Deep integration of technology and scene: refrigerators enter the era of "embedding"

On May 26, 2023, under the guidance of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and hosted by China Home Appliance Network, the "Zhimei Fresh QIAN Tukeqi -2023 China Refrigerator Industry Summit Forum" was held in Yichang, Hubei. At the meeting, representative refrigerator brands such as Bosch Home Appliances, Casati, COLMO, Xinfei, Haier, Hisense, Konka, Leader, LIBRA Leiborui, Meiling, Midea, Panasonic, Rongsheng, Siemens Home Appliances, TCL, Toshiba, Whirlpool, and Wanbao gathered, as well as exclusive channel partner Jingdong Home Appliances, data support unit Ovi Cloud, as well as third-party platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu, Explored and exchanged ideas on the current development status and future trends of the refrigerator industry

On May 26, 2023, under the guidance of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and hosted by China Home Appliance Network, the "Zhimei Fresh QIAN Tukeqi -2023 China Refrigerator Industry Summit Forum" was held in Yichang, Hubei. At the meeting, representative refrigerator brands such as Bosch Home Appliances, Casati, COLMO, Xinfei, Haier, Hisense, Konka, Leader, LIBRA Leiborui, Meiling, Midea, Panasonic, Rongsheng, Siemens Home Appliances, TCL, Toshiba, Whirlpool, and Wanbao gathered, as well as exclusive channel partner Jingdong Home Appliances, data support unit Ovi Cloud, as well as third-party platforms such as Weibo and Zhihu, Explored and exchanged ideas on the current development status and future trends of the refrigerator industry.

"Low growth" has become the New Normal, and structural upgrading based on user needs has become a common practice

After experiencing a three-year trough, the consumer market is rapidly returning to normal: in the first quarter, the total retail sales of consumer goods increased by 5.8% year-on-year, contributing 66.6% to economic growth; The May Day holiday goes from the crowds in the tourist attraction to the fireworks in Zibo barbecue and the hard to find concert tickets A wave of retaliatory consumption is sweeping across more and more industries.

Focusing on the refrigerator market, according to recent visits and research conducted by the organizers, the refrigerator category opened earlier than other categories. The spring opening effect, payment collection and stocking efforts, and shipping performance of most enterprises are relatively ideal or even higher than expectations. However, from the retail end, compared to high expectations and high shipments of enterprises, the recovery of refrigerator consumption still needs time. According to AVC's overall data, from January to April this year, the retail volume of the domestic refrigerator and freezer market increased by -1.3% and 2.4% respectively year-on-year, and the retail volume increased by 5.8% and -1.3% respectively.

This is related to the high number of refrigerators and low-frequency consumption attributes, as well as the early replacement of large refrigerators and refrigerators during the three-year epidemic period, "said Wang Lei, Secretary General of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, in a speech at the meeting. Despite the pressure of market scale restoration, the refrigerator market still maintains basic competitive rationality, especially with a significant rebound in the offline market. This is also what I want to express to everyone: our industry and enterprises should increase their confidence. At the same time, Wang Lei mentioned that it is an undoubted objective reality that refrigerators have entered the stock market, and "low growth" has become the New Normal. Under the New Normal, most of the market growth is driven by renewal demand, which requires refrigerator enterprises to promote the upgrading of the consumer market with innovation driven and optimized product structure, so as to touch consumers to replace refrigerators.

Wang Lei, Secretary General of China Household Electrical Appliances Association

At the meeting, He Jinming, Vice President of Ovi Cloud Network, also mentioned during the analysis of refrigerator market data that refrigerators, as a traditional home appliance industry, have entered the final stage of structural upgrading, with stable overall scale, intensified Matthew effect, and solidified product form. The key to future market competition lies in grasping the segmented market and breaking through the scene product form. "From the bottom logic, in the past, it was more to meet the functional value, but now the product value is not just the functional value. Whether it can create emotional value, pleasure value and other intrinsic value other than the product function becomes the key, which is the change of the core bottom logic of our refrigerator industry - functional demand turns to value demand. Therefore, the product demand based on the value demand will further improve the industry's operation quality", He Jinming said.

He Jinming, Vice President of Ovi Cloud Network

Many refrigerator companies present at the meeting highly agree with this, stating that the refrigerator industry has entered a "stable" stage of development, and market competition has shifted from product led price competition to user led multidimensional strength games. Correspondingly, refrigerator companies also need to meet the different needs and preferences of consumers through differentiated functions and designs, in order to maintain an advantageous position in market competition.

Taking Midea Refrigerator as an example, Wang Zhe, the head of Midea Refrigerator Preservation Laboratory, stated that Midea has launched its rapid flavor purification technology since 2019 to solve the sterilization and purification of space. At the beginning of this year, it also launched pulse sterilization technology, which can penetrate packaging bags to sterilize and better preserve food ingredients, which has gained great recognition in both product and consumer sectors. Because it is not only an upgrade iteration of technology, but also essentially a return to users' actual storage scenarios, helping them solve their actual pain points, and thus allowing users to consume our ingredients with greater confidence and peace of mind

Wang Zhe, Director of Midea Refrigerator Preservation Laboratory

Wang Qi, Director of Panasonic Home Appliance Marketing Center

Since the formation of the "Konka+Xinfei" dual brand operation model by Konka in 2018, Wan Li, General Manager of the Marketing Department of Konka White Home Appliances Business Headquarters and Deputy General Manager of Konka Tongchuang Electric Appliances, summarized that Konka's iteration of refrigerator technology is more about "persistence". From the previous generation of '15 days of ecological freshness' to the current' double 15 days of ecological freshness', Konka brand refrigerators have always been iteratively upgrading with preservation as the main direction. The core technical direction of Xinfei brand is' sterilization '. For us, the key to scale up is on the one hand to adhere to and deepen the technical route, and on the other hand to continuously grasp user needs

Wan Li, General Manager of the Marketing Department of Kangjia White Home Appliances Business Headquarters and Deputy General Manager of Kangjia Tongchuang Electric Appliances

Seeking Value from "Scenarios" and Entering the "Embedded" Era in the Refrigerator Industry

Under the dual leadership of technological innovation and consumption upgrading, it has become a consensus among refrigerator enterprises to drive product structure upgrading with both user demand and core technology, and to leverage consumer demand for new products. But how to promote innovation based on insight into demand is something that the entire refrigerator industry needs to seriously consider. From the demand side, in recent years, the core needs of consumers for refrigerator products such as "freshness preservation", "purification", "moisturizing", and "sterilization" have not changed. However, with the changes or upgrades in consumer payment ability, aesthetic needs, family population, living environment, and food width, the form and function of refrigerators are continuously evolving.

From the perspective of the refrigerator industry as a whole, embedded refrigerators are a new trend after the popularization of air-cooled refrigerators, "said Cai Ruichen, an ice washing product operation expert at JD Home Appliances Business Unit. Based on the increasing demand for food storage by Chinese people, the variety of stored ingredients is becoming wider and more diverse, and limited by the size of the kitchen area and the aesthetic integration of home appliances and home furnishings, the embedded refrigerator form has a large capacity Partitioned storage and ultra-thin embedding have been able to grow rapidly. Under this trend, JD Home Appliances' ultra-thin embedded refrigerators have maintained a high growth rate of over three digits since the beginning of this year, which has also driven the overall growth rate of JD Home Appliances' refrigerators to remain above two digits.

Cai Ruichen, an expert in ice washing product operation at JD Home Appliances Business Unit

According to data from Ovi Cloud Network, the proportion of retail sales in the offline market of embedded refrigerators has increased from 19.1% in 2022 to 23.1% in the first quarter of 2023. It is expected that this year, the overall sales will approach 30% -35%. Obviously, embedded refrigerators that can achieve integrated home design and effectively save home space are highly favored by consumers. At present, with the improvement of living standards, people have increasingly high aesthetic requirements for their home living environment. In this potential demand, home integration has become a popular choice for many families, "said Li Yuan, an architectural decoration engineer, BIM senior engineer, and invited designer from the International Association of Designers. Starting from his own field, refrigerators are one of the indispensable electrical appliances in family life, In response to the consumer demand for home integration, he has seen many brands launch embedded products one after another, providing consumers with more new choices to meet the aesthetic needs of their homes. From the perspective of the designer, Zhao Zeming, an excellent respondent at Zhihu, also mentioned that due to space limitations and a focus on energy consumption and beauty, the younger mainstream consumer group will focus on considering embedded refrigerator products that have high beauty and are more energy-efficient and can match the home style when choosing refrigerators.

Architectural Decoration Engineer, Senior BIM Engineer, Invited Designer of the International Association of Designers Li Yuan

Zhihu Excellent Respondent Zhao Zeming

From free style, free embedded, to zero distance free embedded, to the original flat embedded design we share today, based on the kitchen home scale, supported by six major embedded designs (block fusion embedded, centrifugal track hinge, bottom front heat dissipation, line to line communication design, bottom circulating air curtain, anti tilt leveling installation), Sati Refrigerator is committed to leading the overall upgrade of kitchen home aesthetics. For the new trend of embedded refrigerators, Haier Refrigerator Embedded Product Director Wang Zhiwei emphasized that Cassati Refrigerator will be driven by user demand and always adhere to continuous innovation in the direction of home integration.

Wang Zhiwei, Director of Embedded Products for Haier Refrigerators

With the continuous popularity of embedded refrigerators, Bosi Home Appliances is also leading the vigorous development of this trend. At the meeting, according to Wang Yupeng, Vice President of Bosch Refrigeration Products Business Unit, through a video speech, Bosch Home Appliances, a brand under Bosch Home Appliances, launched a professional embedded refrigerator that can seamlessly fit into cabinets and integrate into the overall kitchen, making the living environment cleaner and more beautiful. The Siemens StudioLine series embedded refrigerators under Bosi Home Appliances include four basic items: French multi door, wine cabinet, single refrigerated refrigerator, and single refrigerated refrigerator. They can be combined and matched arbitrarily to create an elegant "preservation wall".

Wang Yupeng, Vice President of Bosi Refrigeration Products Business Unit, shared through video

This year, the refrigerator industry will mainly focus on the improvement of two segmented markets, one is the increasingly prominent trend of large capacity, and the other is the trend trend of embedded technology. "In the view of Wang Shouchun, the director of Whirlpool's South China region, embedded technology may be the next step in the development of ice boxes, from the current zero embedded to full embedded. Based on this, Whirlpool Refrigerator has launched the W9 series of embedded refrigerators, which seamlessly integrate into cabinets with a unique fully embedded design. Personalized cabinet door panels can also be customized according to preferences, presenting a consistent and more tidy and comfortable spatial layout, giving infinite possibilities for home aesthetics.

Wang Shouchun, Director of Whirlpool South China Region

It is worth mentioning that at the meeting, China Home Appliances Network and JD Home Appliances jointly released the "2023 China Embedded Refrigerator Consumption Guide". Through this consumption guide, on the one hand, it sorted out the new technologies in the embedded refrigerator industry, and also played a guiding role for consumers to purchase refrigerators.

Seizing trends is a prerequisite for seizing market opportunities. As a comprehensive embedded refrigerator becomes an important part of the layout in the new generation kitchen scenario, mainstream refrigerator enterprises have jointly launched integrated innovation in home appliances, aesthetics, and technology. Facing the future, as emphasized by Wang Lei, we hope that more refrigerator companies can bring consumers the willingness to exchange innovative products, bring value to consumers through innovative technology, and also bring benefits to enterprises, in line with consumers' needs for a better life.