The children's market continues to heat up, can home appliances take a share?

As one of the sub markets for home appliances, children's home appliances have always been a place where brands are trying to dig gold. Last year, with the Ministry of Education announcing that labor courses have officially become an independent course for primary and secondary schools, requiring primary and secondary students to learn cooking and home appliance maintenance, children's kitchen appliances have also received a wave of attention. With the arrival of the annual Children's Day, a group of brand merchants have also launched various promotional and promotional activities around "children's consumption". So, what will be the performance of children's household appliances?

Home appliances "take the lead" in children's growth

As the "post-90s" and "post-00s" become the main force of the new generation of parents, they have their own consumption and parenting views as they grow up with the internet. Scientific and exquisite parenting are their beliefs, and unlike the older generation who like to "do everything themselves", they are more willing to use various scientific tools to help raise children, which is reflected in daily life, from small household appliances such as children's desk lamps and children's food machines, From children's washing machines, children's refrigerators, children's televisions, and other household appliances, we have everything we need.

According to the "85 Generation Scientific Baby Care Atlas" released by JD Home Appliances, the proportion of mother and baby home appliance consumers has reached 34%, supporting one-third of the world's home appliance consumption. On average, parents are willing to pay an additional 100 yuan for the new mother and baby functions provided by home appliances. In terms of choosing household appliances, Baoda prefers large appliances such as refrigerators, televisions, and air conditioners, while Baoma prefers small appliances such as hair dryers and electric kettles. Many novice parents have stated that they have already prepared small household appliances for mothers and babies, such as warm milk heaters and automatic breast pumps, before their children are born, and will also prepare to purchase various children's household appliances as their children grow up.

From the perspective of products, the common feature of children's home appliances is that they all have cute patterns and colors on the appearance of the products, or they use a certain cartoon character as a co name. Under the effect of children's "love for their house and their daughter", if they like an IP, they will also love the related products of that IP; From a functional perspective, children's household appliances are closely related to their health and safety, and functional refinement has been made for this special group of children. For example, a certain children's air conditioner currently on e-commerce platforms has added a child voice system, allowing children to have conversations and tell stories through AI; In terms of health, a children's exclusive sleep mode has been added, allowing personalized sleep curves to be set to prevent children from catching cold; For example, children's washing machines focus on health and sterilization functions, and some even add special washing functions such as removing milk stains.

In terms of price, the author found that products labeled as "children's home appliances" are priced tens to hundreds or even thousands of yuan higher than similar products of the same brand. Many parents believe that paying a premium for the sake of their children is acceptable; Some parents also believe that with the opening of the three child policy, children's household appliances can be left to the "second" when the "first" is used up, and to the "third" when the "second" is used up. Children's household appliances can be considered cost-effective.

Thorns still exist

It is worth noting that last autumn, the "Labor Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education (2022 Edition)" was officially implemented, and labor courses became an independent course in primary and secondary schools. Many children's kitchenware were popular online platforms, and apart from being smaller in size, these children's kitchenware did not differ much from real kitchen appliances or kitchenware in terms of functionality. When asked about the safety of children's kitchenware, merchants have varying opinions. Some claim that it is a toy, some claim that it belongs to household appliances, and some claim that the kitchenware is made of food grade materials, making the rice edible. In this regard, some industry insiders believe that children's kitchenware has three types of product attributes: toys, tableware, and household appliances. Therefore, testing should be carried out based on three standard systems: children's toy standards, national standards for food contact materials and product safety, and safety standards for household and similar electrical appliances.

Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Commission released a comparative analysis report on children's authentic cooking utensils. The report showed that out of 10 batches of samples, 7 batches did not meet the relevant standard requirements. The problems include unclear product labeling, safety hazards in electrical performance, and excessive heavy metals. Among them, more than half of the samples heated by an electromagnetic furnace do not meet the requirements of the national standard. Some products have the problem of heavy metal chromium exceeding the standard in the main body of the stainless steel pot. Some products lack anti scalding design, which can easily cause burns. Some samples belong to the "three no products" category.

Regarding this, relevant staff members of the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Rights Protection Committee stated that there are many standards involved in children's kitchenware, and manufacturers should equip them with relevant execution standards, applicable age, safety warnings, and other signs or instructions in accordance with the requirements of toy products and household appliance standards.

In addition to children's kitchenware, other children's household appliances also have more or less "flaws" in the eyes of their parents. Some parents believe that after listening to the promotion and purchasing a children's washing machine, the product claimed to have high-temperature sterilization function, but in actual use, there are no other settings specific to the characteristics of children's clothing except for high-temperature sterilization. Ordinary washing machines also have high-temperature sterilization function, so they feel that purchasing a children's washing machine is not necessary.

In terms of safety, according to GB4706.1-2005 "Safety of Household and Similar Electrical Appliances", the shape and decoration of the appliance shell should not make the appliance easy for children to use as a toy, to avoid the risk of electric shock and accidental ingestion of parts caused by children playing with the appliance. From this perspective, the cute appearance of children's household appliances may make them more prone to safety hazards than ordinary household appliances.

Real use or IQ tax?

Is children's household appliances a real use or a commercial gimmick?

In this regard, Home Appliance Network believes that when traditional home appliances gradually touch the ceiling, segmented products such as children's home appliances are expected to become new growth points. However, this premise is that children's home appliances cannot be just gimmicks, but do have selling points, such as the selection of materials that are more environmentally friendly and healthy, in order to truly consider children. According to survey data released by the China Children's Industry Center, 80% of households in China spend 30% to 50% of their household expenses on children. The average annual consumption of children in households is 17000 to 25500 yuan. Children's consumption has become the core of household consumption, relying on a vast children's economic market.

Some industry insiders have also stated that current children's home appliances are more like charging parents a premium of "love". In order for the industry to develop healthily, businesses still need to return to the product itself, explore the pain points of product use, and effectively solve the actual needs and pain points of mothers, infants, and children's families. For truly good products, consumers will naturally make their choices.