Air Purifier usher in peak sales

With the advent of autumn and winter season, the chance of haze weather gradually increases. Domestic and foreign manufacturers have recently released new air purifiers to hit the beach market. Industry insiders estimate that the air purifier market is about to usher in hot sales. In spite of this, the lack of "unresolved diseases" in the industry's uniform standards has caused the purifier market to be controversial, and it has also brought difficulties to consumers' judgments and choices.

First-half sales increased 48% over the same period

The data released by Ovid Consulting, a market research organization, recently revealed that the domestic air purifier market continued its hot trend in the first half of 2014, with sales reaching 2.752 million units, an increase of 48% over the same period of 2013. It is expected that the market will continue to grow in the second half of the year. Rejuvenated, the market scale of 2014 will once again set a new record, ushering in a new wave of rapid growth.

Data show that the growth rate of the air-net market in the second quarter of this year has slowed down significantly from the first quarter. According to Guo Meide, general manager of Ovie Consulting's small electricity division, the main reason is that the major cities in China entered the rainy season from April to June, and the number of days with good air quality increased significantly. At the same time, due to the overdraft of the New Year's market and the spring drought, hazy weather, the market overdraft in the first quarter was relatively large. With the arrival of autumn and winter, it is expected that the increase will be fully recovered.

The reporter learned that the current offline sales of air purifiers are mainly concentrated in chain channels of department stores and home appliances. Among them, the primary market leads the consumer trend of air purifiers, and its retail sales growth rate reaches 86.0%. The online market is also an extremely important channel for air purifier products because of its informatization, low cost, and flexibility. According to Ovid consulting data, the total online market for air purifiers in China reached approximately 1.95 billion yuan in 2013, a year-on-year growth rate of 160%, exceeding the growth rate of 86% in the offline market and keeping pace with offline markets. Double growth in market size.

Guo Meide said that considering that the current market penetration rate of air purifiers in China is much lower than that of Japan, South Korea, and developed countries in Europe and the United States, and as more and more companies begin to deploy empty net markets, full competition will accelerate the acceleration of product technology upgrades. The sales volume of air purifiers in China will maintain a high growth rate of 30% to 35% from 2016 to 2016, of which the total volume in 2014 will reach 6.15 million units.

Aiming at the upcoming autumn and winter sales season, many manufacturers recently released new products for their air purifiers. Samsung introduced its original imported large-scale air purifiers and completed its full line of commercial, home and personal three-line series. Sharp released The first purifier equipped with voice prompts and remote control functions, Japan's high-end air-conditioning brand Fujitsu also launched its first air purifier product in the Chinese market, the main strong instant purification function, in addition to the United States also announced the transformation of "air service providers "A large number of new air-related appliances, including air purifiers, will be launched on a large scale.

Purification effect to be quantified

Despite the hot air purifier market, the controversy over air purifier products has continued.

Recently, media reports said that the National Indoor Vehicle Environment and Environmental Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Center extracted ten purifier products sold on an e-commerce platform in July this year and conducted a one-month inspection. The results showed that seven of them were marked The product with the function of purifying formaldehyde has no significant effect. One of the most effective ones, the purifier in a room of 15 square meters, turned on for 1 hour, in theory, the formaldehyde reduction in the air is less than 50%, the CADR value is only 29m3/h, and the general removal of pollutants CADR worth more than 60m3/h has a significant effect. The report quoted Song Guangsheng, director of the laboratory inspection center, pointing out that "most air purifiers claim that the effect of removing formaldehyde is only a selling point."

Reporters visited Suning, Gome and other stores and found that most of the air purifier products currently on the market claim to have more than 90% of the ability to remove formaldehyde, and some products are even as high as 99%. Some products also directly indicate that “in addition to formaldehyde filters” are built-in. . A salesperson at Suning Tianhe told reporters that in addition to removing PM2.5, formaldehyde is another major feature that consumers will focus on when purchasing air purifier products. Therefore, most of the air purifier products reported that the “deficit” function of formaldehyde was shocking and confusing to consumers. An aunt who was pursuing purifiers on the market expressed that “I don’t know what to buy.”

According to Lu Jiebo, deputy secretary-general of the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, although some air-to-air brands exaggerated their publicity, the air purifiers are technically different from formaldehyde and PM2.5 in terms of technical aspects. It is also difficult to achieve a balance between choices and choices, because the focus on smog is more crowded than newly-renovated crowds, which will inevitably lead to product focus. The reporter also learned from the air purifier manufacturer that PM2.5 and other fine particles come from the outdoor air. When the air purifier is opened after doors and windows are closed indoors, there will be a significant purification effect, and indoor formaldehyde is generated from furniture, paint, and other products. Volatile, and continue to produce, the purification effect will not be much better, and even not as good as window ventilation.

Lu Renbo recommends that air purifier manufacturers “must quantify the purifying effect.” For example, under what conditions, how long will it take to calculate the removal rate, instead of blindly using 99% to attract people’s attention? Products to meet the needs of different users."

Lack of standards into industry short boards

Another controversial conclusion announced by the National Indoor Vehicle Environment and Environmental Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Center is that the air purifier products “have nothing to do with the price and the domestic and international brands,” according to the test. Last year, the price of the air purifier of Blueair, a foreign brand that bursts red, was as high as more than 4,000 yuan. It was also ranked among the top e-commerce site sales rankings, but it was only fourth in the test data rankings, and its price/performance ratio was ranked last. one.

This conclusion has also triggered the attention of consumers. Mr. Zhong, who lives in Haizhu District, told reporters that since there is no national standard to refer to, it is also difficult for consumers to choose. “There are old people and children at home, thinking that we must be able to really play a cleansing effect. We all prefer to buy expensive products. Always feel that it should be a little more." The reporter found out at random that many consumers are similar to Mr. Zhong's psychology when they are buying.

However, the reporter also found that the top six of the cleansing effects were products with a price of more than 2,000 yuan, and they were all products of foreign brands, namely Daikin, Philips, Westinghouse, Blueair, Sharp, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Product. There are also industry bodies questioning the conclusion of the indoor inspection center, referring to “due to the lack of industry standards, various types of evaluation results are various and often affect consumers’ choices to a large extent.”

The lack of industry standards has always been a shortcoming in the air purifier industry. Market explosions have brought about chaos, false publicity, and high prices. All kinds of chaos emerge in an endless stream. Consumers have difficulty in judging and choosing. The voices of the industry and consumers continue to hope that a unified mandatory quality inspection standard will be issued as soon as possible. However, it has been recently reported that the new national standards for air purifiers have completed the final stage of work and will be introduced in September at the earliest. It is said that this standard will eliminate the purification efficiency of solid and gaseous pollutants and clean air from air purifiers. The basic technical indicators and detection methods such as quantity and purification life were standardized, and the clean air volume was used as a core indicator, which was in line with foreign standards.