Chinese small home appliances aim for high
In the first half of 2020, small home appliances remained the only electric appliance category with sales growth, which is attributable to a series of measures the industry has taken in order to better meet consumers’ needs.
Little Bear Electric Appliance Co., LTD, one of the fastest growing small home appliance brands in China, registered a sale volume of over 318 million yuan (about $49.2 million) in a shopping spree in November 2020.
A user uses a Tineco cleaner to clean the floor. (Photo courtesy of Tineco)
The brand gained 23.8 million new consumers, with its egg-boilers, egg beaters, electric heated lunch boxes and electric stoves all top products of the category by sales volume.
The brand has a deep understanding of customers’ needs. With a Little Bear egg boiler, which can be preset, users can put ingredients into the pot in the evening and have their breakfast ready the next morning.
“The growing sales volume of small home appliances is a result of both the stay-at-home economy and digital economy,” said Fu Guoqun, a professor of the department of marketing at Guanghua School of Management of Peking University.
Small home appliances, which are good-looking, intelligent and user-friendly, also represent a lifestyle of young people, so when they are shared on social networking platforms, they quickly arouse a lot of interest.
Tineco, a cordless vacuum cleaner and floor washer brand, garnered a sale volume over 410 million yuan in the November shopping event last year. Its success lies in accurately spotting the needs of consumers.
The products can sweep and mop the floor in one step, targeting middle-and high-end customers. “We want to give as many pleasant surprises to our customers as possible,” introduced Qian Dongqi, founder of the brand.
Cross-industry collaboration is another reason for the success of small home appliances. Launching new products in collaboration with the cartoon series “My Little Pony,” Little Bear has worked with artists to add more cultural elements to its products.
Roaman launches an electric toothbrush in the color of avocado, in collaboration with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba. (Photo courtesy of Roaman)
Some brands aim to become high-end. Tineco, with similar functions and prices as that of Dyson vacuum cleaners, doesn’t hide its ambition to target the high-end market.
“What we want to do is to not only become an innovation-driven brand like Dyson, but also improve people’s living quality with the intelligent technologies and change their lifestyle,” said Qian.
Different from other domestic electric toothbrush brands that focus on the low-end market, Roaman is working hard to grab a share in the high-end market, which is mainly occupied by foreign brands, through providing customized products, said Wang Yuanwei, the brand director of Roaman.
Through cooperating with China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba, Roaman launched a product with an attractive look and functions integrating those of a facial cleansing brush and a toothbrush. The product became a hit after it was rolled out in November 2019.