Explore European home appliance chain brands. Are domestic brands popular here?
With the gradual growth of China's home appliance enterprises, going to sea has become an important development path for many home appliance enterprises at present. Then, in the European home appliance market with a long history, what is the development of domestic brands here? Recently, on the occasion of IFA2023, China Home Appliances Network also visited Media Markt in Germany, Media World, euronics, unieuro, Saturn and other well-known European home appliance chain stores in Italy to explore the differences between European home appliance market and China home appliance market, as well as the development of domestic brands in the European market.
The super-display mode and the difference of living habits lead to different product concerns.
The European appliance stores visited this time are also very representative. For example, MediaMarkt in Berlin was founded in 1979, and it is the largest chain brand of home appliances and consumer electronics in Europe. It belongs to Metro Group with another chain brand Saturn, which is spread all over European countries. Media World (the brand name of Media Markt in Italy), unieuro and euronics also have several chain stores, and the above chain brands occupy the main retail share of the European appliance market. It is also worth mentioning that the above-mentioned chain brands not only have offline stores, but also have opened online stores. Taking the German market as an example, in 2021, Media Markt ranked third with an online net income of 2.544 billion euros, an increase of 38.1% over the previous year. Italy's Media World's online sales in 2021 was 578 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 91%.
With the trend of household appliance consumption in China, brand nesting and scene display are often used in domestic household appliance retail channels to provide users with integrated solutions. However, unlike in China, European home appliance stores still adopt the mode of supermarket display by category. dressing the, an employee, gives users the impression that he is visiting a supermarket. Previously, when China Home Appliances Network visited regional home appliance stores in China, it was this model that Jiangxi Siping Electric Appliances and Shenzhen Shundian adopted. Compared with domestic regional home appliance stores that constantly adjust their display mode and retail mode with consumption changes, the display mode of European home appliance chain stores is biased towards tradition.
According to statista data, Europe is the main position of the global home appliance market, with annual sales revenue exceeding 100 billion US dollars, of which sales of refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers account for 60%. However, the European market has also been greatly affected by the inflationary pressure and the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the market has shrunk. According to GFK data, the retail volume of European household appliances market decreased by 8.1% in the first half of the year.
In the above four stores, the display area of ice washing products is far larger than that of air conditioning products. Air-conditioning is still a "niche" product in the European market, which is related to the local climate in Europe. According to local consumers, with the gradual increase of high temperature weather in recent years, air-conditioning products have gradually attracted the attention of European users such as Italy. However, due to the low sales volume of air-conditioning in the local area, the shortage of installation workers and the very low installation time limit, some users have not installed air-conditioning products for about a month after buying them.
Another significant difference from China's home appliance market is that the significant difference in life between China and the West makes the main products displayed in the store quite different from the best-selling products. For example, in the refrigerator products sold in the European market, the function of ice maker is almost standard. In the kitchen appliances, small western-style household appliances such as multi-head stoves, coffee machines, toasters, chefs, ovens and microwave ovens occupy a large display area. Surprisingly, the air fryer that is popular in China is also very popular among European consumers. The sharp differences in life also make users pay different attention to the functions of home appliances. Take the coffee machine, which is very popular in the European market, for example. Seiko in Germany is famous all over the world, and its people also love handwork very much, which reflects that they also love to buy manual coffee machines instead of automatic ones, so they can experience the happiness of personalized customization.
In addition, similar to the popularity of emerging categories such as domestic cleaning appliances and personal care appliances, sweeping robots, vacuum cleaners and floor washers in cleaning appliances, and electric toothbrushes, hair dryers and hairdressers in personal care products are dazzling in the above-mentioned stores, and even many products occupy the golden position of promotion.
The category of household appliances is stronger, and domestic brands go deep into the hinterland of European household appliances.
As we all know, Europe is the birthplace of many world-renowned home appliance brands. However, many European home appliance brands have been "pocketed" by domestic home appliance manufacturers. Among them, Haier acquired the famous Italian home appliance brand Candy in 2019; Hisense has successively acquired European home appliance brands ASKO and gorenje, and Midea has acquired European central air-conditioning company Clivet, etc. At this IFA2023 exhibition, the above-mentioned China brands also participated with their European brands.
However, we are more concerned about the popularity of domestic home appliance enterprises' own brands in the European market. In the above four major home appliance stores, the reporter from China Home Appliances Network also saw many China home appliance brands. For example, in euronics and unieuro stores, Hisense and TCL have very rich TV product display models and compete with Samsung and LG on the same stage. Among the ice-washed products in the four stores, Haier and Hisense brands are quite a few, and there is an independent display area of Haier in the Media World store in Italy. Among the emerging categories such as sweeping robots and washing machines, the performance of domestic rookie brands is also surprising. In many stores, there are samples of domestic brand products such as Cobos, Xiaomi and Zhuimi. Small household appliances brands such as Sushi can also be seen in several household appliances products, but more domestic OEM models are capturing the European market.
China enterprises are accelerating the pace of expansion in the European market. Haier's latest semi-annual report for 2023 mentioned that "in the European market, Haier achieved sales revenue of 13.278 billion yuan, up 29.6% year-on-year, and its retail volume share increased by 1.1 percentage points to 7.9%, and its retail sales share increased by 1.7 percentage points to 7.1%, ranking fourth and fifth respectively." In June this year, Haier's new headquarters in Europe landed in Italy, further strengthening the brand's influence in the European market. Yannick Fierling, CEO of Haier Europe, said in an interview with IFA2023 that Haier has upgraded from a traditional enterprise selling products to provide users with smart solutions, relying on which Haier has achieved high growth in the European market. In addition, Haier's products equipped with smart interconnection function in the European market have reached 40%, and will reach 100% in the future. Haier may also apply the concept of open and innovative enterprises that have been successfully explored in China to the European market. According to Yannick, "In the European market, Haier tries to regard itself as a start-up. Under this concept, we will cooperate with other start-ups, including relevant third parties."
According to Hisense's data, from January to June this year, Hisense's sales in laser tv increased by three digits year-on-year in German, Italian and other European markets. In the euronics store, the reporter from China State Grid also saw many kinds of products, including refrigerators, washing machines and ovens, including Hisense TV. Han Jianmin, general manager of Hisense Europe, said that in the past three years, Hisense has achieved a year-on-year growth of 15-20% in the European market, and the future goal is to achieve an annual revenue of 5 billion euros in the European market by 2025, with a market share of 10%. "Continuous learning and adaptation to the local has always existed in Hisense's genes, and continuous R&D investment is the cornerstone of Hisense's innovation".
Cobos has also flexibly adjusted its overseas business strategy. In the first half of 2023, the overseas business income of Cobos brand increased by 26.5% year-on-year, and that of Tianke brand increased by 24.2% year-on-year, accounting for 34.3% and 30.9% of their respective incomes, up by 7.1 and 3.2 percentage points respectively compared with the same period of last year. Its semi-annual report mentioned that "it has achieved good development in the European market".
From the performance of European home appliance stores, it is not difficult to see the aggressive attitude of China's home appliance brands, especially in the overseas market performance of their own brands. Various home appliance enterprises have continuously improved the market share of their own brands, and comprehensive brands have continuously optimized the structural advantages of all categories, striving to win the favor of more overseas consumers.
IFA Exhibition is an important exhibition platform and output window for European household appliances market. In this year's exhibition, China household appliances enterprises have invested a lot in both exhibition area and exhibition form, and the European market is still a "battleground" for China household appliances enterprises to go to sea. However, we should also see that there are many excellent local brands such as Bosch, Siemens, Miele, Liebherr, AEG, Electrolux, etc. in the European market. Japanese and Korean brands Samsung, LG, Panasonic, and the rising Turkish household appliances brands have created competitive pressure on domestic brands. If China brand wants to stand in the European market, it should not only strengthen the influence of its own brands in the European market, Under the background of stricter European new energy efficiency standards for household appliances and the influence of overseas trade barriers, on the one hand, we should improve the product energy efficiency standards to meet the sustainable development requirements of the local market for green energy conservation, and at the same time, we should enhance the local comprehensive adaptability of China brands, so as to be closer to local consumers in product functions and marketing innovations and form stronger competitiveness.