Luotu Technology: In the 2024 Double 11 promotion season, the sales volume of China's headphone market in online traditional e-commerce was 23.1 million pairs, a year-on-year decrease of 14.9%.

In order to promote energy conservation and emission reduction and stimulate consumption, the country has implemented a subsidy policy for replacing old appliances with new ones for specific home appliances.

Initially, the policy covered eight categories of home appliances, but later the coverage of subsidized products was further expanded based on specific needs.

The national subsidy boosted the market by 29.2% and 34.5% in September and October 2024, respectively. For example, from September to November, the retail volume of televisions increased by 10% year-on-year, and the retail sales increased by a significant 33.1%. This shows that the national subsidy policy has played a significant role in boosting consumption.

However, the earphone category, which has an annual sales volume of over 100 million sets and a sales revenue of 20 billion, does not seem to have benefited significantly. According to RUNTO's monitoring data, from October to November 2024 (Double 11 promotion season), the sales volume of the Chinese earphone market through traditional online e-commerce was 23.1 million pairs, a year-on-year decrease of 14.9% from 2023.

On traditional online e-commerce platforms, the sales of headphones with descriptions related to national subsidies were only 150 million yuan, accounting for 3% of the total sales from October to November.

According to analysis, there are four main reasons why headphones have not been favored by the national subsidy policy:

First of all, the headphone market participated in the national subsidy relatively late, starting only in October, and the popularity and traffic were not enough.

Secondly, there are not many regions participating and it is not universal enough, with only a few places such as Shenzhen in the early stages.

Third, the overall number of participating brands and products is limited, and some companies are not fully prepared, with only certain national subsidized product models on sale in the official flagship stores of e-commerce platforms.

Finally, low-end brands have a large market share, the average price of products is too low, the discounts are not significant, and the price discounts that can be enjoyed are not stimulating enough for users.

Zikuai Technology