Recently, the stock market news showed that the abosin shares behind the well-known small household appliance brand "abosin" were sold by funds going north for five consecutive days, with a cumulative net sales of 82.9749 million yuan. In addition, its margin trading balance on December 1 decreased by 1.8778 million yuan to 194 million yuan compared with yesterday. It should be noted that if the financing balance increases for a long time, it means that the investor's mentality is biased towards the buyer, and the market sentiment is strong. On the contrary, it is a weak market.

Last year, the "housing economy" brought about by the epidemic gave birth to a wave of consumption climax of small household appliances. However, as life returned to normal, the performance of the small household appliance market this year failed to meet the expectations of investors. Facing the departure of funds, the small household appliance industry has fallen into a calm period.

From spring to winter
Last year, the performance of the small household appliance industry was quite remarkable: according to the report on China's household appliance market in the first half of 2020 issued by China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute, China's household appliance market decreased by 14.13% year-on-year in the current period, but the small household appliance industry increased by 12.4% year-on-year with an online retail sales of 78 billion yuan. In the second half of the year, the turnover of 313 small household appliance brands in tmall mall increased by more than 1000% over the same period last year in the first hour of double 11.

As the saying goes, the higher you climb, the worse you fall. When epidemic prevention is normalized, the non rigid properties of small appliances are exposed: new small appliances such as air fryer, mini oven and breakfast machine have become the items with the highest idle rate in the kitchen. Many consumers said: "at the beginning, they basically used it every day, which lasted about two weeks, and they didn't use it anymore." while when entering the second-hand trading platform, "it only took five times" and "90% new" are everywhere.

Market data also support the "fever reduction" of the consumption fever of small household appliances: according to the data of Aowei cloud, the retail sales of domestic small household appliances decreased by 8.6% year-on-year in the first half of this year. From July 19 to July 25, the online sales of small kitchen appliances such as soybean milk machine, juicer and health pot suffered a month on month decline. Clean small household appliances are one of the few small household appliances that maintain sales growth.

Even in the second half of the double 11, small household appliances still failed to return to the peak. According to the statistics of Debang securities, there is a sharp contrast between the pre-sale volume of double 11 kitchen appliances and the total sales volume of 618. "The overall consumer demand is slightly weak this year. The high-end consumer demand continues to be strong, but the consumption of the public is becoming more and more rational". In the investment proposal given by deppon securities, small household appliances in the mass consumer market are not considered.

The third quarter summary of the home appliance industry released by Shanghai Shenyin Wanguo Securities shows that although the revenue of the small home appliance sector increased by 8.55% year-on-year, the net profit attributable to the parent company was 2.619 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.37%, and the gross profit margin also fell to 29.94% year-on-year - "the revenue growth rate fell month on month, and the performance side continued to be under pressure".
This fatigue is also shown in the financial reports of various companies.

According to the financial report of Xiaoxiong electric in the third quarter of 2021, the company achieved a revenue of RMB 731 million in the third quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 6.29%, while the revenue of Xiaoxiong electric in the first three quarters of 2021 was RMB 2.365 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 5.32%.

SUPOR's revenue in Q3 in 2021 only increased by 2.22%, and its net profit decreased by 9.40%; Jiuyang's revenue and net profit in 2021q3 fell by 9.35% and 6.42% respectively.

According to the financial report data of Xinbao electric in 2021, the company realized a total profit of 744597300 yuan in the first three quarters of 2021, a decrease of 33.75% over the same period in 2020; The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company was 594.8573 million yuan, a decrease of 34.63% over the same period in 2020; The net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company after deducting non recurring profits and losses was 530244500 yuan, a decrease of 36.56% over the same period in 2020; The basic earnings per share was 0.7199 yuan / share, a decrease of 36.60% over the same period in 2020.

With the arrival of winter in 2021, the "winter" of small household appliance industry has also come. Next, small household appliance enterprises will face how to recover disappointed investors.

Looking for "new firewood" for winter
In addition to the demand problem, small household appliances are also facing rising costs this year.

The mismatch between supply and demand in the upstream of production caused by the epidemic and other reasons has led to the soaring prices of various production components from coal to steel, which has caused great pressure on the cost side of the household appliance industry. Taking the big head plastic as an example, its price rose by nearly 30% year-on-year in April this year, and the price of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) even reached the highest point in recent ten years.

For complete machine enterprises, the actual impact of the rise in the price of raw materials lags behind, which is reflected in the wrong period in the financial data. This also means that the cost problem may perplex household appliance enterprises for some time. Compared with large household appliances, the price of small household appliances is low and the bargaining space is insufficient. Under the pressure of the two aspects, the profitability of enterprises becomes more and more prominent.

At the same time, the cost dilemma also exposed the disadvantages of small household appliance enterprises focusing on marketing and neglecting R & D. According to the financial report of Xiaoxiong electric in the third quarter, the sales expense was 368 million yuan, accounting for more than 50% of the revenue, much higher than the R & D expense rate of 12.6%. Among the three major expenditures of sales, management and R & D, R & D investment is also the lowest.

Technological R & D innovation has always been the core of the manufacturing industry, which is also the weakness of many online small household appliance enterprises. An enterprise that quickly rose and caught fire on the Internet began to release new products violently. Most of them did not have time to develop leading core technologies. It was nothing more than patchwork of hardware and slight modification of appearance, and then formed a composite product. In the long run, if you can't stop the plagiarism and imitation of your peers, the products won't be competitive at all.

Now, in front of the small household appliance industry, perhaps the only way to go is intelligence. Industry experts predict that the arrival of the era of the Internet of things will subvert our cognition of the traditional family state, household appliances will move from independence to interconnection, and the whole home ecology will be simplified to be controlled by a smart home entrance. This requires the traditional manufacturing industry to cooperate with high-tech enterprises such as the Internet with a more open mind to jointly build the software and hardware required by the smart family. Small household appliances are small in size and easy to modify, so they are suitable to be the vanguard of industry innovation.

According to the report released by International Data Corporation (IDC), it is estimated that by 2025, the global Internet of things market will reach US $1.1 trillion, of which the Chinese market will account for 25.9%, ranking first in the scale of the global Internet of things market. Under such a technical background, the trend of intelligent and digital transformation of the home industry will become more and more significant. In small household appliances, smart home products such as sweeping robots, sweeping and towing machines and projectors have gradually become the darling of the market. According to ovicloud, in the first half of 2021, the sales volume of floor sweeping robots reached 2.8 million units, and the retail scale was 5.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 39%. This brings a good example for other small household appliance enterprises.

Industry insiders said that curiosity can only bring a temporary consumption boom. Only products that truly form technical advantages and meet the actual needs of consumers can gain recognition for a long time. When the industry enters the stage of scouring the sand, in the crowded track of small household appliances, enterprises need to find new growth points and more solid advantages.