Home Appliances Online Shopping Analysis Report in the First Half of 2013

In the first half of 2013, with the continuous expansion of information consumption in my country, e-commerce has grown rapidly. Online shopping has become one of the main ways for people to buy home appliances due to its advantages of breaking through time and space restrictions, more competitive prices, more product choices, and rich and effective product information. From the perspective of market size, product coverage, penetration rate, user attention and participation, etc., online shopping for home appliances has become a sector that cannot be ignored in China's e-commerce field.

(I) The scale of online home appliance shopping continues to expand, and its proportion in overall home appliance consumption is rising

According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, from January to June this year, the transaction volume of my country's online shopping market reached 855.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.2%, accounting for 7.7% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. The transaction volume of my country's online shopping market in the first half of this year given by third-party research institution iResearch is close to this, at 789.2 billion yuan.

Based on data from various sources, this report believes that the scale of my country's B2C home appliance online shopping market (including mobile phones and tablet computers) reached 53 billion yuan in the first half of 2013. Among them, four major home appliances, including flat-screen TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners, accounted for about 25.8%, reaching 13.7 billion yuan; small home appliances accounted for 5 billion yuan; and mobile phones reached 30 billion yuan.

With the improvement of logistics, payment, after-sales guarantee and other systems, as well as the increasing expansion of online shopping consumer groups and the further formation of online shopping concepts, online shopping has become a major choice for consumers to purchase home appliances, and the proportion of online home appliance shopping in overall home appliance consumption has continued to increase. According to statistics, in the first half of this year, online sales of flat-panel TVs accounted for 8.3% of the total retail sales of color TVs in the domestic market, and the proportion of online mobile phone sales in the overall mobile phone sales increased from 9% last year to 13.8% in the first half of this year. The proportion of white appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines has also increased significantly. Some emerging home appliance categories, such as air purifiers, have had high sales and popularity in the online market since their birth.

(II) Brand enterprises accelerate the layout of e-commerce channels, and e-commerce channels become more mainstream

As e-commerce channels have become an indispensable and important channel for home appliance consumption, in the first half of 2013, home appliance brand companies further adjusted their channel strategies and increased their layout of e-commerce channels. It can be said that in the first half of this year, the home appliance online shopping market clearly reflected the characteristics of "early layout, early benefits, fast transformation and fast results". Generally speaking, domestic brands have laid out e-commerce earlier and better than foreign brands. Haier, Konka and Hisense are all companies that laid out early; Skyworth and Changhong made major channel adjustments for e-commerce in the first half of this year, and the results were significant in June; LG's move to attach importance to e-commerce channels in the first half of this year was relatively prominent among foreign brands, and it quickly formed a large team.

Overall, e-commerce channels are becoming a mainstream channel for home appliance sales.

(III) E-commerce channels are highly concentrated, and professional platform-based online shopping malls have obvious advantages

B2C online shopping malls are still the most mainstream consumer channel for home appliance online shopping, and the concentration is high. In the first half of this year, on the one hand, the "price war" between B2C platform companies has focused the attention and purchasing power of online shoppers on B2C platforms; on the other hand, online shoppers' consumption behavior has become more rational, and they have higher requirements for the quality of online shopping products, especially home appliances, and the scale and concentration of B2C home appliance sales have further increased.

In June this year, JD.com's "June Big Sale" to celebrate its 10th anniversary greatly increased the sales of its home appliances. During the three-day store anniversary (June 17th to 19th), home appliances alone (excluding mobile phones and tablets) achieved a transaction volume of 1.59 billion yuan, and on June 18th, the store anniversary day, it achieved the largest single-day sales of 750 million yuan.

Despite the continuous efforts of new platforms such as Yixun in the first half of this year, the three major home appliance online shopping platforms, JD.com, Tmall, and Suning.com, remain unshakable. The combined sales of the three account for more than 90% of the overall home appliance online shopping. At the same time, JD.com has become the largest professional online mall in the home appliance and 3C digital fields with a share of nearly 50%.

(IV) Price is still the main driving force for purchases, and the phenomenon of online shopping following the crowd is obvious

Looking at the products with the highest sales volume in each category of the home appliance online shopping market in the first half of this year, without exception, they are products with lower unit prices in the category. There are two factors behind this: one is price drive, and the other is the herd effect. Products that some manufacturers and merchants "put on special prices" are easy to attract netizens to buy, and more people buying them may attract more comments. "Choosing products based on comments" is an important behavioral habit in consumers' online shopping behavior. Therefore, more comments can attract a group of people to buy, and so on, it can form high popularity and high sales. However, high-end products have fewer opportunities to trigger comments, and the proportion of people who buy high-end products writing comments is far less than that of low-end product buyers, so the herd effect that high-end products can drive is small.

Interestingly, due to the openness and anonymity of the Internet, after the process of "creating festivals to lower prices - rushing to increase sales - commenting to attract popularity - attracting sales", the magical network platform can screen out truly cost-effective products. Therefore, if you want to achieve high sales on online shopping platforms, the most fundamental link is that companies must put cost-effective products on e-commerce platforms with operational capabilities at the most essential prices.

(V) Online home appliances vary in size, and the trend towards high-end products is strengthening

From the perspective of product categories, in the first half of 2013, when consumers shopped for home appliances online, it was still easier to promote sales of small-sized and priced products and products for personal use than large-sized and family-use products. However, the online shopping volume of large home appliances is growing at a rate of several times.

In JD.com, among traditional home appliances other than mobile phones and tablets, the top ten products in terms of online sales in the first half of this year are: razors, sockets, electric kettles/thermos bottles, flat-screen TVs, electric fans, hair dryers, telephones, rice cookers, refrigerators, and air conditioners. Obviously, as a traditional large appliance, the sales ranking of flat-screen TVs is far higher than that of typical small appliances such as rice cookers, not to mention sales, while the sales of refrigerators and air conditioners have also increased by more than 100% year-on-year.

It is not just the product categories that are expanding the boundaries of home appliance online shopping. As the home appliance online shopping market matures, as the concept of online shopping becomes more popular, and as the number of online shoppers increases, the home appliance online shopping market has also shown a trend of expanding products to high-end in the first half of this year. For example, the sales performance of refrigerators in the price range of 6,000 to 8,000 yuan in the first half of this year was very eye-catching; the share of high-end air conditioners above 3,000 yuan in the online shopping market in the first half of this year has reached nearly 30%; the sales share of online smart TVs is also increasing.

(VI) People born in the 1980s and 1990s are most interested in online shopping for home appliances, with the male to female ratio of “paying the bill” being 5:1

Online shoppers are younger than offline shoppers, but among online shoppers, home appliance online shoppers are slightly older, with those aged 25 to 40 accounting for the largest proportion, exceeding 60%. This is the result of the family-oriented nature of home appliance consumption and the main age groups of netizens. Users aged 19 to 24 pay much attention to online home appliance shopping, but their purchasing power is slightly weaker than that of the above age groups at present. Of course, this group will be the main force of online home appliance shopping in the future.

As the age of Internet users continues to polarize, the age of home appliance online shopping users is also showing an increasingly divergent trend, with older users showing an upward trend in activity. Among home appliance online shopping users, those with a bachelor's degree or above account for 65%, and the highly educated group has become the main user group for home appliance online shopping.

In terms of income, middle-income people are the majority of home appliance online shopping users, with those with a monthly income of 4,000 to 5,000 yuan accounting for the largest proportion, at 38.6%. JD.com's sales data shows that in the first half of this year, each home appliance online shopping user purchased an average of 2 home appliances, with an average consumption of about 1,500 yuan.

From a regional perspective, North China, East China and South China are the regions with a higher proportion of home appliance online shopping. Due to the limitations of logistics and distribution, home appliance online shopping consumers are currently mainly concentrated in large and medium-sized cities. With the increasingly improved logistics and distribution systems of mainstream e-commerce companies, the scale of home appliance online shopping in western regions and second- and third-tier markets is rapidly expanding.

Market analysis of home appliance online shopping categories in the first half of 2013

Small and medium-sized flat-panel TVs dominate, with domestic brands leading the way

From January to June this year, the total domestic sales volume of color TVs in my country increased by 35.6%, among which online retail sales grew rapidly. By the end of June, online sales of flat-panel TVs had exceeded 2 million units, with sales exceeding 6 billion yuan. Compared with the same period last year, the growth rates of online sales and sales were both over 100%, and the sales volume accounted for nearly 8.3% of the total retail volume. It is estimated that the annual sales volume will account for 12% of the total retail volume.

From the perspective of size segment, online flat-panel TV products show the characteristics of gradually transitioning from small size to medium and large size. In the first half of this year, 32-inch flat-panel TVs accounted for 39% of the total online sales of flat-panel TVs. Medium-sized flat-panel TVs ranging from 32 inches to 43 inches became the second largest size segment in online sales with a market share of 34.1% in the first half of the year. The online sales of flat-panel TVs in this size segment accounted for about 25% of the overall online sales of flat-panel TVs, and the proportion is expected to increase slightly in the second half of the year. Medium-sized to large-sized flat-panel TVs ranging from 46 inches to 55 inches are quietly rising, with the proportion of online sales increasing from 14.9% in January to 21.2% in June, and accounting for 17.2% of the overall online sales in the first half of the year. From the perspective of different price segments, online shopping of flat-panel TVs shows that medium and low prices dominate, and the average price and mainstream price ranges slowly move up. Products in the price range of 2,000 to 3,999 yuan in the first half of the year accounted for 39.3% of the overall online sales of flat-panel TVs. Mainstream medium-sized flat-panel TVs such as 39 inches, 40 inches, and 42 inches and some medium and large-sized flat-panel TVs of 46 inches are mainly concentrated in this price range.

From a brand perspective, the online shopping market for flat-panel TVs is dominated by domestic brands and followed by international brands. In the first half of this year, among the overall sales of flat-panel TVs on JD.com, Konka's online sales were quite impressive, mainly due to the fact that its e-commerce department developed and released flat-panel TVs suitable for the online shopping market in a targeted manner according to the characteristics of online shopping, which reduced costs while making the price more competitive. Hisense's flat-panel TVs have achieved a good balance in appearance, function, performance and price, while maintaining a large number of online channel product releases. Therefore, its online sales of flat-panel TVs have remained at a high level with little fluctuation. However, since February, the proportion of Hisense's online sales of flat-panel TVs has shown a slight decline month by month. This requires Hisense to pay enough attention to find out the reasons for the decline in sales and release more competitive products to the online shopping market.

In the first half of this year, Skyworth's online sales showed a relatively stable trend of decline followed by growth. Skyworth seized the opportunity of the big promotion in June and enriched the categories of online sales products, becoming the flat-panel TV manufacturer with the largest sales in June. Changhong and TCL put fewer flat-panel TV models on sale online, but they were highly targeted. Among them, Changhong's online sales of flat-panel TVs increased significantly in June.

Sony, LG, Sharp and Samsung are foreign companies that have performed relatively well in the field of online shopping. Due to the relatively high prices of their products and the small number of product categories launched in online channels, their share of online shopping sales is still somewhat behind that of leading domestic manufacturers. Among them, it is worth mentioning that LG has focused on deploying e-commerce channels since this year and increased its product launches in online channels. In the first half of the year, the proportion of online purchases of flat-panel TVs has increased slightly month by month. Foreign brands are constrained by the construction of sales channels and their performance in the offline market is not satisfactory. Today, when the proportion of online shopping is increasing, if online channels can be deployed early and more products suitable for online channel sales can be launched based on the characteristics of online shopping, foreign brands will gradually get out of the predicament in the Chinese flat-panel TV market.

Manufacturers ranked tenth or below in terms of online shopping sales will find it difficult to achieve greater breakthroughs due to insufficient brand awareness or too small sales volume. In the future, their market share may be gradually eroded by manufacturers ranked higher.

Fixed frequency air conditioners dominate, and foreign brands are in a complete defeat

If we only look at the year-on-year growth in sales volume and sales of major home appliances in the first half of the year, air conditioners have the lowest growth rate among all categories, but even so, both have exceeded 100%, with the growth rate of retail sales approaching 150%. From January to June, the online sales volume of air conditioners was about 1.05 million units, with retail sales approaching 3 billion yuan.

Offline, variable frequency air conditioners that are more energy-efficient and have more applications have replaced fixed frequency air conditioners and become the mainstream, occupying half of the overall market. However, the above pattern has not yet been formed online. In terms of sales scale, fixed frequency still has an overwhelming advantage over variable frequency. From January to June, the market share of fixed frequency air conditioners and variable frequency air conditioners was 67% and 33% respectively, with the former being twice that of the latter. However, in terms of retail sales share, due to the higher price of variable frequency air conditioners, the gap between variable frequency air conditioners and fixed frequency air conditioners is not so obvious. Compared with the same period last year, the retail volume and retail sales of fixed frequency air conditioners decreased by 6% and 10% respectively. In sharp contrast, the retail volume and retail sales of variable frequency air conditioners increased by 6% and 10% respectively. The rise and fall of fixed frequency air conditioners and variable frequency air conditioners also reflects that the popularization of high-efficiency air conditioners brought about by the upgrading of the air conditioning industry structure and product upgrades has not only affected offline, but also quietly changed the consumption trend online.

The energy efficiency level distribution in the online air-conditioning market is similar to that in the offline market, but there are also some differences. Similar to the offline market, in the fixed-frequency market, the second-level and third-level energy efficiency products are the mainstream, ranking first and second with a market share of 45% and 22% respectively. However, consumers are increasingly inclined to buy products with high energy efficiency levels, which can be clearly seen from the reversal of the market position between the above two types of products: compared with last year, the market share of the second-level energy efficiency fixed-frequency products soared by 37 percentage points, while the third-level energy efficiency fixed-frequency products fell sharply by 43 percentage points, giving up the first place in market share. Judging from the development trend, the share gap between the two will widen in the second half of the year.

From the perspective of price changes in the online air-conditioning market, the growth of products in the price range of 2,000 to 2,999 yuan is the most obvious in the total amount of online air-conditioning purchases. As of June, the market share of products in this price range has climbed to 48.6%, almost accounting for half of the overall market, far higher than products in other price ranges. The market share of products in the price range of 3,000 to 3,999 yuan and products above 4,000 yuan has also steadily increased, reaching 16.4% and 10.4% respectively. Correspondingly, the market share of low-priced products has continued to decline. According to the monitoring data of CMM, products below 1,300 yuan and products in the price range of 1,500 to 1,800 yuan have the largest year-on-year declines, reaching 6% and 12% respectively. If 3,000 yuan is used as the boundary for dividing high-end and low-end air-conditioning products, the market share of high-end products above 3,000 yuan online has approached 30%, achieving one-third of the overall air-conditioning market, which is consistent with the consumption upgrade trend of the offline air-conditioning market. In the increasingly competitive online air-conditioning market, high-end products will inevitably become an important bargaining chip for corporate competition. It is expected that with the economic recovery in the second half of the year and the gradual commissioning of urban affordable housing, online air conditioner consumption demand will also rise. However, it should be noted that there are still some variables in the above judgment. For example, the new national energy efficiency standard for variable frequency air conditioners to be implemented in the second half of the year will have a great impact on the fluctuation of online and offline air conditioner sales prices.

In the online air conditioning market, wall-mounted air conditioners have an absolute advantage. Among wall-mounted air conditioners, 1HP and 1.5HP products are the most popular, with retail sales accounting for 34% and 33% respectively. Among cabinet air conditioners, 2HP and 3HP products are the most popular among consumers, with retail sales accounting for 9% and 6% of the overall market respectively. It is not difficult to see that wall-mounted air conditioners with large cooling capacity cannot generate enough appeal to consumers. The small sales scale of large-capacity wall-mounted units is related to the current housing situation in my country and the product design of air conditioner manufacturers. Most domestic residential houses are "large living rooms and small bedrooms". Some large-capacity wall-mounted units are large in size and not beautiful when hung; some have cooling capacity that does not match the size of the room, so consumers have to choose cabinet units instead.

The online performance of the three traditional players in the air-conditioning industry in the first half of the year is still eye-catching, but the advantage is far less obvious than offline. The share of second-tier brands AUX, Chigo, Hisense, Kelon, Changhong, and TCL has increased by 10% compared with last year. Since the beginning of this year, more and more air-conditioning companies have begun to pay attention to the development and construction of e-commerce channels, especially the investment in JD.com platform. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the strength of domestic air-conditioning brands offline is further amplified online. Taking the sales data of JD.com as an example, foreign brands have been completely defeated, and no company has entered the top ten in sales. This also reflects from one aspect that foreign brands lack competitiveness in the domestic air-conditioning market.

Second-tier brands such as AUX, Chigo, Changhong, and TCL performed relatively well, with their market shares increasing to varying degrees compared to the same period last year. Foreign brands still played a supporting role in the online market in the first half of the year. The market share of companies such as Panasonic, Daikin, and Mitsubishi Electric is even less than 1%. In terms of product strategy, foreign companies emphasize technical selling points and focus on the high-end market. As the online sales of variable frequency air conditioners continue to rise, foreign companies with technological advantages but limited scale may usher in market expansion opportunities.

Refrigerators have seen a significant increase in volume and value, with high-end products gaining popularity

In the first half of this year, online sales of refrigerators continued to grow rapidly, with the growth rate far exceeding that of offline sales in terms of both retail volume and retail sales. As of June, online sales of refrigerators exceeded 1.6 million units, with sales reaching 2.8 billion yuan, an increase of more than 250% compared with the same period last year, much higher than the offline market, which is slowly recovering. Behind the accelerated migration of sales from offline to online, the online market for refrigerators has shown the characteristics of the rise in large-volume products, the acceleration of high-end popularization, and the popularity of air cooling.

From the perspective of the volume of refrigerators purchased online, as people born in the 1980s and 1990s become the main consumers and online shopping consumers begin to develop into large families, the trend of 191-230-liter refrigerators dominating online shopping is gradually strengthening. From January to June, the sales volume of refrigerators with a volume of 191-230 liters increased significantly, and as of June, the market share had reached 29%. Products with a volume of more than 230 liters, which were rarely sought after in the past, also began to heat up, with the market share climbing to 5.0%. However, the increase in retail sales and retail volume of ultra-large capacity refrigerators with a volume of more than 300 liters was not significant.

At the same time, the competition between three-door and multi-door products and two-door products is also in full swing online. In the first half of the year, the market share of single-door, double-door, three-door and double-door and multi-door products was 14.8%, 56.5%, 25.7% and 3.0% respectively. In terms of retail volume and retail sales, the gap between three-door refrigerators and the two-door refrigerators with the largest market share has gradually narrowed, which is particularly evident in retail sales. Since last year, against the background of a decline in overall sales in the domestic refrigerator market, three-door refrigerators have maintained a steady growth, and this momentum has also continued online. In terms of price segments, the cumulative market share of refrigerators below 1,500 yuan in the first half of this year far exceeded that of other price segment products, reaching 62.2%. The market share of products in the price segment of 1,501 yuan to 2,500 yuan also exceeded 30%. The above two combined have a market share of nearly 93%, leaving only 7% of the market space for products in other price segments. This also shows from one side that at this stage, price is still the decisive factor in whether online consumers will buy, and consumers are still very sensitive to prices. In terms of refrigeration methods, direct cooling products have an absolute monopoly in the total online purchase of refrigerators, far ahead of air cooling and air direct cooling products. As of June, the market share of direct cooling products was 97.3%, and air cooling products was 2.1%, which is not on the same order of magnitude, while the share of air direct cooling products was only 0.6%, which is almost negligible.

In the first half of the year, all brands increased their online investment in terms of products, sources of goods, and personnel. However, the ranking order of the top 10 refrigerator sales is different between online and offline. Unlike the industry leaders who are strong offline, some offline second-tier brands and even regional brands have also entered the top 10 online sales, which has put considerable pressure on industry leaders and disrupted the inherent brand structure of the refrigerator market in people's impressions. This situation shows that second-tier manufacturers and small brands that are squeezed by strong mainstream brands in the offline market have made efforts online earlier and have devoted more resources, so they have reaped the rewards faster. However, with the gradual improvement of the online layout and the arrival of the peak season for refrigerator sales, mainstream brands are expected to further strengthen their differentiated competitiveness in the second half of the year by relying on the popularization of high-end products, and see a significant increase in market share.

Haier's sales in online channels maintained steady growth in the first half of the year. Although it does not have an absolute advantage in offline channels, Haier's online market share has steadily increased, supported by leading products and good reputation. Its Leader brand has shown strong growth momentum in the first half of the year. In the past, Haier focused on offline channels and did not invest much manpower and material resources in online channels. However, in recent years, it has continued to exert its strength in e-commerce channels and has continued to expand its online sales scale through cooperation with third-party platforms.

Oma, which started out as an OEM, has attracted young consumers with its cost-effective and novel industrial design products, becoming a new star in the online market. Second-tier brands such as Konka and TCL had remarkable online performance in the first half of the year. Since its launch in 2008, the former has made progress both online and offline in just a few years with its energy-saving and people-benefiting projects and holiday promotions. The latter has significantly increased its online sales with the help of promotions on major e-commerce platforms in June.

The overall online sales of international brands in the first half of the year were not very large, but showed strong growth potential. Take Samsung as an example. Unlike domestic brands that focus on mid- and low-end products, it focuses on the high-end market with fashionable design and advanced technology. Against the backdrop of the trend of high-end consumption and product structure upgrading in the online refrigerator market, the market share of international brands such as Samsung is expected to increase significantly in the future.

Large-capacity washing machines are in great demand, with domestic and foreign investors evenly matched

In the first half of the year, the growth of the online washing machine market was between that of refrigerators and air conditioners, with a retail volume of 1.4 million units, a year-on-year increase of more than 150%; retail sales of about 1.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 200%. The market showed that the sales of large-capacity washing machines continued to rise, the high-end products continued to deepen, and the competition between domestic and foreign brands was fierce.

In terms of capacity, the cumulative market share of products in the 5.6 kg to 6.0 kg range from January to June reached 35.3%, followed by products in the 4.6 kg to 5.5 kg capacity range, with a market share of 31.2%. From the perspective of product structure, the competition in the online washing machine market is mainly between pulsators and drums, which will also be the main theme of competition in this market in the future. The gradual strengthening of drum washing machines reflects that the overall sales structure of the washing machine market is rising. Unlike the offline drum washing machines, whose market share is gradually closing in on pulsator washing machines, the momentum of pulsator products in the online market remains unabated, with a market share of 50% in the first half of the year. The retail volume of drum washing machines accounted for more than 20% of the overall market, exceeding that of single- and double-cylinder washing machines.

The top 10 companies in terms of sales volume in the online washing machine market occupy the majority of the market share, and the high market concentration also reflects the strength of first- and second-tier brands in this field. However, unlike the refrigerator and air-conditioning markets, which are almost monopolized by domestic brands, international brands have a stronger voice and a larger market share in the washing machine market, and are more active, especially in drum washing machines.

In the first half of the year, Haier maintained its leading position in the online market. Haier's competitive advantage in washing machines comes from technology on the one hand, and from its ability to innovate products and create "selling points" on the other. In the online market, which is a competition for consumer attention, Haier has adjusted its product development and model launch in response to online consumption trends and the characteristics of young consumer groups.

Sanyo's performance in the online market is very outstanding, with its market share increasing almost month by month. Its cumulative market share in the first half of the year is at a very high level, making it the brand with the fastest growth momentum. In the washing machine market, Sanyo has always been a representative of leading technology. In online washing machines, Sanyo has transformed its technological advantages into market driving force. In addition, its high cost-performance ratio has gradually consolidated its advantages in the high-end market. Little Swan cooperated with e-commerce platforms for promotion during the May Day holiday, and its sales volume has been greatly improved.

Air purifiers are hot-selling and foreign technology is superior

In the first half of 2013, online sales of air purifiers reached nearly 390,000 units, with retail sales of approximately RMB 650 million.

Judging from the online sales of air purifiers, ion filtration and activated carbon filtration products dominate the market. In the first half of this year, the above two types of products accounted for 48% and 35% of the market share respectively, but in terms of growth momentum, the performance of the two is like heaven and hell. Although nearly half of the air purifiers sold online use ion filtration systems, the upward momentum has been suppressed, and the retail volume share has slightly decreased compared with the same period last year. The market share of activated carbon filtration products has increased significantly by 21 percentage points year-on-year, and the increase in retail sales share has reached 28%.

In the first half of the year, the proportion of online sales of high-end air purifiers has steadily increased. The market share of products above 3,000 yuan has reached 33.6%, with a growth rate exceeding the market average, ranking first in all price segments. This shows that the concept of excellence is leading consumers to choose more high-end and intelligent air purification products. In line with the impressive performance of high-end products, low-end products below 999 yuan are also very popular among online consumers, with a retail market share of nearly 30%, second only to products above 3,000 yuan.

Air purifiers are one of the few categories in the home appliance industry where foreign brands dominate in terms of retail volume and retail sales. In the first half of this year, foreign brands led by Philips, Panasonic and Sharp accounted for 70% and 83% of the retail volume and retail sales market respectively, which is an overwhelming advantage over domestic brands. Domestic companies that entered the air purifier market earlier and have a high reputation include Yadu, Haier, Midea, etc.

Sharp, which is changing its traditional black-and-white image, has developed an "ion cluster" air purifier that is popular online. Sharp air purifiers focus on the high-end market, but the price is relatively moderate compared to other foreign-funded enterprises. In the first half of this year, Sharp air purifiers ranked among the top in terms of both retail volume and retail sales online, and the upward momentum is very good. Philips air purifiers had a slight decline in online retail volume and retail sales in the first half of the year, but are still favored by consumers. It is worth noting that Philips' retail sales share is much higher than its retail volume share, which also shows that Philips' product prices are relatively high. Yadu is a domestic air purifier manufacturer that started early and is large in scale. It is also one of the few domestic manufacturers that can compete with foreign companies in terms of market size.

Smartphones account for 80% of mobile phones, with high brand concentration

In the first half of 2013, about 25 million mobile phones were sold in China's online shopping market. According to the first half of 2013 mobile phone shipment data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and third-party market research data, about 180 million mobile phones were sold in China's mobile phone market in the first half of 2013. Therefore, the proportion of online sales of mobile phones in my country in the first half of 2013 has accounted for 13.9% of the total mobile phone sales, exceeding 10% for the first time.

At present, in the mobile phone market, online shopping malls only account for 60% of sales, while brand manufacturers' official e-mall accounts for a large proportion, more than 30%, and most of the contribution comes from Xiaomi mobile phones that adopt a direct supply model. In the first half of 2013, Xiaomi sold about 5 million mobile phones online, becoming the top three mobile phone brands in online sales in the first half of 2013. In terms of online shopping malls, JD.com is still the online mall with the largest sales of mobile phone products, and Tmall and Suning.com ranked second and third.

In 2013, smartphones with screens of 4.0 inches to 5.0 inches were the fastest growing product form, and large-screen phones with screens larger than 4.5 inches became a consumption trend. Tracking the sales trends of mobile phones of different screen sizes in the online mobile phone shopping market in the first half of 2013, it was found that from January to June 2013, the sales share of mobile phones with screens smaller than 4.5 inches (excluding 4.5 inches) showed a decreasing trend month by month, while the sales share of mobile phones with screens larger than 4.5 inches increased month by month, accounting for nearly 50% of the total online mobile phone shopping in June. Comparing the online and offline mobile phone sales prices in the first half of 2013, there is a general price difference between mobile phones sold in the online mobile phone market and those sold in physical stores, and the lowest-priced mobile phone products are mostly found on websites. Tracking the mobile phone prices from January to June, in addition to the natural price reduction of each product according to its life cycle, from January to June, the average price of mobile phone products sold online by various brands also showed a steady downward trend. From the perspective of the proportion of mobile phones of different formats, the situation of online channels is very different from that of physical stores. The share of WCDMA in terrestrial channels will be greatly reduced, while the market share of TD-SCDMA is much higher than that of online channels, both of which are around 30%, while CDMA EVDO accounts for nearly 20%.

As for the brand layout of the mobile online shopping market, the study found that the brand concentration of the online market basically follows the state of the physical market. In general, it presents the following characteristics:

First, China's online sales channels have gathered more than 100 mobile phone brands, but 90% of the market share is still occupied by the top 15 companies.

Second, some companies such as Xiaomi and Meizu that utilize the characteristics of the Internet have outstanding performance in the online market.

Third, some declining international brands have found their own living space online. In the first half of 2013, the online sales of mobile phone brands such as Sony and Motorola accounted for more than 40% and 30% respectively, which is approaching the sales volume on the ground.

Fourth, brand manufacturers continue to explore, and in-depth cooperation with e-commerce has become a trend. Take Huawei as an example. Huawei deeply mined the database of Tmall's mobile phone categories and conducted extensive market research to understand consumers' various needs for large-screen mobile phones. It launched the C2B mobile phone Huawei Mate with Tmall and achieved success in the market. Huawei Mate has also become the "most popular large-screen mobile phone on the entire network."

In the first half of this year, Samsung and Huawei have clearly attached great importance to the online market. By May and June, the online sales of these two companies had accounted for more than 10% of their overall mobile phone sales; Lenovo and ZTE have also begun to pay attention to it and have achieved certain results; and other domestic mobile phone brands, such as Gionee, have also begun to deploy online markets in the first half of this year, and their effectiveness should be reflected in the second half of the year.

Tablets are becoming smaller and cheaper

In the first half of 2013, the overall sales volume of the Chinese tablet computer market maintained a relatively good growth rate, especially driven by the online sales of star products such as iPad mini and iPad4. In the first half of 2013, approximately 2.2 million tablet computers were sold through online B2C channels.

From the perspective of brand, Apple is still the most popular tablet brand, but Apple's decline in the tablet field is also showing. According to the global tablet market report recently released by IDC, global tablet sales in the second quarter fell 9.7% month-on-month, "partly due to the poor sales performance of Apple's iPad" because Apple did not launch a new iPad. IDC believes that in the second quarter of this year, Apple's share of the tablet market fell from 60% in the same period last year to 33%. Although it is slightly lagging, this phenomenon is also reflected in the online shopping market for tablets in China. Taking JD.com data as an example, by June 2013, Apple's share of JD.com's tablet shipments in that month had fallen to 38.82%, close to the global average of 33% estimated by IDC.

The space left by Apple in product scheduling has given other competitors an opportunity. In the first half of this year, Samsung, Lenovo, Acer and others have doubled, quadrupled or even tripled their tablet PC market growth. Even so, there is still enough space for a large number of other small brands. Especially since May this year, various companies have rushed into the tablet PC online shopping market after seeing the market space. Dozens of brands such as Hans Poly, Original Road, HKC, Cube, Colorful and others have begun to appear in e-commerce markets at all levels, presenting a scene of competition.

Another interesting phenomenon is that while new competitors are flooding into the tablet online shopping market, some second-tier brands that have already participated in the tablet market have shown no confidence in this market in the first half of this year, at least there is not much movement in the online market. These brands include Gigabyte, Shenzhou, Fujitsu, etc.

Unlike mobile phones, which are a "must-have" communication tool for everyone, tablet computers have been positioned as a supplement to business and entertainment since their launch, and are the icing on the cake. Currently, tablet computers are also beginning to show a "popularization" trend. Although more than 90% of tablet computers are still priced above 2,000 yuan, the sales of tablets in the price range of 1,500 to 1,999 yuan, 1,000 to 1,499 yuan, and even below 1,000 yuan account for an increasing proportion.

Another trend in the tablet market is that the category is moving towards segmentation and customization. New tablets with multiple levels of content and services are emerging. This year, E-Ben adjusted its direction to focus on the industry market. It has launched the enterprise-level product T7 and will launch tablets for the education market in the future. Of course, there will be companies launching tablets with gaming and medical features in the future.

In terms of hardware, tablet sizes have been further miniaturized, and the size boundary with mobile phones is getting closer and closer. In the first half of this year, as iPad mini is twice as popular as other iPad products, tablets continue to develop towards small and medium-sized sizes, and the boundary with mobile phone products with increasingly larger screens has been further blurred. According to the online shopping market for tablet computers, the market share of tablet computers below 8 inches (including 8 inches) in the first half of this year has reached 45.86%.

From the operating system, the confrontation between iOS and Android in the tablet field continues. Due to the fierce pursuit of Android, the Android share exceeded iOS in the first half of this year. It is worth mentioning that Microsoft's Surface. In April this year, the highly anticipated Microsoft Surface pro started selling online, but in addition to the sales volume in April that accounted for nearly 5%, it decreased month by month in the next two months, indicating that netizens do not agree with this generation of Surface products.

Conclusion

●The scale of China's home appliance online shopping market will continue to expand. In 2015, the sales of online shopping home appliances (excluding mobile phones) in the Chinese market will account for 15% of the overall home appliance sales.

●The "e-commerce war" with price and product competition as the main means will continue to unfold in the field of online shopping for home appliances. Various marketing methods will continue to stimulate consumers' consumption desire, thereby pushing up the transaction scale of online shopping for home appliances.

●Online shopping for home appliances is essentially an innovation of the Internet economy on traditional channels. While it has a disruptive impact on traditional home appliance channels, it will also have a huge impact on traditional home appliance manufacturing.

●The boundaries of the online shopping market for home appliances will become wider and wider. The age group of online shoppers is expanding rapidly. Online shopping products will also expand from low-end products to high-end products in the past, and the market structure is becoming more and more complete.

●The coverage area of ​​online shopping for home appliances is expanding from first-tier cities mainly in North, Shanghai and Guangzhou to second- and third-tier cities, which is an opportunity and a challenge to the logistics industry.

●The online shopping market for home appliances has become the best platform for testing and selling emerging products. At the same time, new hot spots, new opportunities and new brands in the industry will continue to emerge.

●Online shopping for home appliances is an important part of information consumption and will greatly promote the rapid development of information consumption.

●Whether for brand owners or platform e-commerce, online shopping for home appliances is a road without signs, and the imagination space for the future is huge.