Refrigerators are widely used across households and commercial places to
provide convenient and safe means of food preservation. The global refrigerator
market Size was valued at USD 64.17 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach
USD 103.95 billion by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast
period.
They are available in different types based on size, features, and
applications. Manufacturers in the industry are keenly focusing on introducing a
higher level of luxury and innovative refrigeration products to attract
end-users. Various prominent companies associated with the industry are using
merger and acquisition strategies to expand their global market reach with
retail outlets.
Based on product type, the refrigerator market analysis is segmented into a
top freezer, bottom freezer, side by side and French door refrigerators.
Generally speaking, the top freezer segment is likely to dominate the market
owing to its feature of having a combined freezer and shelf size in a single
unit that avoids the necessities to buy a separate chest freezer or to fine
separate space for food storage. Moreover, such type of products provides more
usable storage space than the other types of units. However, the side-by-side
category is set to exhibit the fastest growth in the forecast period as people
can easily and quickly locate the required food product in these refrigerators
because of their open side shelf sections and also, they provide more shelf
space for consumer usage.
The bottom freezer category is commonly popular among senior citizens as it
does not have a mobility issue which makes them difficult to stoop down to
address food items. The French door segment witnessed considerable growth
because of their deeper drawer freezers that are widely used for storing frozen
food items.
Looking at the global market by region, each market has different
growth drivers as well as different preferences for different types of
refrigerators.
The Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the market owing to
the presence of a large population and households. Additionally, increasing
infrastructural demand in this region would result in the increasing adoption of
home appliance products. Other key factors that are supporting the growth of the
market in Asia-Pacific include rising disposable income, increasing
urbanization, & the number of households.
In the Asia Pacific region, the market offers great potential for foreign
brands targeting the midend or premium markets. In recent years, the rising
purchasing power among consumers there has boosted sales of home appliances with
premium features, such as side-by-side or French door refrigerators.
Europe is projected to grow at a faster rate because of the
introduction of technologically advanced refrigeration products by prominent
companies in the region.
The average European refrigerator is the size of a beverage fridge you’d find
in a U.S. dorm. Although smaller fridges mean using less energy and paying less
for utilities, culture plays a big role. Europeans tend to live in compact
cities and towns where specialty food shops are present in every neighborhood.
The traditional practice has been to shop a little every day. In Europe, people
tend to pass by their local food shops for fruit and vegetables, cheese, butter,
bread, etc., on their way home from work or a friend’s house. Food is available
when needed, so why bother filling your fridge to the brink?
North America is expected to hold a considerable share of
the market because of the higher disposable income of the population in
countries such as the United States and Canada. Moreover, factors such as a
large urban population base and increasing nuclear families would result in the
larger adoption of smart electrical appliances in the region.
When it comes to the preference, Americans have the biggest refrigerators in
the world — 17.5 cubic feet of volume on average. The size of Americans’
refrigerators is followed closely by Canadians while the rest of the world lags
far behind. Since those refrigerators run day and night, they use more energy
than any other household appliance, which means their size has ramifications for
the planet’s rate of global warming. Nowadays, companies in the home appliances
industry are coming up with environmentally friendly refrigeration products that
limit the carbon footprints and provide ease in the green initiatives towards
environmental sustainability. However, the enormous popularity of refrigerators
in the United States is an indicator of the value of refrigeration both for
preserving the food we buy and for the convenience that comes when such huge
machines are stocked. The fact that we put perishable food in the refrigerator
(even sometimes when it doesn’t belong there) suggests that we still remember
refrigeration’s most basic advantage: to prevent food from spoiling before we
consume it. Most people would agree that fresh food tastes better than anything
that's been kept in a refrigerator for even a short amount of time. But the
reason why Americans want a weeks' worth of perishable food stored in their
kitchen at one time is that Americans are slaves to convenience. Larger
refrigerators do limit the number of shopping trips we have to take, and they
also make it possible to consume a much greater variety of foods than ever did
without them in our kitchens.
Growing middle-class population in countries such as Brazil and
Argentina. Moreover, the increasing interest of people towards
energy-efficient home appliances would help to create demand for
energy-efficient refrigeration products in the region.
However, the Middle East and African market are driven by
the smaller manufacturing base of home appliances brands. Moreover, a stiff
increase in the spending power of the population for home appliances products is
set to create demand for refrigerators in these regions.
Different markets have their preferences. Thus household appliance store
owners need to do a market analysis on what kind of products cater to customers
in your end as well as how to plan and implement their marketing activities.