IDC: China's smartwatch market shipments in the first quarter of 2023 were 5.9 million units, down 16.7% year-on-year

In the first quarter of 2023, the wrist-worn market formed a completely opposite situation in terms of sales (Sales-Out) and shipments (Sales-In). According to the "China Wearable Device Market Monthly Sales Tracking Report", in the first quarter of 2023, sales of adult smartwatches (Sales-Out) increased by 1.8% year-on-year, sales of children's smartwatches increased by 2.2% year-on-year, and sales of bracelets increased by 10.6% year-on-year. Among them, the sales of adult smartwatches and children's smartwatches showed a trend opposite to that of shipments. From this, it can be seen that in the smartwatch market, the sales end (Sales-Out) showed a slight recovery trend before the shipment end (Sales-In). However, market shipments continue to shrink under a relatively stable channel strategy and have not yet shown signs of recovery.

With the ongoing inventory optimization in the current market and the subsequent launch of new flagship products, there are still certain growth opportunities this year, which are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:

Smart watches will be equipped with more health-related functions

Adult smart watches continue to expand in areas such as blood pressure and blood sugar, and manufacturers are gradually deploying products in this area. This caters to the current consumer demand for physical health, which is conducive to stimulating phone replacement and attracting more potential users to try new things.

Channel management pays more attention to efficiency

The channel inventory in the smartwatch market is gradually being optimized, and with the launch of more new products this year, the product line will be iterated as a whole, which will bring more favorable conversions to channel sales.

Entry-level wrist-worn wearable market picks up

After experiencing a downturn in the past three years, bracelets, as entry-level wristwear products, are expected to see a slight recovery this year as consumption recovers and the consumption willingness of middle- and low-income groups gradually increases.

Pan Xuefei, assistant research director of IDC China , believes that the current wrist-worn market shows a big difference in terms of shipment (Sales-In) and sales (Sales-Out), which is mainly affected by channel operation strategies and the rhythm of new product releases by manufacturers. From the perspective of sales (Sales-Out), there are signs of a slight recovery in market demand, which is more optimistic than shipment (Sales-In). But overall, we are still cautiously optimistic about the future. The breakthrough of technical bottlenecks in the health field of wrist-worn products, the pace of recovery of the economic environment and consumer willingness, and the accuracy of product population matching and positioning will all have a long-term impact on the development of the wrist-worn market.