In June last year, Suki, a post-00s girl, started a business with her partner on TikTok Shop, and her main product is small kitchen appliances, and in less than a month, its daily sales of air fryers exceeded 1,000 orders, becoming a new seller on the platform.
Suki's experience is a microcosm of the small household appliances going to sea track. Small household appliances are small in size, free of installation, and relatively low in unit price, which is very suitable for e-commerce channels, coupled with the "home economy" during the epidemic, the global purchase tide of small household appliances, the explosive growth of sales in Europe and the United States and other markets, domestic enterprises aim overseas, and some companies have gained a firm foothold.
In the second half of 2023, the demand for overseas home appliances will rebound, the destocking of developed economies such as the United States will come to an end, coupled with the decline in inflation, the export trend of domestic home appliances will appear again, and the performance and profits of Roborock, the head seller of small household appliances, will both increase.
This "cake" is getting bigger and bigger. Statista expects the global small home appliance market to reach $254.3 billion in revenue this year, with an annual growth rate of 465%, and the sales volume of the small household appliance market will reach 40 in 20283.3 billion pieces. Small kitchen appliances account for half of the industry, with coffee machines alone reaching a $27 billion market share last year.
North America and Europe are the market leaders in small household appliances. On Amazon, eBay and other platforms, small household appliances are evergreen categories, from cleaning to kitchen appliances, from heat to heating, all kinds of small household appliances are gradually spread in the corners of overseas consumers' lives, which also makes sellers riveted to rush forward. Domestic small household appliance companies began to accelerate their overseas layout, and in February, Xiaoxiong Technology set up two cross-border e-commerce companies to handle business and seek growth.
In Shunde, Cixi, Qingdao and Hefei, the machines in the workshops of the enterprises roar, and the manufactured goods are being sold to Europe, America, Southeast Asia, Africa and other regions through e-commerce platforms and other channels.
Evergreen trees on cross-border platforms, small household appliances continue to sell well
Small household appliances have become an important export category for China's cross-border e-commerce. According to statistics, China's exports of small household appliances in 2022 will be 115 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 287%。
Overseas demand continued, and the export value of home appliances in December 2023 increased by 14% year-on-year7%。According to the data disclosed by the General Administration of Customs, the export value of bread machines, electric ovens, blenders, vacuum cleaners, toasters, rice cookers, microwave ovens, and electric coffee machines increased year-on-year in December.
Different from air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and other large appliances, small household appliances belong to improved consumption, so with the upgrading of people's quality of life and busy work schedules, the demand for small household appliances has risen steadily, and the penetration rate in the European and American markets is higher.
Small household appliances include several categories: small kitchen appliances (air fryer, coffee machine, fryer, toaster, juicer, etc.), cleaning small appliances (vacuum cleaner, sweeper, air purifier, mite remover, etc.), personal care small household appliances (hair dryer, electric toothbrush, hair straightening comb, curling iron, hair removal instrument, etc.).
Judging from the data of Amazon, eBay, TikTok, Temu and other major platforms, small household appliances have always been a high-demand category.
Amazon
On Amazon, air fryers, coffee makers, vacuum cleaners, and electric toothbrushes are all products that continue to sell well, how did their sales last year?
According to Mojing Insight data, the sales of vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, humidifiers, sweepers, coffee machines, and air fryers in the US station of Amazon in 2023 will still be considerable.
Among them, the sales of vacuum cleaners are as high as $21900 million, a year-on-year increase of 472%, sales reached 200780,000, a year-on-year increase of 33%, and the average price of goods was 109$12; Coffee machine sales reached $8600 million, sales volume of 117170,000, the average price of goods is 7306 USD; Household air purifier sales are $82.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 47%, with sales of nearly 8 million, an increase of 11% year-on-year, and the average price of goods was 103$8; Sweeper sales reach $7800 million, a year-on-year decrease of 151%, with a sales volume of 30170,000, a year-on-year decrease of 99%, and the average price of goods is higher, at 258$89.
Air fryer sales also continued to rise, with sales reaching $5100 million, a year-on-year increase of 119%, with sales of more than 5 million pieces and an average price of 101$9. From the perspective of sales ranking, the annual sales of the top 8 products are basically more than 100,000 pieces, the highest one has exceeded 200,000 pieces, and most of the other products in the top 20 have sales between 20,000 and 50,000 pieces, and the products range from $82 to $240.
Among these top small household appliances, Chinese brands occupy many seats.
ebay
Due to the change of seasons, the beginning of the school season, Father's Day and other factors, in May last year, home appliances became a hot search category on eBay America. Consumers frequently search for products such as removable fans, removable air conditioners, mini refrigerators, ice makers, etc.
Summer is just one of the battlegrounds for small appliances. eBay analysis, the United States has a large environment, the whole house cleaning pressure is high, most families will also lay carpets, pets, cleaning work is heavy, the demand for cleaning tools remains high, vacuum cleaners, sweeping robots have always been the evergreen category of home appliances in the United States, and the spare parts market is also continuing to grow.
Americans have the habit of cooking at home, in addition to the hot air fryer, roasters, blenders, coffee machines and other kitchen appliances are also the most concerned by local consumers, and the traffic on eBay US station is stable**.
tiktok
Suki, a post-00s girl, is from Zhongshan and is a "second generation factory". Last year, she just graduated from university and learned about TikTok's full custody model, so she decided to join hands with her partners to start a business and sell small kitchen appliances produced by her own factory on the TikTok Shop platform. From a few orders at sunrise to a single day sales of more than 1,000 air fryers, Suki only took less than a month, and the monthly sales of the store reached 150,000 orders, on the sales list of small household appliances on the platform, and a few months later, she has become the head seller of small household appliances.
Previously, there was a boom in China's small household appliances on tiktok, and the amount of *** under the label chinagadgets soon exceeded 100 million, sweeping robots, thermos cups that display temperature, intelligent voice recognition audio, and underwear washing machines have made netizens addicted to it, and "Made in China" small household appliances have completed a wave of grass.
According to the Oriental ** research report, domestic home appliance companies have gradually laid out Tiktok Shop in the United States, from the perspective of categories, clean home appliance companies are more active, Rock Technology, Dreame, and Timco have opened stores and sold on them, and the platform is still a blue ocean of home appliances.
Domestic home appliance brands have Douyin operation experience and are faster to get started with TikTok, while overseas brands are slower to respond to new channels and have not opened stores, giving up huge market dividends for domestic home appliance brands. This will also be an opportunity for domestic small household appliances to overtake.
temu
Temu is soaring overseas, and has also opened seats in the home appliances and smart home categories, and products such as hair dryers, juicers, and massagers are sold, but the products still need to be enriched.
However, most of the more well-known small household appliance brands in China have not yet laid out this platform, on the one hand, the company's overseas business is not sensitive enough or is still observing, and on the other hand, the platform has set a threshold for high-priced products in the early stage. Therefore, small household appliances on temu are mainly white-label products, and brands with a certain reputation can soon open up the situation.
A leading seller of home appliances opened temu in the first half of last year, and because there were fewer sellers in the category and not much price reduction, it quickly increased in the mode of "brand power + mature sellers + compliant products". At present, the sales of large stores have increased steadily, and the company has launched new stores.
Relying on e-commerce channels and offline supermarkets, China's small household appliances are rapidly panning for gold overseas.
During the 2023 Overseas Black Friday Network 1, Roborock's GMV in North America increased by 30% year-on-year, and even with its own factory, the production pressure is very high, and the production capacity of the foundry is still in short supply.
XGIMI Technology walks on two legs overseas,Not only the layout of Amazon、Rakuten and other mainstream channels,Products have also entered the main offline retail channels in Europe、The United States and Japan and other regions,The market share of the Japanese home projection market has ranked first for many years。
The three teams rushed overseas, and small household appliances bet on e-commerce channels
Compared with the role of "followers" in many categories, China's small household appliances have performed amazingly overseas and have begun to lead the market.
Taking cleaning home appliances as an example, the National Business Daily and Shenzhen Yishi Technology jointly released the "Cross-border E-commerce Smart Clean Household Appliances Brand Influence List (2023 12)", and brands from China occupy the majority of seats. The top 10 are Dyson, Roborock, EUFY, Shark, Dreame, iRobot, Tineco, Narwal, Ecovacs, and iLife, of which there are 8 Chinese brands, all of which have independent stations and Amazon sales channels.
Dyson ranked first, with vacuum cleaners as the main product in this category, and the search popularity was the first in the fault type, far surpassing brands such as Roborock, iRobot, and Ecovacs, which mainly focus on sweepers and mopping robots. However, with the upgrading of innovation and technology, Chinese brands are eating into the market share of overseas top brands. Although the American brand irobot is the originator of sweeping robots, under the siege of Houlang, its market position has been declining, and it is currently behind Roborock, Dreame, etc.
Andreas, founder of ES Technology, analyzed that in the relatively emerging consumer electronics category, Chinese brands have generally performed well.
Small household appliances are not the main battlefield of traditional giants, and they invest relatively little, which leaves market space. For example, some emerging brands of small household appliances in subdivided categories have the opportunity to enter the channels of large chain supermarkets such as Sam's Store in North America, which is impossible in the major appliance industry, and the channels are firmly occupied by giants. ”
At present, going overseas has become an important way for domestic household appliances to seek growth.
Zero State LT divides China's overseas home appliances into three teams: the first is the "trump card team" that has realized China's home appliances from scratch, represented by Midea, Haier, and Gree; The second is represented by smart home appliance companies such as Ecovacs, Roborock, and Dreame Technology, who have launched a series of household cleaning products overseas; The third is mainly domestic small household appliance companies such as Joyoung, Xiaoxiong Electric, and SKG, which have now deployed overseas business.
At the beginning of February, Xiaoxiong Electric set up Foshan Xiaoxiong Youxetto cross-border e-commerce *** Foshan Xiaoxiong cross-border e-commerce *** with a registered capital of 1 million yuan each, focusing on cross-border e-commerce business.
Founded in 2006, Xiaoxiong Electric specializes in the R&D, design, production and sales of creative small household appliances, and was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2019. Xiaoxiong Electric takes e-commerce as the core channel, and its main market is in China. In the past, its overseas business was mainly ODM foundry, and now it is mainly its own brand overseas and cross-border e-commerce business, of which the sales area of its own brand is mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia, as well as the Chinese market in Europe and the United States.
At present, Xiaoxiong Electric's overseas business revenue accounts for a small proportion, but last year's rapid growth rate brought new growth space to the company. In the first half of 2023, the sales amount of its overseas business will be 13.6 billion yuan, accounting for 581%。
There are also major appliance companies that have opened "exclusive channels" for cross-border e-commerce business. Previously, Midea Group established Midea (Hainan) Cross-border E-commerce Co., Ltd. and Little Swan (Wuxi) Cross-border E-commerce Co., Ltd. for the purpose of developing global home appliance business. The home appliance industry is optimistic about the development of cross-border e-commerce retail channels.
Not only domestic sales-based enterprises, but also OEM-based home appliance companies have also begun to reduce the proportion of this business, and instead fight overseas with their own brands, and move closer to cross-border e-commerce, and even derive channel brands in overseas e-commerce channels.
Founded in Hubei Province in 2012, Heung Kong Electric mainly develops, produces and sells electric small household appliances, electric heating small household appliances, electronic products and daily household products, including egg beaters, blenders, electric knives, juice machines, electric steamers, electric kettles, waffle machines, toaster stoves, laser lights, slide projectors, action cameras, electronic scales, garden water pipes, cushions, etc., with a wide variety.
For a long time, more than ninety percent of the company's revenue comes from overseas, and its business model has two lines: ODM OEM and self-operated brands, of which foundry is the main income**, Wal-Mart, Philips, Amazon, etc. are its customers. However, the overseas business of self-operated brands has begun to exert force, on Amazon, its accuteck and weighmax brand electronic scales, are the head brand products, some of the best-selling items have more than 10,000 reviews, and monthly sales reach thousands.
Last year, Heung Kong Electric submitted a prospectus to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to be listed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
China's home appliance companies are gradually stepping out of the domestic market or the role of mere manufacturers, hoping to draw a new growth curve overseas.
The four major industrial belts are supported, and China's small household appliances lead the market
In the small household appliance industry, a number of Chinese brands have run to the head, how is this achieved?
According to Andreas's analysis, the domestic home appliance software and hardware chain has obvious advantages, and the talents are abundant and the product iteration is fast, which can make differentiated functional innovations, and consumers can intuitively feel the difference through the product, and then form positive feedback to accelerate the overseas penetration of China's small household appliances.
Ye Yindan, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, believes that China's home appliance enterprises have changed from entering the overseas low-end market with cost-effective products in the past to relying on R&D to drive into the overseas high-end market, and enhance their comprehensive competitiveness through continuous innovation, and this situation is expected to continue.
The take-off of small household appliances relies on the support of the abundant domestic industrial belt.
There are four major electrical appliances and four bases in the country: Cixi in Zhejiang, Shunde in Guangdong, Qingdao in Shandong, and Hefei in Anhui.
According to the Xiaguang Society, Cixi produces and manufactures about 60% of the world's small household appliances, such as electric irons, with an annual output of nearly 30 million units, accounting for about 50% of the global market share.
Official statistics show that smart home appliances are the first pillar of Cixi's advantageous industry, and the output value of the city's smart home appliance industry will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2021, reaching 1042600 million yuan. Cixi has more than 2,000 complete machine manufacturing enterprises, supporting enterprises close to players, and its products involve more than 20 series and thousands of categories.
China's home appliance industry meets the global demand for a considerable number of small household appliances. Due to the increase in disposable income and lifestyle changes, people's demand for small kitchen appliances is expected to increase, and the continuous growth of the market will feed back the home appliance industry.
Statista predicts that the global small household appliance market will reach $254.3 billion in revenue in 2024, and the average household sales volume will reach 17 pcs. The market is growing at an annual rate of 465%, and the sales volume of the small household appliance market will reach 40 in 20283.3 billion pieces.
In 2023, North America dominated the global small home appliance market with a share of $39 billion, due to the increasing demand for small kitchen appliances as more people migrate to cities as regional electrification and urbanization expand, and the growing disposable income further fuels this trend.
Among them, kitchen appliances can be widely used in homes, restaurants, schools and other commercial places, occupying the largest market share. In 2022, small kitchen appliances will account for 52The market share is 90% and is expected to continue to grow in the next few years.
According to Global Market Insights, small kitchen appliances were valued at $130 billion in 2023 and are expected to grow at a total annual rate of more than 47%, which will be worth $205 billion in 2032.
Europe and North America are the leaders in the small kitchen appliances market, with the CAGR of small kitchen appliances in Europe reaching 59%。The Asia-Pacific market is also expected to witness significant growth as awareness and living standards increase in countries such as China, India, and Japan.
Small kitchen appliances mainly include coffee machines, blenders, food processors, toasters, juice machines, electric kettles, electric fryers, etc., and the following are the growth expectations of various commodities in the next eight years.
With a $27 billion market share in 2023, coffee makers offer a quick and convenient way to brew coffee at home, with users able to drink a fresh cup of coffee in minutes at the push of a button, especially on busy mornings, saving a lot of time and effort.
With these small appliances, consumers can cook, wash or groom, for example, more efficiently, saving time and effort required for activities.
On the one hand, new markets are constantly generated, and on the other hand, home appliance companies continue to invest in research and development to create more attractive new products, which also promotes the growth of the market scale. Which markets have more room to grow next?
1. Asia-Pacific region. The growing local population, coupled with the increasing commercial and residential construction in India, China, Japan, South Korea, Bangladesh, etc., has led to an increase in the demand for small household appliances.
2. South America. Due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, the South American small home appliances market is expected to grow at a market size of 461% CAGR growth.
3. North America. North America has a relatively high penetration rate of home appliances and has become a more mature market for small home appliances, coupled with the fact that home appliance companies continue to market and launch new products in the market to expand their business, the revenue of the whole market has increased.
Moreover, the shifting consumer demand for sustainable home appliances that save energy and reduce environmental hazards is also expected to drive the market growth.
After advancing by leaps and bounds, the small household appliance industry has also begun to face challenges.
As the penetration of small appliances increases and the market becomes more competitive, manufacturers are under pressure to develop new products and launch more product versions that can appeal to consumers who value a variety of choices.
Because of the cruel competition, consumers' demand for reasonable kitchen appliances has increased, so that home appliance companies have begun to launch various products on a par with their opponents, and have shifted their attention from high-income people to middle-income and low-income people.
In addition, small appliances are lightweight and easy to use, but they are also more prone to wear and tear than large appliances, have a shorter life cycle, and consumers may need to replace them frequently. For example, small appliances such as microwave ovens, irons, dishwashers, coffee makers, etc., do not have a long lifespan and therefore require frequent repairs or replacements, which may restrain the market growth of small household appliances.
From the perspective of environmental factors, overseas demand, raw materials and shipping costs are fluctuating, and industry competition continues to intensify, which will inevitably lead to enterprises falling behind, resulting in demand growth falling short of expectations. There is still a long way to go for small household appliances to go to sea.