H1 2025 Market Analysis: China Appliances Industry Report

Key Finding 1

China's online home appliance market reached CN¥ 284.88 billion in H1 2025, up 8.0% year on year, on 710 million units, up 2.5%, as the national trade-in subsidy, launched in August 2024 and widened from 8 to 12 categories in 2025, brought replacement demand forward.

Large home appliances remain the largest segment at CN¥ 162.03 billion, about 56.9% of sales, and grew 7.1%, while living appliances grew 13.6% to CN¥ 46.88 billion and kitchen appliances 9.7% to CN¥ 47.13 billion, so the faster growth came from smaller categories that make daily life easier. Among subsidised categories, range hoods grew 50.5%, gas stoves 45.1% and robot vacuums 52.3%, up from 18.4% growth in H1 2024, and outside them coffee machines rose 55.1% to CN¥ 2.6 billion and air conditioners 16.7% to CN¥ 44.6 billion. Refrigerators and televisions were almost flat despite the subsidy, and we believe many households had already replaced them when the policy first launched in the second half of 2024.

Key Finding 2

Cleaning appliance sales reached CN¥ 26.04 billion in H1 2025, up 31.6% year on year against unit growth of 16.1%, and with average prices up 13.4% consumers are trading up from single-function cleaners to intelligent, multi-functional machines.

Robot vacuums and floor washers together account for 78.3% of the segment's sales, and robot vacuums alone rose from 36.9% to 42.6% of it, the largest share gain of any cleaning category, as buyers paid more for integrated vacuum and mop functions, AI navigation and self-cleaning bases. Window cleaning robots grew by more than 100% and rose from 2.2% to 3.4% of sales, which the report links to safer high-rise window cleaning for apartment residents. The concepts behind sales and price premiums are autonomy features such as automatic water circulation and obstacle avoidance, together with physical designs such as the 180° lay-flat floor washer that cleans under furniture and anti-tangle rollers that stop hair wrapping. Sales follow the shopping festivals, and June 2025, the month of the 618 festival, brought in CN¥ 5.7 billion, the highest monthly figure in the report.

Key Finding 3

Consumers judge cleaning appliances by where and how they will use them, and convenience is the function they discuss most, so we believe products and marketing that show the labour saved in a particular room will persuade buyers more than claims of cleaning power alone.

Usage scenarios make up 26.0% of cleaning appliance discussion on social media, ahead of brands at 15.7% and functions at 14.6%, and the kitchen is the most discussed scenario at 21.9%, which the report attributes to the oil and moisture of Chinese cooking. Discussion of convenience peaked in April 2025, as consumers researched products ahead of the 618 festival. Brands in the category put most of their promotion into content-led commerce, where live-stream demonstrations of extreme durability tests and side-by-side comparisons, and partnerships with creators in home, parenting and pet-owner niches, proved effective at building credibility. Uwant applied this approach to products designed around specific frustrations, among them the Yunduo series with a 180° lay-flat design for compact apartments and the CM2306, whose dual-cup filtration and smart display show users the result of mite removal.

Key Finding 4

Online air purifier sales reached CN¥ 2.9 billion in H1 2025, up 35.3% year on year, with units up 17.0% and average prices up 15.7%, as health concerns led buyers towards models with stronger filtration and features aimed at a specific need.

The report identifies three groups of buyers, namely households concerned with environmental health, who look for formaldehyde, bacteria and odour removal and respond to CADR ratings and third-party certification, pet owners, who want pet hair capture and odour control, and allergy sufferers, who need HEPA-13 or better filtration against pollen and dust, and it finds that Influenza A protection and fog-free operation have emerged as high-growth selling points. Odour removal accounts for 32.5% of discussion of functions, dust removal 23.7% and formaldehyde removal 11.6%, while noise makes up 38.1% of negative review mentions, size 20.0% and smell from the purifier itself 17.1%, which points product development towards quieter motors, smaller units and better filter packaging. Brands have answered with filtration technology, such as the ammonia-removing carbon layers in the Mijia Air Purifier Ultra and the manganese-based formaldehyde decomposition in the Treeow T2 Pro, and Xiaomi's Mijia Air Purifier 5 Pro, launched in December 2024, pairs a dual-fan system and six-layer filtration with smart connectivity at a mid-market price and was marketed through reviews by tech media and gadget bloggers.