After the "grass planting" trend cools down, how should the small home appliance market exert its strength?

The industry's growth rate is slowing down, and the market is facing changes

After the "grass planting" trend cools down, how should the small home appliance market exert its strength?

Small appliances have sparked a trend of "planting grass" in the past few years. However, due to reasons such as infrequent use of functions, inconvenient cleaning, uneven product quality, and difficulties in maintenance, some small household appliances have become idle, and industry growth has also fallen into a bottleneck. Experts believe that the key to breaking through the small home appliance market lies in enhancing the innovation capabilities of enterprises.

Yogurt machine, egg cooker, soybean milk machine, air frying pan, health preserving pot... These small household appliances with small appearance, rich functions and relatively cheap prices have set off a wave of "grass planting" in the past few years. Many young people think that this is synonymous with the delicate "lazy life".

However, the reporter found in the interview that some small household appliances have become idle due to reasons such as infrequent use of functions, inconvenient cleaning, uneven product quality, and difficulties in maintenance.

Experts point out that after the saturation of demand in the small home appliance market, the iterative upgrading of product technology has not effectively stimulated the demand for replacement, which will affect consumer choices. Some small home appliances, due to the lack of real high-frequency usage scenarios, will also lead to insufficient development momentum in the future. The key to breaking through is to enhance the innovation capability of enterprises.

Accurately meeting needs and enhancing life happiness

After getting up, first use a blender to squeeze a glass of juice, and then put whole wheat bread into the breakfast machine. Paired with tomatoes and bacon rolls to make a sandwich, a lazy breakfast is ready; Before starting work, turn on the robotic vacuum cleaner, and during your free time, you can also take some time to check the cleanliness status; After returning home, use different types of washing machines to clean clothes, turn on the night light and prepare to fall asleep... In the short videos of many lifestyle bloggers, small appliances have become an important part of home life.

"The most commonly used small household appliance for me is an independent dryer," Zou Yi, who works in Guangzhou, told reporters. The weather in Guangzhou is humid, and since she started using a dryer, her anxiety about drying clothes has been alleviated a lot. "Close fitting clothes are dried and dry, making wearing them more reassuring."

Hu Hui, who works in Beijing, frankly stated that cleaning after work is a test of willpower, so she specifically bought a robotic vacuum cleaner to free her hands. Now, she no longer has to worry about the house being covered in hair and cat hair. "This is simply a must-have for lazy people!" Hu Hui smiled.

The "2022 China Small Home Appliance User Data Insight Report" released by the 36Kr Research Institute points out that nowadays, many young people are diligent "lazy people" with knowledge and abundant income. This "lazy economy" has to some extent spurred the rise of the small home appliance industry. According to Tianyancha data, there are over 1.438 million small home appliance related enterprises in China.

The exquisite and unique appearance design of small household appliances has also attracted more and more young people to join the "grass planting" team. Liu Liu rented a 30 square meter small apartment in Beijing, and the overall decoration atmosphere leans towards a minimalist wooden style. Therefore, based on the furniture design of the whole house, she prefers home appliances with a simple style and a sense of design. "I usually choose products with low saturation colors and warm texture," Liu Liu told reporters.

Small household appliance consumption is gradually becoming rational

"Small household appliances have a low price threshold and novel features, but after impulsively placing an order, I realized that many products have a high idle rate, and even after careful calculation, I haven't spent less money." Hu Hui said that now she will be more rational when buying small household appliances.

In fact, taking kitchen small appliances as an example, according to the comprehensive channel monitoring data of Aowei Cloud Network, during this year's "6.18" promotion period, the retail sales of 14 categories of kitchen small appliances, including rice cookers, electric kettles, frying and grilling machines, electric steaming and stewing pots, and health pots, reached 2.52 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 19.3%; The retail volume reached 11.16 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 16.5%. From the perspective of data from this major promotion, the consumption of small household appliances is clearly becoming more rational.

The reporter found on a certain second-hand trading platform that nowadays, many sellers will hang up their previously used small appliances and attach words such as "almost brand new" and "urgent sale due to falling ash". Various "roast" about small household appliances are also often seen on the Internet, among which the "lightning spot" that many people care about is that they are not commonly used and do not meet their own needs.

In addition, the reporter also found in the interview that compared to large appliances, some small appliances may have problems in product quality and after-sales maintenance, which has become one of the reasons why many consumers hesitate to purchase small appliances.

On the Black Cat Complaint Platform, there are many complaints about the quality and after-sales issues of small household appliances, including abnormal noise from the small fan after just two days of use, incorrect products, and no support for 7-day no reason return.

We should strengthen differentiated innovation based on real-life scenarios

In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the "home economy" was booming, catalyzing the saturation rate of the small home appliance market. But this momentum has changed in 2021. In 2021, the market size of the small home appliance industry reached 101.7 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of only 0.99%. Overall, the industry's growth rate has slowed down. This is a set of data from the "2022 China Small Home Appliance Industry Panorama Map".

"The reasons for the changes in the small home appliance market are multifaceted." Senior industrial economic analyst Ding Shaojiang analyzed, "From the perspective of the industry itself, on the one hand, traditional small household appliances such as rice cookers and induction cookers have saturated demand, and the iterative upgrading of product technology has not effectively stimulated the demand for new products. On the other hand, emerging and popular small household appliances, after experiencing a brief surge during the epidemic, lack real high-frequency usage scenarios, reduced young people's home time, and uneven product quality, have led to insufficient development momentum in the future."

At the same time, data from Aowei Cloud Network shows that there is also a phenomenon of consumer differentiation in the small home appliance market, where products are either highly cost-effective or of higher quality.

Lai Yang, Executive Vice President of the Beijing Society of Business Economics, believes that this indicates that as the market share of small household appliances increases and consumer demand has iterated and upgraded, simple marketing and promotion can no longer significantly stimulate the purchasing desire of the public; On the other hand, it reflects that the consumption of household appliances in China is no longer just about showing off, and consumers are more pursuing intelligence and quality in their home appliance products. He believes that the key to breaking through for small home appliance enterprises lies in how to strengthen innovation and research and development efforts, and get rid of price wars caused by category homogenization.

General Ding believes that the small home appliance market attracts attention through functional segmentation. However, in practical life, its application scenarios are not daily enough. Therefore, enterprises should try to focus on specific scenarios and target audiences to make products, and strengthen differentiated innovation based on real life scenarios.

"At present, leading small home appliance enterprises are committed to creating a competitive 'moat' for brand and technology, and strengthening the layout of offline channels. Small home appliance enterprises that started with OEM are also increasingly valuing the construction of their own brands to enhance their profitability," said General Ding.