How a Chinese Appliance Brand Broke Into the US Market
By Jotham Lim
4 min read
Executive Summary#
A Chinese brand, LEVOIT, has built a large US online appliance business by specialising in one niche, air purifiers and humidifiers, rather than spreading itself across categories.[1] Home appliance sales on a leading US marketplace totalled approximately US$ 4.9 billion over the trailing twelve months, with kitchen appliances accounting for nearly 50% of online sales. This analysis compares the structure of the Chinese and US markets, looks at how far Chinese brands have travelled abroad, and sets out where the opportunities lie for them in the world's largest consumer market.
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A Different Market Structure in the US#
Appliance buying in the US has moved online more slowly than in China's CN¥ 508 billion market. Approximately 70% of US large appliance purchases still happen in physical stores,[2] while China's online home appliance market is at a more advanced stage of e-commerce adoption.
Sales peak in the year-end promotional season, when Black Friday drives the largest monthly jump. Sales rose 71% and volume 59% in the November promotional period. Dedicated delivery and installation services for appliances have made the category easier to buy online, which has helped the market keep growing.
How LEVOIT Broke Through#
LEVOIT built its US online business on a single niche, air purifiers and humidifiers. We believe its route shows that the technical depth and cost efficiency Chinese brands have built at home can become real competitive strengths abroad.
The best-known US appliance brands online are mostly small appliance specialists, each built on one category:
- iRobot, Shark and Bissell on cleaning appliances
- Ninja and Instant Pot on kitchen appliances, through product innovation
- Keurig almost entirely on its coffee makers
- LEVOIT on living appliances, its air purifiers and humidifiers
China and the US: Different Competitive Dynamics#
The two markets reward different strategies, and the difference matters to any Chinese brand planning to go abroad.
In China, sales are concentrated among the large, diversified appliance groups, and that concentration has held steady, while the US rewards specialists. Beneath the stable surface, the Chinese market moves quickly. Xiaomi has built a presence across most of the major categories, and in cleaning appliances, brands such as Dreame have grown on the strength of social media.
Opportunities for Chinese Brands#
The comparison points to several ways in for Chinese brands:
- Categories that already sell well online (kitchen, cleaning and living appliances) are the easiest to enter on US marketplaces
- Specialising in one category works better than spreading across many on US marketplaces, as Keurig's position, built almost entirely on coffee makers, shows
- Slower product cycles in the US leave room for Chinese brands that innovate faster
- Chinese cleaning appliance brands such as Dreame, Roborock and ECOVACS are well placed to compete with established US cleaning specialists, given what they have achieved at home
- Value for money remains a strong differentiator, particularly in the mid-market, where US brands charge premium prices
Key Takeaways#
- A Chinese brand, LEVOIT, built a large US online business by specialising in air purifiers and humidifiers
- Home appliance sales on a leading US marketplace totalled ~US$ 4.9 billion, with kitchen appliances accounting for nearly 50%
- Black Friday drove a 71% sales surge, showing how sensitive US appliance shoppers are to promotions
- Specialisation wins on US marketplaces, in contrast to the diversified brand model that works in China
- Chinese cleaning appliance brands, built on fast growth at home, are well placed to enter the US market
Related Reading#
About the Data#
This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence data covering January 2020 through December 2022. Moojing analyses brand and category performance across China's leading marketplaces, and US marketplace data from MoAnalysis is used for comparison. For full methodology and additional insights, see the complete Home Appliances whitepaper.
This content adheres to Moojing's editorial standards .
Frequently Asked Questions
The US has moved much less of its appliance buying online than China, whose market reached CN¥ 508 billion. Around 70% of US large appliance purchases still happen through offline retail, while China's online home appliance market has reached a more advanced stage of e-commerce adoption. Kitchen appliances take nearly 50% of sales on that marketplace. For a brand planning entry, the addressable online slice is therefore narrower than headline market size suggests, and concentrated in fewer categories.
Highly, and in a concentrated way. The year-end promotional season drives the largest monthly surges, with sales rising 71% and volume 59% during the November period. A single window carrying that large a share of the year has direct consequences for inventory planning, advertising budget phasing and pricing discipline in the months either side of it. Improvements to appliance delivery and installation services on the marketplace have also removed a long-standing friction in buying large appliances online, which is part of why the online segment continues to grow at all.
Specialisation rather than breadth. The strongest positions on this marketplace belong to brands that own one category outright, such as cleaning appliances, kitchen appliances or coffee makers, and not to brands spread across many. That is the inverse of the diversified model that works domestically in China, where the most successful brands hold strong positions across several categories at once. The first Chinese brand to reach the leading tier of US online home appliances did it through a narrow living-appliance niche, air purifiers and humidifiers, not through a broad range. Choose the category before choosing the range.
Three places. Product iteration cycles run slower in the US market, so a brand used to a faster domestic development cadence can bring differentiated features to market ahead of incumbents. Price-performance remains a genuine differentiator in mid-market segments where established US brands hold premium pricing. And the categories with the highest online penetration (kitchen, cleaning and living appliances) carry the lowest barriers to entry, which is exactly where Chinese cleaning-appliance manufacturers with a proven domestic record are best placed to compete. The advantage is real but category-specific; it does not transfer to large appliances still bought predominantly offline.
