From the winter of 2017, the Chinese air purifier industry can no longer enjoy the good time of lying and making money.
On the one hand, after experiencing barbaric growth and staking their enclaves, the air-to-ground market is facing a slowdown in scale growth and a new turning point for brand reshuffling. On the other hand, there are numerous speculators, and brand and product quality problems are frequent. The goodwill of users on the industry and products; In addition, the quiet rise of the new wind industry is also dispersing a part of the consumption demand of the vacant net market.
It can be said that in the face of positive, the negative is the pattern of 'fair'. The air purifier market entering the second half is not good.
Status Quo: The bad news of the empty net market one by one
A-side and B-side are negative information, and the fundamental consumer demand that affects the development of the industry is also changing with the emergence of more and more blue skies.
Some organizations have predicted that: In 2017, the sales of air purifiers in China could reach 100 billion yuan, which is an absolute 100 billion-class market. However, the actual market data is far from this optimistic estimate.
Data from a number of third-party agencies: In 2017, the total size of China's air purifier retail market was around 15 billion to 16 billion yuan, a year-on-year slowdown. In the fourth quarter, it was recognized that the empty net sales season was not without heat. Sales, on the contrary, saw a sharp drop from the same period of last year, and the inflection point of the market scale began to appear. By the first quarter of 2018, this turning point was already very obvious.
The data for the first quarter of 2018 shows: The net sales volume was 1.513 million units, a year-on-year drop of over 30%; the sales amount was 2.97 billion yuan, which was a year-on-year decline of over 40%. A recognized trend: the phenomenon of haze bursting with the same period last year Compared with the good air quality in the first quarter of this year, it caused the size of the air and net market to fall.
The so-called 'air-failure is also the air'. However, the underlying cause of the weak market actually originated from the gradual return of consumers’ willingness to purchase. In 2013 and 2014, when the air-to-ground market began to prosper, it was the public who fell into the fog. When the "unprecedented panic", the selling point of the empty net product is almost not rendered, only the function of 'removing PM2.5' is enough to attract the purchase.
As the public opinion environment of 'smoke and fierceness over tigers' has become the past tense, most empty net companies have focused their marketing tactics on 'psychological appeal'. However, the lack of product and technology forge development status will no longer capture the users' hearts. In addition, the development of the air-to-ground market is fast, and the popularity of first-tier cities is high. However, the limited space for the release of the second-tier and third-tier cities is limited, which also makes the development of the air-cleaning industry face severe limitations.
Breakthrough: How to make the second half empty net market go
The past quarter has clearly set the tone for the entire air-to-ground market in 2018: 'broadening' is much larger than 'good'. The industry itself is even more worrisome.
The newly announced results of national supervision and spot checks on product quality of air purifiers show that: The quality of air-purified products is not optimistic. There are 23 uncertified samples in 80 batches, and the unqualified rate is as high as 28.7%. Among them, big brands such as Mitsubishi and Mitsubishi are also on the list. The black list. This more or less reflects the 'negligence in the development of air and barbarism'. With more demand and more business opportunities, the market is difficult to guarantee.
In addition to the market performance in the first quarter of 2018, the proportion of the mid-to-end and even mid- to low-end products has increased substantially. The reason is that in addition to price reduction and inventory stimuli, the homogeneity of products and the lack of innovation are also the underlying factors. Since the beginning of this year, with the decrease of the average price of the entire air-cleaning industry, the product profit margin will be further reduced. If the product quality is not guaranteed, the entire industry will easily fall into an unhealthy cycle.
Although there are many negative factors in the current industry, the air purifier market is not without opportunities. The first thing that needs to be done is that the industry strengthens its guidance on consumption concepts. In order to cater to hot-spot marketing, the air-cleaning industry over-emphasized the dangers of particulate pollutants. It has become a type of 'seeing to eat on earth'. In fact, except for haze, it is only a part of the function of an empty net product, and in addition to formaldehyde, and microorganisms are also important functions.
If we can reverse the situation in which consumers equate the air purifier with the PM2.5 demarcation, and combine products with formaldehyde, viruses, allergens, and other factors to increase the conversion rate of home-purchasing power, it will be able to pull a certain consumption space again. .
Of course, the concept of guiding consumers is just one of them. Product upgrading and differentiated innovation are the key to the development of the industry. With the introduction of new national standards for air purifiers and the upcoming release of filter-related standards, the promotion of energy efficiency upgrades for empty net products will be held in 2018. The booming market has gradually started in the middle of the year. It is hoped that the improvement of technology threshold will urge enterprises to innovate, provide the possibility of revolutionary subversion and upgrade for industry standardization and product upgrading, and also release more room for market renewability.
At present, there are 400 air purifier brands on the market, and there are also more than 700 opinions, but the activity is high is only about 100. In the current professional air clean brands, traditional household appliance manufacturers, Internet brands in the three camps, although each All have their competitive advantages, but in the future, the strong household appliance brands like Haier, Midea, Gree will have more advantages, brand concentration will increase, Matthew effect will be significant, and the final test will certainly be comprehensive innovations in terms of products, marketing models, etc.
According to optimistic estimates, the size of the air-to-net market this year is roughly the same as 2017, and even slightly lower. However, if we return to the data, the market penetration of air-cleaned products in the United States and Japan is already as high as 27% and 17%. It is up to 70%. In contrast, there is only a single digit in China. The potential market space is self-evident.
It can be said that the new iteration of the air-to-air market is about to start, and the industry will gradually adapt to new demands and establish a new order for healthy development. How do you fight in the second half? Are air purifier manufacturers really ready?