dominates and the offline market assists. Even air conditioning, electric water heaters, such as large appliances that need to be installed above, the proportion of its online channel has accounted for more than 50%.

Home appliance export market growth against the trend

According to data from the General Administration of Customs, in 2020, China's home appliance industry exports have rebounded strongly since June. The cumulative export value for the year totaled $66.128 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.5 percent.

In 2020, under the new crown epidemic, China's home appliance exports are still growing strongly, mainly because, although the epidemic continues to spread overseas, some of China's main export countries have become the "hardest-hit", but social alienation brought about by home life and the destruction of the overseas supply chain to some of China's home appliance exports brought Opportunities, such as refrigerators and freezers, coupled with Chinese home appliance enterprises to actively explore emerging markets in ASEAN, the government to speed up the introduction of policies to stabilize foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce and overseas e-commerce channels such as the rapid development of China's home appliance industry exports to form support.

From the segmentation point of view, in 2020, domestic large and small home appliances have continued since the third quarter of the positive trend of growth, and the growth rate continues to expand, parts and components exports are the same as last year. Sub-regional point of view, in 2020, China's home appliance industry to Asia, Europe, North America, the three major economic zones export growth rate are the highest in the year, and the size of the record high; Latin America continues to improve; Africa's growth rate for the first time turned positive.

Market Development Outlook 2021

2021, the home appliance industry is still facing a high rate of traditional home appliance retention, the new demand is limited background, coupled with the entire domestic consumption enthusiasm is not activated, the industry in 2021 is difficult to appear in the whole category, the whole platform of the scene of the sharp rise. The greater probability will continue the traditional categories of restorative growth, emerging categories of high-speed growth of the differentiation trend.

-- For more data and analysis, please refer to the China Home Appliance Industry In-depth Research and Investment Strategy Planning Analysis Report by Prospect Industry Research Institute.