In the first half of the year, China's home appliance exports increased by 1.4% year-on-year, and the small home appliance industry welcomed opportunities

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, from January to June 2023, China exported 1728.931 million units of household appliances, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, with an export value of 296.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%. Although for China's bleak home appliance industry, achieving growth is indeed worth celebrating. However, it is not difficult to see that the recovery of foreign trade has not met the general expectations of the home appliance industry.

It is worth mentioning that the performance of the small home appliance industry is very sluggish. According to AVC's omnichannel promotion data from January to June 2023, the overall retail sales of kitchen small home appliances (including categories: coffee machines, rice cookers, induction cookers, desktop single function small ovens, and air fryers) amounted to 27.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 8.5%, and a retail sales volume of 13.101 million units, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%.

Affected by the global economic environment, raw material prices, and wars in some regions, home appliance exports have been under significant pressure since the second half of 2022, and have continued until the beginning of 2023. After entering the second quarter, under the influence of frequent high temperature weather in many parts of the world, summer cool home appliances such as air conditioners and fans have also experienced a small export peak, continuously driving the recovery of the home appliance export market.

For the entire small home appliance market, the situation remains very severe. Although the performance of the small home appliance industry is sluggish, some of the phenomena presented by the small home appliance industry are still worth looking forward to.

Firstly, there is product diversification, and emerging categories of small household appliances are deeply loved by consumers. In the field of small home appliances, almost every time there are emerging categories, such as the popularity of air fryers in the past period, which has driven the rapid development of the small home appliance market. In the first half of 2023, coffee machines became one of the key categories driving the continued development of the small home appliance market, and the retail sales of the omnichannel coffee machine category increased by 16.1% year-on-year.

In addition, the functions and performance of small household appliances are more refined. Taking sweeping robots as an example, there are sweeping machines, mopping machines, sweeping and mopping integrated machines, and water dispensers are also divided into health pots, coffee machines, milk tea machines, and so on. In addition, small household appliances such as multifunctional cooking machines, floor washers, instant water dispensers, fruit and vegetable cleaning machines, meal heating plates, and cat water feeders have all become topical small household appliances in 2022.

Secondly, small household appliances are more intelligent. In the current era where the post-90s generation has gradually become the main consumer, with the evolution of young consumers' lifestyle concepts and the upgrading of intelligent demands, there is an increasing demand for their interests, physical health, and intelligent and comfortable living. Especially for small home appliance products with intelligent programs, devices connected to IoT, and small home appliances that can be controlled through mobile phones, intelligence will undoubtedly become one of the driving forces for the development of small home appliance products in the future.

Finally, small household appliances are becoming healthier and greener. The trend of healthy small household appliances is becoming increasingly evident. With the assistance of national energy-saving and environmental protection policies, healthy and energy-saving household appliances are increasingly favored by consumers, such as mite removal devices, disinfection and sweeping integrated machines, air purifiers, etc. These healthy small household appliances will become one of the mainstream directions in the future.

Yang Fan, founder of Minmin Home Appliance Network and a senior media figure, said, "There is no shortage of market for small home appliances in China because the per capita ownership of small home appliances in China is very low compared to developed countries. With the increase in the variety of small home appliance products, the acceleration of functions, performance, and intelligence processes, it is certain to drive consumption upgrading and achieve a high breakthrough in the small home appliance market

In the future, with the improvement of living standards, various types of intelligent small appliances, daily life small appliances, and kitchen small appliances have become new favorites for consumers, and multi-functional products are all sought after by people.