According to GfK expectation, total sales of large home appliances will reach 180 billion euro in 2017 for the global market. It would be an increase of 5% compared to last year. Western Europe, Russia and, especially China, are the areas where it is visible the biggest growth of the sector. Russia has recorded strong sales growth of about eight percent in the first half of 2017 and sales of about 4.1 billion euro are expected for the full year, compared with 3.5 billion euro of 2016.
Western Europe saw, instead, stagnant overall sales from January to June, while an increase of about three percent was recorded for built-in appliances. Premium segments like ovens with an integrated steam function (+5.4%), flexible induction hobs (+28.7) or integrated hob extractors (+ 122%) and built-in dishwasher (+3.7%) sold especially well. A sales increase of three to four percent to about 16 billion euro is expected in this region for the second half of the year too.
In Eastern Europe (excluding Russia), countries like Poland (up 8.5 percent) and Hungary (up 10.5 percent) were at the forefront of the development, thanks to some best sellers like tumble dryers, that recorded a 29 percent increase in units sold in the first half of the year.
Regarding China, a strong growth was recorded both for traditional and smart appliances. Sales volume for smart home appliances is about 4.5 billion euro in the Chinese market, making it more than double what it is in Europe, where smart devices sales increased by more than 100 percent.
Thanks to growing incomes and an increasingly consumption-oriented middle class, demand for household appliances in China increased during the first half of this year by nearly ten percent. On-line sales increase more than 60 percent compared to the first half of 2016: this means that in China already one third of household appliance sales are generated on-line.
