After field visits to a number of refrigerator companies, the heads of relevant companies are cautiously optimistic about the trend of the refrigerator market in 2018. In the case of continuous fermentation of macro environmental factors such as cost pressure and real estate regulation, they hope to use the dual upgrade of product structure + quality as a breakthrough, and constantly optimize the layout of resources such as brands, channels, and technologies to further explore and cultivate new market growth space.

The volume of the first quarter increased in 2018, the market was relatively stable

During the visit, when it came to the refrigerator market in the first quarter of 2018, the heads of various companies were beaming. Volume, volume increase, which is the answer of most enterprises, but also the trend of the market.

According to the total number of omnichannel push data of AVC, Q1 refrigerator retail volume in 2018 was 6.56 million units, an increase of 0.5%, and retail sales were 20 billion yuan, an increase of 10.5%. According to the total data of Zhongyikang, another market research institution, the retail volume and retail sales of refrigerators in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 2.2% and 14.7% respectively.

However, the trend of increasing quantity and quantity did not last long. According to total data, although the refrigerator market is about to enter the peak season, during the May Day (4.16-5.06) period, the retail volume of refrigerators was 2.44 million units, down 7.2% year-on-year; Retail sales totaled 8.13 billion yuan, up by 1.0% year-on-year.

"On the one hand, the environment has not greatly improved, and on the other hand, intensive promotion has overdrawn some demand in advance, so there will be some repeats in the refrigerator market." Zou Wenhui, general manager of Meiling's domestic marketing division, believes that the domestic refrigerator market can not be too optimistic or pessimistic, although various unfavorable factors still exist, but under the support of the "home appliances to the countryside" product replacement and consumption upgrade dividend, the refrigerator market in 2018 is still promising.

In fact, Wang Xianju, general manager of TCL white Appliances Division, also expressed a similar view: "Whether it is an increase or decrease, the domestic refrigerator market sales will not change much, and the growth trend of sales is relatively certain."

Wang Xianju told that in the case of little change in industry sales, sales have shown a promising growth momentum, which shows that the optimization of product structure under the consumption upgrade dividend has led to the increase in the average price, and enterprises should seize the opportunity to provide more accurate supply in the terminal market changes.

Aowei cloud network analysis believes that under the influence of the lag of real estate purchase restrictions, the saturation of family holdings, and the replacement of products in the era of home appliances to the countryside, the refrigerator industry market will be stable in the next three years. It is estimated that the retail volume of the refrigerator market in 2018 will be 33.96 million units, up 0.6% year-on-year, and the retail sales will be 96.4 billion yuan, up 2.6% year-on-year.

Brand concentration continues to rise the preservation war kicked off

From the "four golden flowers" to the current "1+4+N" pattern, the brand concentration of the refrigerator industry has increased year by year. This indicates that domestic refrigerator companies are facing a "stimulating battlefield", and brand elimination may occur at any time.

Aowei cloud network offline monitoring data show that in 2017 Q1 refrigerator industry TOP5 brand market share of 72.6%, to 2018 Q1, TOP5 brand market share has reached 77.6%.

Zou Wenhui told that the refrigerator industry has reached the final stage, the phenomenon of structural upgrading and price war exists at the same time, it is inevitable that the brand will be eliminated, and the final test is the comprehensive strength of the enterprise.

"Competition between companies does exist, but Midea is now more focused on product power, brand power and consumer experience." Chen Yafei, minister of the Marketing Department of the United States refrigerator domestic marketing company, introduced that in 2017, the growth rate of the United States refrigerator sales and the average price of products was much higher than the growth level of the industry, and the next will further provide consumers with more convenient and more comfortable products and life solutions through the innovative method of "innovative technology in the life scene" and the CDOC product project development process.

Combing through the broken way of the refrigerator industry, the consistency of the company's strategic focus on the product upgrade, and the core of the product upgrade is the innovation of preservation technology. During the research period, the United States refrigerator "micro crystal week fresh" new product launch ceremony was held in Beijing, Changhong Meiling joined hands with Jingdong to release M fresh new refrigerator products, TCL one frequency conversion air-cooled refrigerator appeared in the first China independent brand Expo, a fresh preservation war without the fire seems to be staged.

"In the trend of quality life, healthy eating is undoubtedly a priority for consumers, which also encourages the refrigerator industry to return to the essence of preservation." Wang Xianju believes that after frequency conversion and air cooling, the competition of refrigerator selling points will return to the innovation of fresh-keeping technology.

For the strong return of the smart selling point and the preservation selling point, Zou Wenhui said that the intelligence of home appliances is the general trend, but the landing of the refrigerator intelligent application and experience still needs to overcome some obstacles, and the return of the preservation selling point is the right time.

"There is no trade-off between preservation and intelligence, and the application of intelligent technology can greatly improve the operational efficiency and accuracy of the preservation system." Chen Yafei believes that the refrigerator intelligent experience needs to be improved more at the interactive level, and the combination of intelligent technology and preservation technology is an important path to improve the overall preservation level and use experience of the refrigerator.

2018 China Refrigerator Industry Summit Forum

On May 23, the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and the State Information Center Informatization and Industrial Development Department will be held in Beijing, when domestic and foreign mainstream refrigerator brands and channel business representatives will gather together to sort out the industry development context and consumer trends, further explore the refrigerator industry transformation and upgrading road, to seek new impetus for future market growth.

Compete for the market cake business tricks blossom

The competition between countries is the comprehensive national strength, so is the enterprise. In the final field of refrigerator, it is a competition of comprehensive strength such as product, technology, brand, channel and service.

It is understood that in addition to continuously optimizing the channel layout, TCL refrigerator's unique AAT intelligent bactericidal system will be fully popularized in new products above 250L in 2018, and all new products will be 100% equipped with antibacterial door closure and antibacterial handle, and TCL refrigerator will strive to achieve 70% of healthy refrigerator sales by 2020.

Wang Xianju told that in addition to the health preservation as a breakthrough point, TCL has transformed "one frequency conversion air cooling" and other technical concepts into a more humanized "smart wind system - air supply intelligent accurate refrigeration fast and uniform", "one good frequency conversion - 2 minutes cold 1℃", "full space negative oxygen ion fresh - 7 days water lock rate of more than 92%" and other selling points. Make it easier for consumers to understand product features and promote sales.

In addition to joining hands with channels to create an active brand, Meiling also vigorously promoted the "sealed comparison experiment" in marketing, and used a more intuitive way to let Meiling refrigerator accept the test of the masses. According to Zou Wenhui, the "sealed comparison experiment" with the "must-kill technique" of unqualified returns within half a year has made Meiling refrigerator sales rise.

In addition, the beauty of the "channel is king" has been transformed into "technology control". In addition to the comprehensive force of brand, channel and service, the United States refrigerator pays more attention to the promotion of product power. According to Chen Yafee, the current innovation of refrigerator preservation technology is mostly concentrated in the cold room, and the United States through insight into consumer demand for another way, while taking into account refrigeration and preservation at the same time for the freezer technological innovation, launched the "micro crystal week fresh" series of refrigerators, To achieve the ideal effect of "frozen fresh without freezing, fresh meat ready to eat and cut" and "one week long-term preservation, no loss of nutrition".

In addition to product, technology, brand, service and other elements, the industry generally believe that the use of refrigerator products has long been out of the kitchen to the living room, office and other places, the appearance of the refrigerator design, space use is also an important support to create a differentiated selling point, the appearance of fashion, differentiated door body refrigerator sales is a real example.