Today’s unstable global economy has kept all markets in flux, and the domestic appliance market is no exception. The global recession, income of consumers and the price of raw materials are just some of the factors affecting the supply and demand chain, but socio-economic and socio-demographic changes will have a greater impact in the appliance industry for the coming years.

In a new study by Euromonitor on the Global Domestic Electrical Appliances Report, these changes are drastically changing the market. The global number of working women rose by 6% between 2001 and 2006 to reach one billion and is forecast to grow by a further 4% by 2011. Since more women are joining the workforce, the demand for convenient and time saving appliances is increasing more than ever. Appliances are needed to help women fit in the workplace, but can also help in keeping the household running. There has been a significant increase in the purchase of microwaves, dishwashers and washer dryers. The increased presence of women in the workforce also means that these consumers have bigger spending power and so domestic electrical appliance manufacturers need to target this segment of the market. And we all know how women love to spend on things that will help make their lives easier.

There’s a new trend called “nesting” or cocooning which is characterized by people choosing to spend more time in the home with family or friends rather than going out and socializing. According to the research mentioned above, spending more time in the home means that consumers would want to spend more money making their lives at home more comfortable. Aside from this, the home is also becoming more complex than ever and this means requiring more appliances for the home. Cocooning has the potential to make a huge impact on sales of domestic electrical appliances. Not only will consumers buy more types of appliances, they will spend more on those they buy. They will increasingly opt for premium products with added features that make their lives easier but also can be shown off to friends and family. High tech dishwashers, microwaves and refrigerators are just some items that “nesting” people want to showcase.

Another trend is the proliferation of single households, or young professionals or students living in apartments and dormitories. These consumers require the same appliances in a regular household, like washing machines, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators. But since these consumers usually live in small urban flats and apartments, spaces saving features of such appliances take precedence over everything else. This has boosted sales of integrated appliances, slim-line dishwashers, upright fridge-freezers and washer-dryers. Also, young people are much more interested in the technological advances of their “gadgets” and how much time these would shave off from their household work because they lead such hectic lives. The older singles however, will focus more on luxury, which will somehow increase the sales of premium domestic appliances.

These trends mean good news for the industry, which just needs to focus on these new consumers so as not to be so affected by the economic crunch everyone is facing.

Andrew Washington is author of this article on washer dryers.
Find more information about dishwashers here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 9:24 pm and is filed under Consumer Electronics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.