Xiaobai is preparing to move recently, and she dug out some “dusty” breakfast machines, juicers and air fryers from the kitchen. These small appliances have accompanied her to move three times, but she has hardly used them. There are many people with similar experiences on social platforms.

Once upon a time, these affordable, compact and beautiful small appliances created an imagination of “exquisite life” for young people who are single, live alone or rent a house, and ushered in a surge in sales in the years when the “home economy” was popular.

However, as the “home economy” fades, some people cook less frequently, and the dividends of online channels such as live e-commerce have declined, and the small appliance industry has “fallen out of favor”. According to the omni-channel data of Aowei Cloud Network, the overall retail sales of small kitchen appliances in 2023 will be 54.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9.6%; in 2024, this amount will continue to decrease by 0.8%.

In 2023, Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Electric Appliances, reflected at the group’s shareholders’ meeting with a warning: “Small household appliances are a mistake made by Midea. These products are updated quickly and have a short life cycle. They can be said to be short-lived and will disappear in one or two years.” This statement is like setting the tone for the small household appliance industry, as if foreseeing the current situation of “declining both volume and price”.

However, in the financial reports of these companies, we also see the various explorations of the small household appliance industry to go overseas to find new volume and tell AI stories. The effectiveness of these strategies remains to be tested by time, but it provides imagination space for the industry to break through.