Small Domestic Appliances Market Grows to €24.3 Billion in 1H19

Demand for small domestic appliances (SDA) continued to grow during the first half of 2019. The global market (excluding North America) showed growth with an overall increase of 9.3 percent delivering a total market value of €24.3 billion. GfK expects an SDA global sales growth of 9.4 percent for the full year of 2019.

A few segments are the primary drivers of the SDA market and represent a significant share of the growth dynamic. The top five segments (vacuum cleaners, food preparation, hot beverage makers, air treatment and shavers) contribute almost 50 percent of the category. Over 23 percent of global growth is attributed to vacuum cleaners. Product categories such as cordless handstick vacuum cleaners (+27 percent), robot vacuum cleaners (+18 percent), air treatment (+19 percent) and water filters (+14 percent), are primarily responsible for this growth.

Over half (52 percent) of global consumers agree with the statement “I am always looking for ways to simplify my life“, and this trend is growing. The topics of simplicity and convenience are becoming increasingly important for SDA success. In floor cleaning, cordless handstick vacuum cleaners are at the top of product lifecycle curve. At present, the focus is on performance over simplicity to differentiate in the sector. The sales growth trajectory of cordless vacuum cleaners is slowly plateauing after massive growth in 2018. Sales volume is now over €2.3 billion (+27 percent).

Robots are yet another segment contributing to vacuum cleaner category growth. The sale of robot vacuum cleaners grew (+18 percent), and nearly 70 percent of these are smart devices. Convenience segments like wet and dry vacuum cleaners, which make additional wet wiping redundant, are also growing (+13 percent) globally. The most important markets for this new type of wet cleaner are China (€39.6 million), followed by Germany (€22.1 million), France (€21.8 million) and Brazil (€19.4 million).

Hot beverage makers are another major SDA category growing at 11 percent in terms of value. Much of this growth is owing to the sales of Espresso Full Automatic machines, which is growing at 18 percent in terms of value. Wellbeing is an increasingly popular topic among consumers, as the prevalence of fitness trackers and apps confirm. In the kitchen, liquidizers for fruit and vegetables are in high demand.

With air and water pollution are affecting many cities, a growing awareness about allergies, pollution and climate change are making consumers more concerned about the quality of air they breathe and the water they drink. As a result, sales of air cleaning segment within air treatment category generated sales of €1.3 billion in the first half of 2019, making them an important driver of the SDA market. Sales of water filters reached €0.9 billion sales in the same period.

Connectivity continues to be important for some product categories in the SDA market. Smart appliances are usually equated with simplicity and high performance so adoption barriers like lack of interoperability, concerns about data privacy and absence of convincing use cases prevent their growth. The value-based market share of relevant smart product segments (within SDA) increased by a considerable amount to €1.7 billion (+42 percent) during the first half of 2019 compared to the previous year.

The smart products sales jump was mainly triggered by high sales of smart robot vacuums (+44 percent) and smart air treatment devices (+38 percent) compared to the same period last year. With these growth rates, the market size of smart vacuum cleaning robots (+71 percent) is bigger when compared to the non-smart ones (29 percent).