Home appliances: good performance in Europe and developed Asian markets

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Despite the critical situation of the starting months of this year, home appliances grew during the first half, especially in the developed countries, where the lockdown created more needs for home evolved devices. This situation also gave a further contribution to the already dynamic trend of small domestic appliances (SDA), as GfK confirms. Accordig to its data, in fact in the first half year of 2020 (H1 2020), the SDA market experienced a solid performance in the developed world. This sector grew by +9 percent in Europe (including CIS), while in emerging Asian countries (including China), recorded an increase by +10.9 percent.
The MDA market, instead, was almost stable at -2 percent in Europe, while in developed Asian countries it grew by +2.7 percent uptick. While affluent countries were able to invest in appliances to makes their life easier in lockdown, this was less feasible in emerging economies due to the immediate impact of the pandemic on income and willingness to spend money. Consequently, the emerging Asian countries (including China) experienced a double-digit decline in value, weakening MDA market growth.
«A clear demand shift from “want” to “need” was evident from the onset of the pandemic – GfK experts explain -. As people stockpiled (frozen) food, the immediate need for more storage capacity boosted sales of freezers. For example, between March 2 and March 22, volume sales grew by 317 percent in Great Britain and by 185 percent in Germany. Once the stockpiling moderated, next came a strong drive for food preparation appliances. This characterizes the ‘Adapt’ phase, with volume sales in the weeks between March 23 and April 26 up by +28 percent in Germany. The trend to ‘eat at home’ continued strongly post-lockdown, in what GfK terms the ‘Revenge Shopping’ phase. Here the food preparation category grew by +24.8 percent in value terms. All cooking categories enjoyed positive tractions as a result of this trend.»
So consumers invested in what could make their life easier, allowing to face necessities that people often satisfied out of home. Just as “eat at home” triggered sales for the cooking categories, other challenges like “groom at home” along with hygiene concerns and the non-availability of salons catalyzed sales of multigrooming kits (+53 percent) and beard trimmers (+56 percent). Similarly, the “clean-at-home” trend triggered sales of vacuum cleaners (+10 percent) and dishwashers (+5.6 percent).
«While COVID-19 sent shockwaves reverberating through the whole industry, from consumers to supply chain, – Norbert Herzog, GfK’s expert for the MDA industry, comments – the final outcome of a strong in-home focus led to the unexpected strong and fast recovery of markets postlockdowns. This “Revenge Shopping” phenomenon was particularly strong for home appliances as consumers proved happy to invest in solutions that supported them and saved them time in a busy work and schooling from home environment. Size definitely matters for consumers in this context and so capacity in MDA is emerging as a long-term driver due to the pandemic.»