Chinese makers of small home appliances areseeing explosive growth in exports as most people remain indoors andincreasingly cook for themselves amid extended COVID-19-related lockdownsworldwide.

Industry experts said the surge in overseasorders also reflects the robust recovery of China's economy, and the country'shome appliance sector has picked up momentum following the resumption of workand production.

Guangdong Bear Electric Co Ltd, a maker ofsmall home appliances, said its foreign orders jumped more than 180 percent ona yearly basis in the first three quarters. The company has seen rapid growthin sales in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States,with meat grinders, eggbeaters and humidifiers seeing the best performance.

Founded in 2006, Bear Electric develops andproduces a series of unique and creative small household electrical appliancesmainly destined for kitchens and increasingly attractive to a youthful demographic.

Li Junwei, vice-president of GuangdongFlying Fish Group－another small home appliance maker－said its exportshave surged over 600 percent year-on-year this year, with humidifiers andvacuum cleaners seeing significant growth in sales.

According to market consultancy iiMediaResearch, first half exports of homegrown electric frying pans rose 62.9percent year-on-year, toasters were up 34.7 percent and juicers 12.1 percent.

Statistics from Alibaba.com－AlibabaGroup's business-to-business (B2B) platform that helps facilitate foreign trade－showedaccumulated export turnover of home appliances skyrocketed 200 percent year-on-yearin the third quarter.

Demand overseas for air purifiers, facialcare devices and freezers jumped more than 200 percent during the period.Offshore orders for small home appliances nearly doubled during the recentSingles Day shopping extravaganza, according to JD Global Sales, which isoperated by Chinese e-commerce giant JD and offers a wide selection ofcommodities for shoppers overseas.

"As offshore cases of COVID-19continue to climb, China has become one of the few countries to have completeindustrial chains and be capable of handling large-scale orders fromoverseas," said Li Ting, research director from the kitchen appliancesdepartment of market consultancy All View Cloud.

Countless people overseas are stuck indoorsduring the pandemic, which has boosted sales of small home appliances, Li said,adding that toasters and blenders are particularly favored by foreignconsumers.

Li said that with the rapid growth of thehome appliance industry over the past decade, China has already become a majorglobal manufacturer of such products. She is therefore bullish on the prospectsof Chinese small home appliance makers.

Guangdong Xinbao Electrical AppliancesHoldings Co Ltd said that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company'sproduction capacity was limited in the first quarter, which had an impact onits export orders to some extent. However, with the resumption of work andproduction, it can now satisfy surging demand from overseas markets.

The company specializes in designing andmanufacturing small home appliances such as electric kettles, blenders,toasters and coffee makers. Over 95 percent of its revenue comes from buyersfrom more than 100 countries and regions across the globe, including Europe,Australia and the US.

Its sales revenue from abroad increased byabout 25 percent year-on-year in the first nine months. The company saidconsumers from Europe and the US are recently spending more time at home as thecoronavirus pandemic rages on, and they exhibit strong demand for kitchenappliances, such as coffee makers. Liang Zhenpeng, an independent consumerelectronics analyst, said China is the world's largest production base for homeappliance products, with complete industrial chains ranging from upstreammaterials and components supply to downstream machine manufacturing.

Liang said production and logistics atoverseas factories have been affected by the pandemic, while Chinese productioncapacity has fully recovered following the resumption of work and production asthe contagion comes under efficient control in China.

In addition, according to data fromtechnology service company Tianyancha, the number of registered small home appliancemakers in China rose to 36,000 between March and April from 12,000 in theJanuary to February period. Wu Haitao, deputy director of the NationalElectrical Appliance Industry Information Center, said Chinese exports of homeappliances grew by 17.3 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters.

Small home appliances have becomeincreasingly popular among Chinese consumers, thanks to young people’s higherexpectations for quality of life and online marketing channels.

When Chen Wei, a post-90s woman who worksfor a company in Beijing, prepares breakfast for herself, she usually toasts asandwich in three minutes with her newly bought breakfast machine, fries an eggin one minute, squeezes a cup of juice with her juicer, and then enjoys anutritious meal.

“I can make a quick and healthy breakfast and meet the standards fora high quality of life,” Chen said. Chen is just one of the many fans of minihome appliances in China. Small home appliances devised for a specificfunction, such as breakfast machines, juicers and multifunctional glasskettles, are enjoying increasing popularity among Chinese consumers.

Small home appliances are gainingpopularity in China amid the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19),bucking against the downward trend of the whole household appliance industry.

As many people have been staying at home tocontain the spread of COVID-19, they have more time to indulge in food andhousework, spurring consumption in small home appliances, the ShanghaiSecurities News reported.

In February, sales of electric ovens rose280 percent, air fryers surged 659 percent and electric lunch boxes increasedover 26 times from the same period last year, according to data fromSuning.com, China's major online retail platform of home appliances.

Besides small kitchen appliances,disinfection cabinets and standing clothes steamers have seen rising demand inFebruary. The sales of standing steamers climbed 120 percent year on year,while that of disinfection appliances skyrocketed nearly 140 times year onyear.

A new consumption era of small homeappliances is coming, as they can better meet young people's demand and havebrand-new marketing modes and sales channels, said a report by EverbrightSecurities.

With the “homebody economy” gainingmomentum in the country during the COVID-19 epidemic, advertisements for thesesmall home appliances can be seen all over Chinese social media, livestreamingplatforms, and short video platforms.

Last year, the total value of exports oflarge home appliances exceeded $25.7 billion, a decline of 1 percent year onyear, while that of small home appliances hit $32.4 billion, up 6.2 percentyear on year, according to a report compiled by the National HouseholdAppliance Industry Information Center.

Due to the epidemic, sales of small homeappliances dropped slightly. However, some leading enterprises in the sectorsaw a significant increase in revenue. For example, the revenue of BearElectric Appliance Co., Ltd. in south China’s Guangdong province grew 17.3percent year on year in the first quarter this year, while Guangdong XinbaoElectrical Appliances Holdings Co., Ltd. witnessed a year-on-year increase of4.1 percent in its revenue during the same period.

Statistics from Chinese e-commerce behemothAlibaba show that the overall sales volume of mini kitchen appliances in thefirst quarter of this year reached 13.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increaseof 15.8 percent.

China’s booming market has led to theemergence of more and more small household products, and countless new minihousehold products have sprung up in recent years. Joyoung, a long-establishedkitchenware brand, has launched a series of new small home appliances such asjuicers, air fryers, and food processors in the last few years.

“We found that pretty mini kitchen appliances with simple-to-usefeatures that clean easily have become popular in recent years, with moreapplication environments including living rooms, offices and hotels,” said PanZhifeng, the operation manager of Joyoung’s e-commerce sector, adding that thecompany will continue to launch new products to meet consumers’ needs.

Air fryers, electric ovens, blenders andsteam mops enjoyed increasing popularity among Chinese consumers and saw robustgrowth in sales during the epidemic period, said a report released by the ChinaCenter for Information Industry Development of the Ministry of Industry andInformation Technology.

In addition, products with sterilizationand disinfection functions increased significantly, such as disinfectioncabinets, water purification equipment and dish washers.

Joyoung said small household applianceshave been gaining traction in China since the outbreak of COVID-19, as tens ofmillions of Chinese were confined indoors due to restrictions on largegatherings and travel.

The company has launched a string ofstylish and exquisite kitchen appliances such as sandwich makers, portablejuice extractors, noodle makers and mini electric ovens in a bid to cater tothe tastes of young Chinese consumers who have an increasing demand for thequality, function and appearance of products.

For instance, it collaborated with LineFriends, a global character brand featuring memorable characters which areoriginally created as stickers for a mobile messenger application Line,covering the categories of noodle makers, electric kettles, milk pans andsoybean milk machines. "Chinese consumers are increasingly cooking at homeand like small home appliances with multiple functions and attractiveappearances," said Si Zhenming, brand director of Joyoung.

"Compared with European countries andthe United States, the penetration rate of household and kitchen appliances inChina is relatively low, and this segment has huge growth potential in thefuture," Si added.

He noted the popularity of small homeappliances reflected the great importance for people on making themselvescomfortable and improving the quality of life, and Joyoung will continue toroll out healthy, light and handy home appliance products.

Moreover, consumers pay more attention tohealth and hope to improve their immune system and eat healthier, so productswith sterilization and disinfection functions saw a significant increase insales, he said.

According to him, Joyoung will activelypromote the research and development of new products to meet the needs ofconsumers and pass on the healthy lifestyle and attitude to more users throughinnovative marketing strategies.

For instance, it has increased thefrequency of livestreaming at e-commerce sites and lets users upload funnyshort videos through video-sharing platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou, andsocial commerce shopping app such as Xiaohongshu.

Joyoung cooperated with top-tierinfluencers such as Li Jiaqi or Viya Huang for brand endorsements, with onlinesales reaching 700 million yuan ($103.39 million) during last year's SinglesDay shopping carnival.

Statistics from market consultancy All ViewCloud showed the sales of small kitchen appliances amounted to 130.16 millionunits during the first six months of this year, up 6.5 percent on a yearlybasis. However, its related revenue stood at 27.82 billion yuan, a decline of12.5 percent year-on-year.

In addition, sales from online channelsreached 107.93 million units during the first six months, up 25.4 percentyear-on-year, while offline sales of small kitchen appliances dropped 38.5percent to 22.23 million units compared with the same period last year, theconsultancy said.