In this special spring, freezers and refrigerators have become the focus in such an unexpected way.
In the WeChat index on April 10, the search volume for "refrigerator" and "freezer" surged by 96.75% and 20.8% respectively. Just one day later, the WeChat index of the two entries fell by 34.14% and 1.67% respectively on a day-to-day basis. It can be seen that the demand for refrigerators and freezers may be just some kind of phased "panic".
The demand for home food storage has indeed boosted the sales of refrigerators and freezers. 36Kr Digital Shikr (WeChat ID: digital36kr) contacted a refrigerator salesperson from Suning Appliance in Beijing and learned that large refrigerators and vertical freezers have been hot-selling products in the past week or two.
Currently, some refrigerators and freezers through e-commerce channels are in hot demand and out of stock. The problem of freezer shortages has become more prominent. On the overall list of JD.com 's "freezer hot-selling list" targeting Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 7, 4 and 8 products in the top ten are respectively out of stock. An important reason why
is out of stock is transportation problems. Due to product characteristics and safety considerations, white appliances such as refrigerators and freezers must be transported horizontally. They cannot be transported by ordinary express delivery and require professional logistics. Due to factors such as restrictions on logistics channels such as highways across the country, it is difficult to guarantee delivery of electrical appliances purchased online.
In fact, since 2021, as the number of people and time spent at home has increased, people's requirements for food storage have also continued to increase, and consumers around the world have continued to have strong demand for refrigerators and freezers.
When the separation begins to be reflected on, will the heat in refrigerators and freezers continue?
01 Refrigerator space has become the new "hard currency", a hot topic on social media
During the epidemic, refrigerator space is more precious than Coke Zero. On
Douyin, a Shanghai user mentioned in a video posted yesterday that refrigerator space has become a kind of "hard currency" in their community. "In our apartment, the refrigerator space is replaced by eggs, vegetables, etc." Everything is possible."
from Douyin video
As various frozen meats, quick-frozen vegetables, and quick-frozen convenience foods have become must-have options, families’ refrigerator and freezer space is facing challenges that exceed daily needs. "Eat fresh but difficult-to-preserve foods first, and then consume foods that can be stored for a long time" has become the focus of various "home stocking guides" that have been circulated recently. As evidence, some consumers at Sam's Supermarket found long queues in the frozen food and convenience food sections; some communities even set up a special "freezer group" to purchase various types of food suitable for freezing storage.
is mapped to social media. In the WeChat index on April 10, the search volume for "refrigerator" and "freezer" surged by 96.75% and 20.8% respectively. On social media such as Moments, , Weibo, , Xiaohongshu, and Jiji, the topic of buying a refrigerator/freezer is also hotly discussed. Even in the "Haohaozhu APP", some home decoration designers suggested that the kitchen design trend in the post-epidemic era is "refrigerator + multiple upright freezers that can be matched".
02 A hot topic, what are the real sales of refrigerators and freezers?
In areas where the epidemic has recently occurred, such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, some netizens have reported that some refrigerators and freezers have been out of stock through e-commerce channels. After
located in Beijing, many products on JD.com's refrigerator and freezer best-selling lists showed "out of stock in the current region."
When searching for "refrigerator" on JD.com's homepage in Shanghai, you will find that many hot-selling models display signs such as "on sale for a limited time" and "scarce and high-end products available for a limited time". The rules of this rush sale activity show that "products need to be reserved before they are eligible for rush sale. After the reservation is successful, the supply is limited, first come first served." Among them, the Midea 213-liter refrigerator, which sells over 10,000 units per month, had 5,479 reservations as of 2 p.m. on the 11th.
Haier's 216-liter three-door refrigerator, which ranks first on JD.com's "Hot-Selling Refrigerator List", has sold more than 7,000 units in the past 15 days; Konka and Haier's refrigerators, which ranked second and third, also sold a certain model in the past 15 days. Over 5,000 pieces sold.
The picture shows the best-selling list of JD refrigerators and freezers in Beijing.
It is worth noting that compared with refrigerators, which are more popular among households, the one that saw a sudden increase in sales during the epidemic was the "refrigerator freezer expansion pack" - the freezer.Many netizens mentioned on social media, "The epidemic has made me discover the importance of owning a freezer." Tmall's "Freezer Hot Sales List" showed on April 11 that the cumulative sales of freezers in the past 7 days reached 11,195 units, and the cumulative sales in the past 30 days were 29,602 units, accounting for 38% of the sales within 7 days.
The problem of insufficient freezer inventory is even more prominent. On the overall list of JD.com’s “refrigerator hot-selling list” located in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 7, 4 and 8 products in the top ten are respectively out of stock. An important reason why
is out of stock is transportation problems. During domestic land transportation and sea transportation, white appliances such as refrigerators and freezers are subject to horizontal transportation regulations due to product characteristics and safety considerations. Therefore, instead of ordinary express delivery, they must be transported by professional logistics. However, now, due to factors such as restrictions on logistics channels such as highways across the country, it is difficult to guarantee delivery of electrical appliances purchased online. On
JD.com, all refrigerator purchase pages in the Shanghai area show that if you place an order on the same day, it is expected to be delivered to your door by JD Express five days later. The top-ranked product in the freezer list is shipped to the Shanghai area and will be delivered on May 2, while the next-day delivery is shown for Beijing and Guangzhou areas.
Overall, even affected by the epidemic, refrigerators and freezers are not out of stock.
In addition, to save the time cost of e-commerce logistics, offline electrical appliance stores are also important channels that cannot be ignored. 36Kr Digital Shikr (WeChat ID: digital36kr) contacted a refrigerator salesperson from Suning Appliance in Beijing and learned that large refrigerators and vertical freezers have been hot-selling products in the past week or two. Electrical appliances purchased through offline channels such as , Suning, , and Gome can support local distribution, and mainstream models basically have stable inventory. In the Beijing area, if you pay before 18:00 on the same day and place your order, it will be delivered to your door the next day.
In addition, if you search for "new damage machines" for refrigerators/freezers on Xianyu, products of various mainstream brands and models will appear. If you buy in the same city, discuss with the seller to deliver the goods on the same day. Some netizens said that the goods can be delivered within an hour at the earliest.
03 After three years of epidemic, demand has continued to be strong, and the production of refrigerators and freezers has not been a problem for Made in China.
In the past two years of the epidemic, continued demand has kept the production and sales of refrigerators and freezers from growing.
National Bureau of Statistics data shows that in 2020, the early days of the epidemic, compared with other major appliances, the production volume of refrigerators and freezers achieved higher year-on-year growth. The output of refrigerators was 90.14 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%; the output of freezers was 30.42 million units, a year-on-year increase of 49%.
Looking at the market situation, in 2021, China's refrigerator and freezer industry sales reached 125.81 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%; of which, the domestic market accounted for nearly half, with annual sales of 57.687 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%. In terms of
refrigerators, the market size of
refrigerators, which produce small and medium-sized refrigerators with faster transportation and lower prices, as well as variable frequency refrigerators that meet energy conservation and emission reduction requirements, is also expanding. At the same time, the high-end trend of the refrigerator market is obvious. According to data from Aowei Cloud, the retail sales of high-end refrigerators worth more than 10,000 yuan will increase by 37.3% year-on-year in 2021.
Year-on-year growth in production of some major appliances in 2020
Since 2021, as the number of people and time spent at home has increased, people's requirements for food storage have also continued to increase, and consumers around the world have continued to have strong demand for refrigerators and freezers.
According to industry online statistics, global sales of refrigerators and freezers will reach 211.05 million units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. Except for , Vietnam, , South Africa and other countries and regions where a new round of severe epidemics broke out last year, the refrigerator and freezer market in most regions around the world has maintained high growth, with Europe having the highest growth rate. The entire European market will exceed 44 million units in 2021. The year-on-year increase is nearly 16%. Behind the continued growth of
sales is the strong recovery of production.
In 2020, due to the remarkable epidemic control, China's production was the first to resume, causing most of the world's orders to be concentrated in China's refrigerator and freezer manufacturing industry - production increased by 15.9% year-on-year, which was the only positive growth compared to other continents in the world. In 2021, despite various circumstances such as the supply chain remaining tight and global production resuming, China's refrigerator and freezer production will still maintain growth.
As the home appliance most closely related to daily life, the technological maturity of refrigerators and freezers is at the forefront of all major appliances. As a core component for the production of refrigerators and freezers, China's refrigerator compressor industry has doubled its production capacity compared to ten years ago, and will soar to 270 million units in 2021. "Electrical Appliances" magazine pointed out that starting from the end of 2020, several mainstream domestic refrigerator compressor manufacturers have launched production expansion plans and spent huge sums of money to expand new factories and new production lines; some foreign brands have transferred overseas production lines to China to further expand production capacity; industry A new refrigerator compressor factory focusing on small and medium-sized customers has also been added.
When refrigerators and freezers became "necessary artifacts for epidemic prevention at home," people's demand for home appliances gradually changed to "You can buy a small TV, but you must buy a big refrigerator." With the recovery of the epidemic in the future, the short-term effect of stocking up at home will be reduced. In addition, the number of refrigerators and freezers owned by 100 Chinese households has exceeded 100. Market demand is mainly based on replacement, and the demand of household consumers may gradually return to the previous level. status.
Different from the rapid growth of household freezers under the strong impact of the epidemic in 2020, the growth of commercial freezers and equipment will be more significant in 2021. Thanks to the easing of the epidemic and the recovery of the global economy, commercial freezer sales rebounded in 2021, and various segments of commercial refrigeration equipment also achieved positive growth. Among them, the most outstanding performance is medical refrigerators, which have grown by nearly 60% driven by vaccines and related policies. In addition, beverage refrigerators have also seen a growth peak in recent years due to the efforts of upstream beverage emerging companies to distribute products. In the long run, the growth point of refrigerators and freezers in the future may shift from household products to commercial products.
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In this spring, we officially launched the "Made in China Riding the Wind and Waves" series of reports. In this process, "Set Sail for Intelligent Manufacturing in China" is also the direction we focus on.
