China's washing and disinfection market in 2022 will be mixed: dishwashers will grow steadily, and retail sales of disinfection cabinets will suffer

The year 2022 has come to an end. In the context of the overall downturn in the household appliance market, the dishwasher and disinfection cabinet market is half happy and half worried. On the one hand, dishwashers, as an emerging category, have maintained steady growth and become the category with the best growth in the kitchen electricity industry; On the other hand, the retail sales and retail sales of the disinfection cabinet market have both declined throughout the year. With the development of multifunctional dishwashers for disinfection, drying and storage, the replacement of dishwashers for disinfection cabinets is becoming more and more obvious.

According to the total data of AVC, the total retail sales of all channels in the washing market will be 13.4 billion yuan in 2022, down 3.6% year on year, including 10.25 billion yuan in the dishwasher market, up 2.9% year on year; The retail sales of disinfection cabinet market was 3.15 billion yuan, down 19.7% year on year.

Industry experts pointed out that the dishwasher and the disinfection cabinet are both the demand for improvement, which is both the substitution relationship and the coexistence relationship. Although the disinfection cabinet has been used as three major kitchen appliances in parallel with the smoke cooker in the past few years, its penetration rate is far less than that of the smoke cooker. With the improvement of consumers' awareness of food health and safety, the two essential attributes of professional disinfection and sterile storage of disinfection cabinets are enlarging. In the long run, the positioning of the dishwasher should be higher, the disinfection cabinet should not be abandoned, and the increment should be made, and there will be a recovery in the short term.

Dishwasher product iterative upgrade

After several years of development, dishwashers have blossomed in function and form. Consumption upgrading has promoted the popularity of improved demand. Dishwasher, a "hands free" and "time saving" product, will continue to rise in popularity in 2022. According to the total data of AVC, the overall scale of dishwashers in 2022 will be 1.897 million units, 10.25 billion yuan, and the retail volume will drop 2.8% year on year; Retail sales increased 2.9% year-on-year.

There are obvious complementarities and differentiation among the subdivided styles in the dishwasher. Embedded is still the main type of enterprise, and its share continues to expand; It is worth noting that the layout of integrated dishwashers has accelerated and increased rapidly. According to the monitoring data of AVC, in 2022, the online retail sales of integrated dishwashers accounted for 7.1%, which continued to increase for three consecutive years, and the number of new products launched in 2022 ranked first.

The number of large sets of products of 15 or more in line with the consumption habits of Chinese people has increased rapidly. At present, dishwasher products are constantly being upgraded iteratively, and the localization process of dishwasher is also moving forward according to the actual use needs of Chinese consumers. How to better cater to the use habits of Chinese users, improve the user experience and accelerate the penetration into Chinese families has become the focus of enterprises. In this context, the share of large-capacity products in line with the purchasing trend in the Chinese market has further increased. In terms of the number of sets, the trend of large number of dishwashers remains the same. According to the monitoring data of AVC, in 2022, the retail sales of 15 sets and more products in the online dishwasher market will account for 23.5%, an increase of 10 percentage points over the same period last year; The retail sales of 15 sets of products and above in the offline market accounted for 18.0%, an increase of 15.1 percentage points over the same period last year.

Dishwasher products are upgraded to multi-function, energy-saving, intelligent and convenient. In recent years, residents have a strong demand for upgrading household appliances, and high-quality products that can "free hands" are favored. Dishwasher, as an "imported product", has become one of the "three new kitchen items" of more and more families after localized improvement.

Ovi Cloud believes that at present, the upgrading direction of dishwasher products mainly includes the following three aspects: First, similar to the development path of washing machines, dishwashers are also developing from single function to multi-function, split and integrated coexistence. At present, the integration of washing, sterilization, drying and storage has become one of the main selling points of new dishwasher products, and has been carrying out functional innovation in disinfection upgrading, long-term bacteriostatic storage and other aspects. However, as a product that liberates both hands, the penetration rate of dishwashers in China is far lower than that of washing machines. Therefore, how to do a good job in market cultivation and let more users experience dishwashers may be an effective means to accelerate the further expansion of dishwashers.

Second, under the "lazy man economy", one-machine multi-purpose, convenient and self-cleaning products are popular. While multifunctional dishwashers are popular, more types of dishwashers for washing products are also widely concerned. Self-cleaning and intelligent upgrading make the operation of products more simple and convenient, and are also further favored by consumers who seek to free their hands under the "lazy economy". Therefore, for dishwasher brands, making dishwasher operation more "easy" and "hands-free" is still one of the main directions of future upgrading.

Third, in 2022, the state issued a number of measures to promote the renovation of green smart appliances, and the energy-saving and intelligent dishwashers became the new trend of product upgrading. At present, the energy-saving upgrading mainly includes water efficiency, layered/zone washing, variable frequency motor, etc., while the intelligent upgrading mainly focuses on human-computer interaction, intelligent washing, etc., to provide users with more efficient, efficient and humanized intelligent solutions for dish washing and drying. Enterprises can seize the opportunity of the "old for new" policy of household appliances and cultivate new growth points of consumption with green and intelligent new products.

Retail sales of disinfection cabinets fell by 20%

According to the overall data of AVC, the overall scale of disinfection cabinets in 2022 will be 3.451 million, 3.15 billion yuan, and the retail volume will decrease by 24.8% year on year; Retail sales fell by 19.7% year-on-year, close to 20%.

As one of the old three-piece sets of professional kitchen appliances, the disinfection cabinet is essentially an improved product. If there is no rapid penetration of dishwasher, the decline of the disinfection cabinet may remain at the same level as the range hood. According to Ovi Cloud, the first reason for the decline of disinfection cabinet is that it is not well separated from the dishwasher category, and the specialty, storage and other attributes of the category are not enlarged in time; Second, we did not do a good job in timely industrial upgrading. The data shows that the proportion of retail sales of disinfection cabinets and range hoods is much higher than that of retail sales. In 2015, the proportion of retail sales of disinfection cabinets and range hoods was 21.9% and 13.9%, while by 2022, the proportion of retail sales of disinfection cabinets and range hoods was 18.8% and 10.6%. Similarly, this is also the opportunity for disinfection cabinets to cope with the new era of stock dominance in the future.

The disinfection cabinet further strengthens the characteristics of professional disinfection and storage. From the perspective of function, the current disinfection cabinet is constantly expanding the unique attributes of professional disinfection and sterile storage. For example, the new product with three layers and three drawers that will be launched in 2022. At present, the main partition between disinfection cabinet and dishwasher includes two-star disinfection, partition storage, etc. Enterprises should further amplify these core features, and do a good job of separating and rolling in categories.

Referring to the development experience of ice bars and freezers, disinfection cabinets have also begun to break through the constraints of single functions and try to integrate multiple functions, including integrated warming function, cold storage function, cold food sterilization, etc., to meet the diversified disinfection and storage needs of consumers. In the future, with the upgrading of consumption, high-end disinfected food bars may enter more families and further promote the upgrading of fashionable and healthy life.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the national health awareness has been improved, and the disinfection scene has expanded from the kitchen to the whole house. At the same time, new disinfection categories are rising rapidly, especially after the opening of the prevention and control policy in December 2022, the notes of air disinfection machines, ozone machines, and disinfection spray guns on the Little Red Book show an explosive rise. Ovi Cloud expects that in the post-epidemic era, consumers' demand for disinfection appliances will increase in volatility, and various disinfection markets targeted at segments of the population will also be gradually developed.

According to the forecast data of AVC, the overall scale of dishwashers in 2023 will be 2.06 million sets and 11.5 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 8.7% in retail sales; Retail sales increased by 12.5% year on year, and dishwashers will continue to grow at a high rate. In 2023, the overall scale of disinfection cabinets will be 2.92 million units and 2.9 billion yuan, with a year-on-year decrease of 15.5% in retail sales; Retail sales fell by 8.5% year on year, and the downward trend of disinfection cabinet will slow down.