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economic observer reporter zhang rui "look, we have to queue up again to pay." at around 2 p.m. on september 11, in the home appliance area of ​​guangbai department store in yuexiu district, guangzhou, chen xing, a salesperson in charge of little swan and midea brands, said to the economic observer reporter with a smile.

chen xing said that over the past week or so, he has clearly felt that the store's customer flow and transaction volume are increasing. this is the result of guangzhou's new round of "old for new" activities for home appliances. "take me (my customers) as an example. most of the budget for buying washing and drying sets is between 8,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan, and i can probably enjoy a subsidy of 1,000 yuan to 1,500 yuan."

according to the promotional notice posted by guangbai department store, from september 3 to december, for eight types of home appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, and air conditioners, products with level one energy or water efficiency will be subsidized by 20%, and products with level two energy or water efficiency will be subsidized by 15%, with the subsidy capped at 2,000 yuan.

it's not just chen xing. since september, amid a new round of "old for new" home appliance promotions in guangzhou, sales staff at many large local shopping malls have felt the return of consumers to varying degrees.

in march this year, the state council issued the "action plan to promote large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in", launching the "trade-in" work for automobiles, home appliances and home furnishing consumer goods across the country. since then, many cities across the country have continued to promote the implementation of the "trade-in" policy, and the "guangdong province action plan to promote the trade-in of consumer goods" and the "guangzhou city implementation plan for using ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support the trade-in of consumer goods" have also been implemented one after another.

on april 30 this year, the guangzhou municipal bureau of commerce officially announced that from that day to august, the first phase of the 2024 guangzhou green smart home appliance replacement (i.e., home appliance "trade-in") activity will be launched: 10% off home appliance consumption coupons will be distributed, with a maximum value of 500 yuan. however, chen xing told the economic observer that from may to august, due to the limited preferential subsidies, the "trade-in" activity was not very attractive to consumers.

subsidies expanded, sales improved

guangzhou department store beijing road store is located in the central area of ​​guangzhou.guangbai sharesit is one of the directly-operated stores of (002187.sz) and enjoys a high reputation locally.

"before (may to august), many people were still waiting and watching, and those who were not in a hurry would not buy. but after the policy came out in september, interested (customers) have made transactions one after another, because the discount is really good." on september 11, chen xing told the economic observer that the so-called "old for new" does not mean that consumers can "exchange" their old products for new products with "additional money", but directly enjoy subsidy benefits when purchasing new products.

he cited a midea refrigerator as an example, saying that the product's non-holiday sales price is 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, and is currently priced at 4,999 yuan under the mall's preferential policy. combined with the 20% national subsidy for "old for new", consumers ultimately need to pay about 4,000 yuan.

a panasonic salesperson at guangbai department store also said that the number of consumers has increased significantly recently. the transaction volume in the area he is responsible for in the first week of september increased by about 50% month-on-month, and customers mainly purchased mid-to-high-end products. however, another toshiba salesperson said that although the flow of people has increased recently, he feels that the customers he received this year generally lowered their consumption budgets. "most of them are middle-aged people who come to buy. in the past, many people spent 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, but this year they basically spend less than 10,000 yuan."

others who also felt the increase in customer flow and transaction volume includejd.comyuan li, the person in charge of the guangzhou market of jd mall, told the economic observer that the store opened in april this year and has had good sales in the past few months, but its popularity in the first week of september still increased by 50% month-on-month, and sales also doubled month-on-month.

on september 11, a consumer who was shopping at jd.com mall told the economic observer that when she went to the store to buy home appliances last weekend, she was unable to complete her shopping list because there were too many people. she made a second trip that day when there were fewer people on the weekday.

the consumer also said that she bought a house in guangzhou's haizhu district at the end of last year and has now received a notice to take possession of the property from the developer. she spent more than 40,000 yuan on jd mall in the past week, "and a washing machine can be discounted by more than 900 yuan, which is still a huge deal."

in addition, the sales staff of sweeping robots at the above-mentioned guangbai department store and jd mall told the economic observer that the products they are responsible for have not yet enjoyed the national subsidies for the "old for new" policy, but they have received inquiries from many consumers and hope that the relevant departments can expand the scope of subsidized products in the next stage.

differentiation of stores and decline in average customer spending

at around 17:00 on september 11, there was not a single customer in the suning.com store run by zhang zhen, which is about a 10-minute drive from jd.com mall shayuan store.

faced with such a situation, zhang zhen said he was helpless but calm. he told the economic observer that he had been engaged in home appliance sales for nearly 10 years and decided to start a business in 2022 to open this suning.com store. it was profitable last year and the year before. "(this year) we started to lose money in june." zhang zhen said that in the past three months, the store's overall customer flow has decreased by almost 50% compared with last year, and the average customer spending has also dropped from 3,000 yuan to about 2,000 yuan.

talking about the popularity of nearby shopping malls such as jd.com mall and guangbai department store, zhang zhen said that it was because large chain stores had sufficient resources to conduct online and offline traffic diversion and promotion, while most of the time he went to real estate projects to distribute flyers, which had a much worse effect, "and there weren't many people in the real estate projects."

on the same day, similar to zhang zhen's suning store, a jd.com store on zhongshan 8th road in liwan district, guangzhou also had less customer traffic. a consumer who walked around the store and left in a hurry told the economic observer that she knew guangzhou had a "trade-in" policy and wanted to buy an air conditioner. "i originally chose it on the jd.com app, but i wanted to see if there was a better discount offline." however, she said that community stores are not like large shopping malls, and the selection of brands and styles is very limited, and she failed to choose a satisfactory product.

the consumer also said that her monthly income was stable at over 10,000 yuan, but she has been "thrifty" this year. "although the economic environment was stressful in the past two years, i still feel that the company is relatively safe. this year, the expectations of friends from all walks of life are not very good, so i want to keep more money in hand in case of emergency." she said that her house has three bedrooms and one living room, and her budget for buying this air conditioner is less than 2,000 yuan. she has been hesitating for two months, and two years ago her budget for the air conditioner in another bedroom was 4,000 yuan.

the store manager of the above-mentioned jd home appliances said that most of the products in the store are eligible for the "old for new" subsidy promotion, and the transaction volume has increased since september, but not significantly.

as of september 12, galanz,gree electric appliances(000651.sz) told the economic observer that they actively responded to the "old for new" policy for home appliances, but there are no statistical data to be released to the public for the time being.

on september 12, liang zhenpeng, an observer who has been paying close attention to the home appliance industry for a long time, told the economic observer that the "old for new" policy has attracted much attention from citizens. at present, leading manufacturers are intensively releasing new home appliances, new mobile phones, new computers, new car models, etc., and the policy focus is also concentrated in the fields of new energy vehicles and consumer electronics.

liang zhenpeng suggested that aging-friendly products be included in the subsidy list, which will help companies develop and promote related products, and will also drive companies to develop in the direction of intelligent and humanized products.

on september 3, the "2024 china home appliance industry semi-annual report" released by the national home appliance industry information center pointed out that in the first half of this year, the domestic home appliance market retail sales in china was 398.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.0%. from the timeline, the second quarter performed slightly worse than the first quarter; in the second quarter, the air-conditioning market was sluggish due to weather reasons, the growth rate of the refrigerator and washing machine markets narrowed, and the sales of the kitchen and bathroom and household appliances market turned from positive growth in the first quarter to decline.

however, the above report also stated that with the implementation of a new round of large-scale equipment upgrades and the "old for new" policy for consumer goods, the policy effect is expected to become more apparent in the second half of the year. on the one hand, my country's domestic home appliance market has become highly mature, and consumers' focus on traditional home appliances has been upgraded to quality and high-end products; on the other hand, the rapid growth of some new categories has also injected new vitality into the market, such as dryers, dishwashers, floor scrubbers, integrated cooking centers, etc., which still have broad room for growth on a relatively low base.

(at the request of the interviewees, chen xing and zhang zhen are pseudonyms in this article)