As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge public health worldwide, it has abruptly affected economies, society and people’s lives, leading to a paradigm shift in consumer lifestyles. Overnight, our lives became centred on the home.This has led to a massive change in consumer behaviour across the country and these behavioral changes are irreversible. The impact of shifting consumer behaviour is being felt across industries, especially home appliances, as a greater percentage of consumers spends a large chunk of their time at home. In terms of the effect the pandemic has exerted on the home appliances market, compared with the former, customers attach more importance to reliability, integration, energy-efficiency and larger capacity when they decide on the brands or models they plan to buy.

Followed are a deeper analysis of those features customers think highly of during the pandemic.

Why Appliance Reliability Matters

2021 has witnessed changes in consumer preferences moving towards reliable and quality brands. It is likely that this preference trend will continue in 2022.

Major appliances are a big purchase for most people which are complex, mission-critical machines that can cost thousands of dollars and are so bulky that they typically need to be delivered and installed, so buyers want them to last. Consumer Reports’ surveys have found that our members rank reliability—from refrigerators to laundry machines—as more important than price or performance.

Besides the cost, they perform many of the basic chores of domestic life—cooking, cleaning, preserving food. When they don’t, the entire household suddenly is thrown off-kilter. For example when your refrigerator breaks, you need to either fix it or replace it, before those Omaha Steaks at the back of the freezer go bad. And during the pandemic, it becomes more troublesome to repair or replace the appliances. Thus, the durability of those machines comes to first when consumers select their homes.

In this way, it makes sense that reliability would be important to appliance shoppers. It is tempting to go with the cheapest, but you don’t want to do that at the expense of product quality. You want to make sure that the supplier you are choosing is going to supply you with a quality product. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about the quality of the products you are buying, and where your supplier is sourcing their materials from. It’s better to have all of the information you need to guarantee the quality of the products so that you can make an informed decision.

If necessary, ask for product samples to make sure that you will be getting what you’ve asked for. According to the the feedback from SMAD B2B team, it is quite understandable that their clients would insist on getting to the bottom of the matter, which is essential for a appliance shoppers to be responsible for their customers. So they will try their best to meet the demands.

Automation&Multi-function

More and more people settled in their routines they looked for automating their home appliances in a bid to save time. From microwaves having 73 auto cook menus to curd maker refrigerators and quick wash washing machines,customers across the country increasingly adopted automating home appliances. Virtually everyone loves convenience, especially when you’re at home to take some rest. Models that combine various functions thus becoming 2-in-1 appliances are also becoming popular such as, ovens that have a dishwasher, or even ovens with a dishwasher and a ceramic or induction hob, also refrigerators that have an ice maker or water dispenser.

All of these changes allow you to control or use your home appliances without leaving your work too long, which greatly brings convenience and enhances your relaxation. Furthermore, products promising elevated hygiene also showed potential. Washing machines with a steam function sold almost twice as much as the year before, when the market was already worth around $5 billion.

Energy-efficiency

With many people confined to their homes, working remotely and home-schooling, interest in appliances and consumer electronics has risen. The trend of choosing energy-efficient appliances become particularly relevant as appliance are the second-largest residential end use of energy. They consume over 20% of total residential energy, a proportion that has been increasing during the past decades. Up to 30% of residential carbon emissions come from the use of appliances.

Thus, customers are likely to opt for energy-efficient home appliances to save on electricity bills and reduce the cost of operations. It is vital that new appliances bought during and after the pandemic are as efficient as possible to outpace higher ownership patterns and avoid increased energy consumption levels after the crisis.While the former saw a jump of up to 40% in the demand for 5- star energy-efficient AC's, refrigerators adoption too reflected a similar trend.

Larger appliances

Demand for large household appliances has been impressive in the first six months of 2021. Compared to the same period last year, the large equipment market in India grew by 51 percent, in China by 38 percent, and in Western Europe by 32 percent in the first half of 2021.

In 2022, people will also spend a lot of time inside the home and their demands on household appliances will increase. When it comes to storage, food preparation, cooking, and even cleaning chores, besides reliability， energy-efficiency and functions, consumers value capacity.

For example, high-capacity side-by-side refrigerators (+36 percent) or those with more than four doors (+33 percent) were particularly popular.

The surge in home appliances purchases by consumers was an unusual macroeconomic development. The importance of these factors is likely to fade as public health concerns are mitigated by increasing vaccinations. But the desire for reliability, integration, energy-efficiency and larger capacity is irreversible.