The 15th “Double 11” shopping festival is a little bit quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of previous years due to routinely live streaming sales, frequently launched promotions and consumers’ increased rationality. But sales of kitchen appliances stand out with strong momentum. According to online monitored data from All View Cloud, the overall sales value of the kitchen and bathroom market during the “Double 11” shopping festival reached 13.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%. Among them, range hoods, electric water heaters and gas water heaters achieved high growth with an obvious upgrading trend; dishwashers, disinfecting cabinets, built-in kitchen appliances and water filters maintained a high level of prosperity.

Haier is an example. According to its sales report for “Double 11” shopping festival released at 24:00 on November 11, 2023, Haier saw a 35% sales growth of kitchen appliances YoY of which ultra-thin counter depth range hoods and built-in combi ovens stood out with sales of the latter up 293% YoY. In addition, according to the “pre-sale transaction list” released by Tmall, sales of kitchen air conditioners rose 1800% YoY, and built-in refrigerators 450% YoY, showing strong growing momentum. It’s safe to say that sales of kitchen appliances during “Double 11” festival has shifted from high quantity growth to high quality growth, which is in line with the current cyclical characteristics of the kitchen appliance market with the new demands slowing down and the replacement demands rising to be the main driving force. The industry has entered a stage of structural upgrading.

The structural upgrade of kitchen appliances in its new cycle

As kitchen gradually takes the role of the living room as the center of the Chinese family life, the upgrade of kitchen appliances has become a major growth engine. Reflecting this trend, kitchen appliance enterprises have adjusted their development strategies. Before the “Double 11” festival of this year, Fotile announced its brand positioning of “high-end, whole-scenario kitchen appliance brand”. Through the construction of its three centers of cooking, cleaning, and storage, Fotile has connected the entire process before, during, and after meals. Similarly, companies such as Robam, Vatti, Vanward, and Haier have all made similar strategic adjustments towards integrated, built-in, high-end, smart appliances, with each of them emphasizing different aspects.

During the “Double 11” shopping festival, Robam promoted its digital kitchen appliances. Ren Fujia, President of Robam, believes that digitalization is a definite future trend for everything, and kitchen appliance industry is no exception. Robam aims to participate in the whole cooking process of users through its AI cooking assistant that is powered by technologies such as AI algorithm and voice analysis to allow users have a better control of heat and time and customize their own digital cooking recipes.

Each year, AWE provides a concentrated presentation of changes in the Chinese kitchens.
A glimpse of the new definitions of Chinese kitchens at AWE

At AWE2023, Haier used a whole exhibition hall to display the innovations made in its multiple brands. As to kitchen scenarios, Casarte, Haier’s high-end brand, presented visitors the beauty of simplicity through its Yunyan white color scheme and its counter depth design. Besides, it also displayed its luxurious Connoisseur series, tech-filled “Starry Sky” collection, and boundaryless kitchen design, presenting the evolution of China’s high-end kitchens from different angles.

Under the theme of “Make every day extraordinary”, Siemens established kitchen scenarios including smart fresh keeping, smart cooking smoke control, smart dishwashing to show consumers its high quality of intelligence, German craftsmanship and exquisite design. Rinnai displayed its “White Lover” series and its ranges of macaron colors to allow users of different age groups to have personalized products to their likings.

Besides, integrated kitchen appliances have also been a highlight of kitchen appliances displayed at AWE2023. Marssenger’s all-in-one integrated kitchen stove combines the functions of range hood, range, combi oven as well as chef machine together to expand the product’s functions, fully showing its advantage in small kitchens. At AWE2023, Vatti displayed many ultrathin range hoods which later turned out to be their best-selling models this year.

The industry trend report released by the AWE Organizing Committee pointed out ten trends of the home appliance industry such as intelligence, digitalization, home appliance packages and scenario-based products, green and low carbon, health orientation, demographic-based products, integration and the heart pleasing aesthetics in design. These trends can be reflected in kitchen appliances too. Take the trend of health orientation as an example. Besides healthy ingredients, consumers are also concerned about the cooking process and the cleanliness of tableware. This has made refrigerators with strong fresh keeping function and dishwashers with high-temperature sterilization popular. In just seven years, the market size of dishwashers expanded from 2 billion to 10 billion Yuan.

AWE reflects the transformation of China’s home appliance and consumer electronics industry, as well as changes in the Chinese way of life.

Currently, mainstream domestic and international kitchen appliance companies such as Fisher & Paykel, AEG, Siemens, Fotile, Robam, Vatti, Macro, Vanward, Viomi, Vaillant, Rinnai, Noritz, Golden Home, DE&E, Cooking Future, MQ, Meida, Sanfer, Marssenger, SENG, Entive, KINDE have decided to join AWE2024. With the gradual recovery of market confidence, kitchen appliance companies are gearing up for AWE 2024.