The "heat wave" of small kitchen appliances last year, from wall breaking machine, soybean milk machine and mixer to air fryer, breakfast machine, health pot and electric hot pot... Under the housing economy, a wave of consumption climax of small household appliances was born. However, this enthusiasm does not seem to last until this year. Whether online or offline, the cumulative market scale of the whole kitchen small appliances this year has shown negative growth. The weak growth is even intuitively presented in the financial reports of home appliance enterprises such as Xiaoxiong electric appliance, Supor and Xinbao electric appliance. Insiders pointed out that the way to break the situation of small household appliance enterprises in the future is likely to be the refinement and intelligent development of traditional categories and the search for increment in the expansion of emerging categories.

From "placing orders decisively" to "considering carefully", the enthusiasm for small kitchen electricity consumption is declining

"It doesn't matter if you use five digits for travel. You can report the four digits of your child's cram school casually, but you have a heartache to buy a breakfast machine of 349 yuan for a long time." Ms. Luo's love for small kitchen appliances has changed from "placing orders decisively" last year to "thoughtful" this year.

Under the epidemic last year, the "house economy" rose rapidly, and the sales of small kitchen appliances "blowout" with the advantages of low unit price, easy installation and small volume. According to the data of Suning Tesco, the sales of small household appliances increased by 149% year-on-year on November 1, 2020, including the sales of "cute" small household appliances such as Midea picachu electric stew, Jiuyang line co branded soybean milk machine and little bear breakfast machine, The sales volume of self-made small household appliances increased by 799% month on month.

The customer base of small household appliances starting from selfie is dominated by women. According to the survey released by questmobile, women users in first tier cities aged 25-35 pursue a refined life and are keen to shop around. They have become the main force of small household appliance consumption.

However, small household appliances, which have gone through the barbaric growth, are "squeezing the bubble". Small kitchen appliances lack sales vitality this year, and the market has declined significantly. According to the data of ovicloud.com, from January to September 2021, the total retail sales of 12 categories of kitchen small appliances (electric rice cooker, induction cooker, electric pressure cooker, soybean milk machine, wall breaking machine, mixer, juicer, electric kettle, frying and baking machine, electric steam stew pot, health pot and desktop as a whole) were 41.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.2%; the retail sales were 182.868 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 10.6%.

Yan Leyu, a researcher of Aowei cloud kitchen small appliances, told reporters, "the performance of kitchen small appliances is also relatively cold on the double 11, so it is expected that the fourth quarter will continue to have negative growth, but the decline is narrower than before."

Growth was stuck in a bottleneck, and the profits of several small kitchen and electricity enterprises fell

Since this year, the field of small kitchen appliances has fallen into a certain growth bottleneck, and the rising cost of raw materials has also squeezed the profits of home appliance enterprises. The weakness of growth is also intuitively presented in the financial reports of various companies.

According to the financial report of Xiaoxiong electric in the third quarter of 2021, the revenue in the third quarter was 731 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.29%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 49.965 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 26.25%; In the first three quarters, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company was 189 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 41.29%. SUPOR's revenue in the third quarter was 5.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.22%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company was 375 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.4%. According to the 2021 financial report data of Xinbao electric appliance of Mofei, an overseas brand exclusively authorized by China, 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.

In Yan Leyu's view, the weakening demand for small kitchen appliances is mainly due to the fact that the core just needed category of small kitchen appliances itself has entered a saturation period. "The hot overdraft in 2020 and the rise in macro consumption environment, raw materials and prices this year have an impact on the purchase of small kitchen appliances." Yan Leyu further said that the previous epidemic has prompted consumers to stay at home. After living at home, small household appliances have become a phased just needed product, and marketing channels such as live broadcasting have significantly driven small household appliances. Since then, with the improvement of consumers' rationality and market saturation, the growth of this category has faced challenges. "

Refinement, intelligence or breaking the Bureau for small kitchen electricity

"Used less than 5 times... Find a new owner! Turn!" "Beautiful girl mother" sold the breakfast machine with the original price of 229 yuan in free fish for 100 yuan. On the second-hand trading platform, many sellers hang up small kitchen appliances that they have only used several times. The popularity of small household appliances in the first half of last year was inseparable from the online grass planting of anchors. Those small kitchen appliances that were bought eventually did not stay in the lives of young people, but went to the "pond" of idle fish.

Ms. Luo told reporters that the most tangled thing about whether to buy a breakfast machine is not the price, but the fear that after you buy it home and try it several times, you will completely fall into the dust and idle.

Low technical threshold, short supply chain, strong OEM and serious homogenization... To get rid of the decline of small kitchen appliances, the key is to really improve the scientific and technological content of enterprises. "The post-85s, post-90s and even post-00s are rapidly becoming the main consumers of household appliances in China. In 2020, nearly 60% of household appliance consumers are under the age of 35. These consumers are information consumption experts who grow up with the Internet and electronic products. They are 'new consumers' who advocate intelligence, personalization and refinement. They pay more attention to the satisfaction brought by product functions and' appearance ' Foot feeling, not price. " According to the analysis of China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute, "they are more willing to try new things, pay for quality, and lead China's home appliance consumer market into the quality era."

Yan Leyu believes that the way to break the situation of small household appliance enterprises in the future is likely to be the refinement and intelligent development of traditional categories, as well as looking for increment in the expansion of emerging categories. "At present, the categories with good performance are electric steamers, meat grinder and health pot. It is expected that they will recover compared with this year next year, but the demand is expected to show a small negative growth, and the scale of retail sales will increase slightly driven by the average price."