'At present, China's household electrical appliance industry has developed into a turning point. On the one hand, consumer attitudes have improved from good to bad. On the other hand, the continuous increase in the penetration rate of home appliance online market has brought about new changes in the format. 'Ou Yun, vice president of cloud network, said that With the increase in the proportion of online high-end home appliance sales, the online home appliance market is already no longer a price drop, and the current marketing rhythm has grown to a state of ubiquity. The upstream and downstream areas of home appliances need more innovation to promote the entire industry. Continual advance.
On April 24th, under the guidance of the National Institute of Industrial Information Security Development Research Center, Beijing Xinhaiwei Information Center, together with Ovid Cloud Network, released “Analysis of China's May Consumer Appliances Consumption Trends in China in 2018” (hereinafter referred to as “Report”). .
In 2017, China’s domestic home appliance market showed strong development momentum. According to data from the home appliance industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China’s home appliance sales in 2017 was weaker in the past two years. The industry’s total main business revenue reached RMB 1,513.57 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18.7. %, significantly higher than the -0.4% and 3.8% levels in 2015 and 2016.
In the future, it is expected that the consumption upgrade will continue to drive the steady development of the home appliance industry, and the upgrading of traditional household appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, and air conditioners will accelerate. The prospects for emerging home appliance categories such as dishwashers, ovens, and dryers that represent consumer upgrades and quality of life are promising. The rise of new consumer hotspots in the Chinese home appliance market.
The "Report" points out that from the sales of home appliances during the "51" promotion period in 2017, it is expected that the May 1 consumption of household appliances will show the following four trends.
Weakening of traditional festival promotion functions
The traditional festival calendar is the golden period for home appliance promotion, while '51' is an important node for the promotion in the first half of the year. However, it is worth noting that in addition to the traditional promotional nodes such as 'May 1' and '11', 618, 815 , Double 11 and Double 12 have become the nodes of the general public to buy goods, and sales promotion has become increasingly normal.
Ove Cloud Network data shows that from 2014 to 2017, the online home appliance promotion frequency rose from 3 to 6 times, and the offline promotion frequency increased from 13 to 21 times. The annual promotion frequency increased significantly.
2014-2017 Annual Sales Frequency of Home Appliances (Times)
Source: AVC Total Channel Monitoring Data
In this context, sales of household appliances during the May 1st period were significantly diverted. The data shows that during the “May 1st” period, household appliance sales revenue fell sharply from two years ago. Although there was some recovery in 2017, it still There is a big gap.
One Electricity Sales in 2014-2017 (100 million yuan)
Source: AVC Total Channel Monitoring Data
Chen Si, deputy director of the research department of Beijing Xinhaiwei Information Center, believes that the normalization of promotions has caused the consumption of '51' home appliances to be diverted; on the other hand, consumer spending habits are changing, '51', '11 ' The traditional home improvement season will drive sales to climb, but with 80,90 becoming the main group of consumers, they are faced with diversified choices such as 'May Day' travel. Buying household appliances is no longer the only priority during the May 1st period.
Therefore, under the dual pressure of intensive promotions and customary changes, the promotion rhythm of home appliances '51' is changing, and the promotion peak is moved to the middle or end of April. From the perspective of sales platform promotion from April 2018 to now, it is expected that this year. '51' will continue this trend.
Online into the '51' sales home consumption upgrade led to changes in channel functions
"Report" believes that the phenomenon of online and offline integration of household appliances in the online consumer performance is more obvious, the focus reflects the online consumer electronics consumer market is hot.
During the period 2015-2016, the sales of online home appliances and offline home appliance sales converged. During the May 1st period of 2016, online home appliance sales have greatly exceeded the sales of offline home appliances. By May 2017, during the May 1st period, Online home appliance sales not only surpassed sales of offline home appliances, but also surpassed sales of home appliances sold during the May 1st period in 2014.
The sales volume of online and offline appliances between May and May in 2014-2017 (Unit: 10,000 units)
Source: AVC Total Channel Monitoring Data
In this context, the functions and identities of online and offline channels have undergone tremendous changes. Online channels have become ubiquitous home appliance sales outlets, and offline channels have become an indispensable home field for home appliance experiences.
In the past, as long as online channel functions were embodied in providing consumers with inquiries and understanding functions and other aspects of experience in advance, and as consumers sought to increase the quality of high-quality home appliances, online pre-experience functions have been declining, and they have become sellers. Where the scene took place, and the offline experience became stronger and stronger. Jingdong opened a large area offline appliance store, Super Experience Store, is a good example.
On the other hand, offline home appliance vendors are also actively expanding into the online market, resulting in offline sales being partially transferred to online sales, which together promote the growth of online home appliance sales. Suning has evolved from a single physical store to an online presence. Mobile terminal, PC terminal, TV terminal, and Suning eCommerce Life Plaza are under the line. Online and offline convergence accelerates and continues to meet the user expectations of product experience.
The proportion of high-end home appliances is rising. The electricity supplier is no longer the price.
According to the sales of online home appliances during the May 1st promotion period in recent years, the trend toward high-end home appliance consumption has become increasingly apparent. According to data provided by AVC, the online 4K during the May 1st period. The sales and sales of high-end appliances such as TVs, inverter air-conditioners, multi-door refrigerators and drum-drying washing machines have all greatly increased. In addition, emerging household appliance categories such as dishwashers, ovens, and dryers With more and more attention from online consumers, it is expected that in 2018, it will still be the active period for the high-speed growth of e-commerce, which focuses on the high-end market.
The proportion of high-end home appliance sales in the May-May period between 2014 and 2017
Source: AVC Total Channel Monitoring Data
The high-end trend of consumer electronics consumption has become more apparent in the sales of single-appliance appliances. Take JD.com as an example. During the “May 1st” promotion of JD.com platform from 2015 to 2017, the high-end TV with over RMB 4,000, air-conditioner, refrigerator, smoke stove, and 3000 For the high-end washing machines above RMB 1, the proportion of inter-season sales of gas water heaters increased year by year. The growth rate of refrigerators, washing machines, and smoked stoves for gas water heaters more than doubled, reflecting the market trend of high-end consumer electronics.
'In fact the online e-commerce platform is not a price drop.' Han Hao said that the increase in the proportion of e-commerce sales and e-commerce sales of high-end home appliances can promote the healthy development of the industry.
The increase in sales of high-end home appliances in the e-commerce platform has objectively promoted the pace of transformation and upgrading of consumer and physical enterprises. On the one hand, e-commerce transparency of product information and customer evaluation can allow consumers to more clearly understand the parameters of high-end home appliances. And user experience, eliminate information asymmetry between new products and consumers, shorten the market acceptance cycle of high-end products and new products, and promote consumption upgrade; On the other hand, with the help of abundant big data, online e-commerce will make consumers Depth demand is passed to home appliance brand companies. Targeted product development and innovation form a de facto entity feedback and empowerment.
Continuous improvement of ancillary services Online services to promote service improvement across the industry
The popularity of the online home appliance market has largely depended on the optimization of e-commerce service levels. In recent years, while the online sales platform has developed downwards, it has also focused on the improvement of service quality throughout the entire sales process. This not only enhances Consumers trust the online platform and contribute to the overall quality of consumer services.
Online service optimization and its role are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, we strongly promoted the quality of pre-sales customer service. Jingdong Big Data platform showed that after the customer service consultation, the consumer who purchased the household electrical appliance product was 5 times as many as the user who purchased the product silently, indicating that the consumer's expectation of the pre-sales customer service is constantly increasing.
The second is that precision marketing reduces consumer transaction costs. The e-commerce platform can provide targeted precision marketing to consumers through the big data analysis and cloud computing processing provided by information systems, and increase the likelihood of consumers purchasing again.
The third is to optimize the logistics and distribution services. For example, JD.com's 'Ultimate Speed' distribution service can deliver goods at a faster rate. JD.com's 'Celestial Project' can achieve full coverage of county-level logistics and help improve county-level logistics. People in the following areas live.
The fourth is to optimize the service level of home appliance after-sales service management. Perfect the after-sales service system for household appliances, including cleaning, repair, maintenance, testing, and recycling, and reconstruct the service process for major appliances, which greatly reduces the time consumed by consumers in the later stage of home appliance service. And energy.
As Han Wei, AVC's vice president, said: 'Transparent one-stop service not only greatly reduces the time and effort consumers spend on home appliance services, but also means that consumers can master more comprehensive home appliances. Information and user evaluation, etc. This means that market power is more tilted towards consumers. There is no doubt that this is an inevitable trend and direction of development for China's home appliance market in the future. It is crucial to improve the sense of well-being and sense of acquisition of consumers' home networks.