HEMIX Home Electronics Market Index Q1-4/2024

The market for consumer electronics products and electrical household appliances developed in 2024 with a decline of 2.8 percent, less negative than in the previous year. In addition to some positive segments, others are nevertheless developing with moderate to sharp declines. Accordingly, the current Home Electronics Market Index for the full year 2024 shows an overall revenue decline of 2.8 percent to just under 45.9 billion euros. Product segments such as TV sets and small electrical appliances are slowing the negative trend. Among other things, targeted, needs-oriented innovations in individual product areas made it possible to record revenue growth. The decline in inflation last year also led to a cautious increase in consumer buying sentiment in Germany in the area of consumer electronics and electrical household appliances.

Dr. Sara Warneke, Managing Director of the industry organization gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH, on market development: “For 2024, too, we are observing the expected slightly declining market development in the Home & Consumer Tech sector. It is encouraging to see that the negative trend continues to slow. This is certainly also related to the development of innovations that are specifically geared to customer needs. The decline in inflation is also likely to make a contribution.”

While declines in unit sales were recorded in most product categories, categories such as TV sets, action cams, monitors and tablet PCs were able to increase their sales volume. The areas of media boxes/sticks and individual audio components even recorded double-digit increases in unit sales in 2024. The experts at GfK and gfu also attribute the significant increase in sales volume in this segment to the SD switch-off. Overall, average prices rose more moderately than in the previous year. But there were exceptions here as well, such as action cams and audio home systems, whose price development rose sharply in 2024. Accordingly, the price of action cams increased in 2024 compared with 2023 from 297 euros to 349 euros, which corresponds to an increase of 17.4 percent. Audio home systems also recorded a double-digit price increase of 10.3%, corresponding to an average price last year rising from 210 euros to 232 euros.

With revenue of 28.9 billion euros, the consumer electronics sector, comprising the product areas of consumer electronics, privately used telecommunications and privately used IT products, recorded a decline of 4.5 percent in 2024 compared with 2023.

The consumer electronics segment had to accept a decline of 4.4 percent, with revenue of 7.9 billion euros. Purchase interest in video game consoles continued to decline in 2024. In 2024, the category lost 29.4 percent in revenue compared with the previous year ( -323 million euros), falling to 775 million euros. The home audio sector also recorded an overall decline of 6.3 percent (-51 million euros) to 758 million euros in 2024 compared with the previous year. By contrast, television sets developed positively in terms of both unit sales and revenue.  In this area, a total of 4.4 million devices were sold in 2024, corresponding to growth of 2.6 percent. Total revenue in this segment grew from 3 billion to just under 3.1 billion in 2024, corresponding to revenue growth of 2.8 percent. The video segment also developed positively last year. In 2024, it recorded an overall increase of 10.5 percent to 183 million euros. And to complete the trio, it should be mentioned that the action cams segment also developed very positively last year. In 2024, this category achieved 7.7 percent higher unit sales, corresponding to an increase from 295 million to 318 million units. Revenue rose over the same period from 88 million to a total of 111 million euros.

The segment of privately used telecommunications products also developed negatively in 2024, with a revenue decline of 4.0 percent to just under 14.8 billion euros. Unit sales and revenues for smartphones and core wearables also declined.

The situation is similar for privately used IT products. Compared with the previous year, they recorded a decline of only 5.9 percent to just under 6.2 billion euros. This was mainly influenced by the PCs sector, which includes laptops and desktops as well as tablet PCs, with a decline of 6.8 percent compared with the previous year, corresponding to a revenue decrease of 329 million euros.

In the area of electrical household appliances, revenue remained almost unchanged from the previous year at 17 billion euros, with an increase of 0.2 percent. The revenue decline for major electrical appliances amounted to only 3.7 percent for the full year, with just under 9.4 billion euros. For small electrical appliances, revenue increased by 5.4 percent to around 7.6 billion euros.

For the current year 2025, the industry expects a further improvement in the market situation, a further weakening of the negative trend and thus market stabilization.

The market figures for the HE industry are collected jointly and uniformly for all market participants by the industry organization gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH and GfK in the form of the official Home Electronics Market Index HEMIX and published for each quarter. HEMIX contains current market information from the sources of the participating, competent partners.

Based on volume and value, HEMIX shows the quarterly market development in Germany. The home electronics market is firmly and uniformly defined as the sum of sales in Germany to private consumers.

The complete HEMIX data is available on the websites of the participating partners: HEMIX

gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH
Dr. Sara Warneke (Managing Director), Tel. 069 509293 411
Email: sara.warneke@gfu.de, Internet: gfu.de

NIQ/ GfK
Andreas Peplinski, Tel. 0911 395–4802
Email: Andreas.Peplinski@gfk.com, Internet: www.gfk.com