The most popular industry of cleaning small household appliances is expected to reach 480 billion this year.

Compared with the large home appliance market, the small home appliance industry is ushering in a golden period. The reporter learned through interviews from various channels that clean small household appliances are most favored by consumers in this year's "618" e-commerce festival.

At present, small household appliances are mainly divided into kitchen appliances, environmental household appliances and personal care appliances. Pre-sale figures show that sales at Tim's flagship stores grew by more than 2000 per cent year-on-year between May 25 and June 12, while sales at 603486.SH flagship stores rose nearly 300 per cent year-on-year, while small kitchen appliances with rigid demand performed relatively weakly compared with the same period last year.

"the growth curve of small kitchen appliances will tend to be stable in the future, with a certain product base, and the renewal frequency is also higher than that of white goods. Clean plate is currently the best track, the market space is large, is expected to walk out of a high growth curve, but the industry is more scattered, is still in the initial stage. " A small household appliance industry insiders told reporters.

Xie Liyuan, chief analyst of the home appliance industry at Debang Securities, told reporters that the domestic penetration rate of clean appliances is currently low, only 33.8% in 2020. Compared with Japan (96.0%), the United States (94.3%) and other developed countries, there is still much room for improvement. "there is a significant increase in the number of household appliance companies entering the bureau this year, which is expected to accelerate the development of the industry while intensifying competition."

Cleaning household appliances has become more popular than kitchen appliances.

"the cleaning sector led to the rise of the small household appliance industry in the first half of the year, and individual products such as floor-sweeping robots and floor washers opened the growth channel of clean household appliances, and as soon as the explosive products were released, they could significantly boost the performance of the company," said the above-mentioned small household appliance industry personnel. the penetration rate of clean small household appliances in China will gradually increase in the future, not only the catalysis of the epidemic, but also the increasing consumer demand.

According to Oviyun's monitoring data, the omni-channel sales of clean small household appliances from January to May in 2021 were 8.13 billion yuan, an increase of 30.6% over the same period last year, including 7.64 billion yuan online, up 31.0% from the same period last year, and 485 million yuan offline, an increase of 24.3% over the same period last year.

It is worth noting that the May data show that the floor washer continues to work, and the proportion of clean appliances in the online market has increased from 0.6% in January 2020 to 15.4% in May 2021, with the overall scale showing a ladder-like upward trend. Oviyun expects that more than 30 brands will enter the market this year, and the overall size of clean appliances will exceed 30 billion yuan, an increase of 26% over the same period last year.

Clean electrical appliances also led to the performance growth of relevant listed companies. Coworth's first-quarter revenue was 2.22 billion yuan, an increase of 131% over the same period last year, and its net profit was 330 million yuan, up 726.6% over the same period last year. 688169.SH 's first-quarter revenue was 1.112 billion yuan, an increase of 82.01% over the same period last year, and net profit was 315 million yuan, an increase of 150.81% over the same period last year. Small household appliance enterprise Jiuyang shares (002242.SZ) also through its Shark brand, actively expand steam mop, floor washing machines and other clean electrical appliances business.

Comparatively speaking, the May sales data of kitchen small appliances show that in addition to the offline sales of electric steamers up 32.38% from the same period last year and online sales up 93.45% from the same period last year, offline and online sales of kitchen appliances such as electric saucepans, rice cookers, soymilk machines, cooking machines, juicers and wall-breaking machines all declined to varying degrees from 6% to 45% year-on-year.

Xie Liyuan mentioned that the growth rate of small kitchen appliances has slowed down this year, with online sales from January to May-5.0% compared with the same period last year. This is mainly due to the obvious shortening of consumers' time at home in the post-epidemic period, while the continuation of the prosperity of clean appliances is more the result of both the demand side and the supply side. On the demand side, the epidemic accelerates the long-term habit formation of consumers' healthy and clean life, and the supply side. Innovative products such as floor washers and disposable rags sweep and mop robots have further promoted the release of demand for cleaning.

The size of the industry is expected to reach 480 billion this year.

The continuation of the epidemic brings opportunities for the small home appliance market. China Business Industrial Research Institute predicts that China's small home appliance market will reach 486.8 billion yuan in 2021, and the compound growth rate is expected to remain more than 10% in the next few years. Previously, the market size of small household appliances in China reached 453.6 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 13.3% in the eight years from 2012 to 2020.

At present, the main listed companies in the domestic small household appliance industry are Midea (000333.SZ), Su'er (002032.SZ), Jiuyang shares, Xiao Xiong Electric Appliances (002959.SZ), Xinbao shares (002705.SZ), Beiding shares (300824.SZ) and so on.

According to the results in the first quarter of 2021, Midea, Supor, Xinbao, Jiuyang and Xiao Xiong all maintained revenue growth of more than 20%. Excluding the impact of the epidemic, 74% of the small household appliance listed companies' revenue in 2021 exceeded the 2019 level, and 63% of the companies' net profit in 2021 exceeded the 2019 level.

The reporter noticed that since Q4 in 2020, due to the rise in the prices of copper, oil and other raw materials, there has been obvious pressure on the cost side of small household appliance enterprises, which has affected the quarterly gross profit margin performance to a certain extent. For example, the gross profit margin of Jiuyang shares in the first quarter is 0.5 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2020, and the gross profit margin of Xinbao shares in the first quarter is 4.3 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2020.

"the further rise in the price of bulk raw materials and exchange rate fluctuations will have an impact on the profits of small household appliances in the short term, but in the long run, small household appliance enterprises can basically absorb some of the negative effects of rising raw material prices through the introduction of new products and the adjustment of product structure. Xie Liyuan analyzed and said.

Among the above-mentioned home appliance enterprises, the relevant person in charge of Jiuyang shares recently told reporters that the company is making efforts to clean electrical appliances and personal care products; the relevant person in charge of Xinbao Electric Appliances said that it will try to expand from small kitchen appliances to household appliances; Little Bear said that it is cultivating home, mother-to-child and personal care products; Midea has also launched dozens of new smart home products.