The new outlet, the strong rise of women's small household appliances

At present, Small Domestic appliances (SDA) are mainly divided into personal care SDA, kitchen SDA and home?SDA. Among the personal care SDA and kitchen SDA, which account for 87% of the market share, the number of female consumers of them is much higher than that of male consumers. For the home appliance industry, "her" needs definitely cannot be ignored. "She" is not only an important consumer group in today's home appliance market, but also the experience?group?of many home appliance products. What’s more, “she”?is the backbone of promoting the upgrading and segmentation of the home appliance market.

Personal care SDA: it's?worth paying for "pleasure yourself"

The boom of beauty and personal care appliances is an external display of the "her economy" in the home appliance market. People's diversified definition of "beauty" has promoted the double breakthrough in demand and scale of personal care SDA, especially beauty?SDA. Under the dual promotion of "her economy" and "beauty economy", the personal care SDA in the Chinese market quickly completed the triple jump from "nothing" to "something" to "hot thing".

Take the most typical product，the beauty instrument as an example. According to?the data, from 2014 to 2019, the demand for beauty instruments in China increased from 1.319 million units to 6.552 million units, with a compound annual growth rate of 37.79%. The overall market size has also increased from 2 billion yuan in 2014 to 6.622 billion yuan in 2019. It is estimated that the market size will be close to 10 billion yuan by 2021, and will exceed 20 billion yuan by 2026.

Traditional personal care SDA?have the characteristics of "stable" and "neutral" in terms of product performance and appearance, and the manufacturers did not pay much attention to personalized choices. However, in recent years, with the new transformation and upgrading of consumption patterns, the post-00s and post-90s have become mainstream consumers. "easy?to?share, seek for beauty and follow the hot" has become a key factor in their daily consumption. Therefore, the current personal care SDA Brands have begun to focus on product differentiation, launching?products with both good?appearance and excellent?function, which not only meet the needs of consumers, but also lead new trends.

Under the "her economy", personal care?SDA?such as beauty instruments and negative ion curling irons have also attracted a broad market. In the personal care SDA?market in 2021, beauty instruments and hairdressers have achieved relatively high growth, and dental irrigators have even achieved a growth rate of nearly 166%.

Different from most SDA?categories starting with "cost-effectiveness", beauty SDA?are driven by "her needs" and "beauty?needs", with their own "noble" genes, and have become the vanguard of the quality upgrade of the entire SDA market. Taking the opportunity of "pushing expensive and selling high" for beauty?SDA, the inherent low-price label in the SDA?market is being diluted, and "small and refined" has become a new trend label.

An insider told the reporter that from the original hair dryer to today's facial cleansing instrument, massage instrument, and face steaming instrument, the product categories of personal care SDA are subdivided year by year, and new products and new brands are constantly emerging. As the mainstay of the market, female consumers are undoubtedly the promoters of the continuous advancement of the SDA?industry. It is through the in-depth exploration of women's "self pleasure" needs that the industry has a stronger ductility and a broader market. Looking forward to 2022, GfK predicts that the personal care SDA?market will continue to maintain a growth trend, and the market size will exceed 50 billion yuan.

Kitchen SDA: life needs a?sense of ceremony

From the perspective of product categories, kitchen SDA?that focus on delicate and healthy life, such as soymilk maker, air fryer, knife sterilizer, multi-function cooking pot and other products are highly respected by consumers, and the market is very hot. For consumers, SDA?are not only practical home appliances, but also appliances that meet the application needs of diversified scenarios. In this regard, person in charge of Joyoung gave examples, such as alone at home, one person eating, the quality of life of a “lazy”?person at home, the light and healthy meal for delicate girls, and the fun life of post-90s mothers with babies?and other scenario suitability.

Industry observation: only the coexistence of beauty and practicality can truly impress female users

Different from major appliances, the clientele of small appliances is mostly young women. According to Questmobile's statistics, among the consumers of small household appliances, the proportion of female users is high among 25-35 years old. The purchase criteria of such people for small household appliances focus on "good-looking", "easy to use" and "inexpensive".

In this context, the R&D focus of merchants is naturally on creating blockbuster products?with a gorgeous appearance. So, here comes the problem - in the case where many consumers pay for the appearance, it is inevitable that consumption will go?into?waste.

Of course, the most essential reason for the decline of the consumption boom of SDA is that the refined life concept created for young people utterly by marketing, and the poor product performance and lack of?user experience, which created a huge gap of?user expectations.

Consumers refuse to pay for it. For example, when consumers squeeze juice?with?a portable juicer, they need to peel the fruit, cut it into small pieces, put them in to squeeze the juice, and clean the juicer after squeezing. This process will take at least half an hour. And with the breakfast machine with a limited size, it is difficult to put ingredients in, and?easy to overflow accidentally, and it is not easy to clean up. Just as a netizen complained on social platforms, "Only after the novelty of SDA?has passed did I realize that take-out food is wonderful."

Only products with both good appearance and high performance?can truly impress female consumers.

A marketing person in charge of a SDA?company told reporters that the decisive factor for consumers to buy small kitchen appliances is whether the product can solve the user's urgent problem, followed by the appearance. "Home appliances are no longer simply 'appliances', 'good looks' have also become the main reference for female consumers to consider whether to buy." Therefore, for kitchen SDA, from product R&D?to appearance design,?the three standards of "better-looking, more practical, and more innovative" should be followed to create more scene-adaptive products.