Home electronics market in Germany loses 1.3 percent in 2022
After two years, 2020 and 2021, shaped by the pandemic and the resulting extraordinarily high demand for consumer electronics products and home appliances, the market showed a downward trend in 2022, even sharply in some segments. The pandemic years brought an unexpected boom to the industry, as people put more personal focus on their homes. This trend discontinued in 2022.
Customers had and still have a greater choice of ways to spend their money, for example on vacations, culture and dining out. In addition, rising energy costs and higher food prices limit the budget available for other expenses. Accordingly, the current Home Electronics Market Index for 2022 as a whole shows a decline in sales of 1.3 percent to almost 48.4 billion euros.
Only the product segments of large electrical appliances, privately used telecommunications products and A/V accessories recorded sales growth last year.
Dr Sara Warneke, Managing Director of the industry organisation gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH, on market development: “After consumers had increasingly focused on their own homes and the technical equipment for working and teaching at home in 2020 and 2021, these were missing Investments in consumer electronics, IT and telecommunications products as well as home appliances in the past year. The year 2022 was not able to continue the special economic situation caused by the pandemic, which led to extraordinary sales growth. Nevertheless, compared to the period before the pandemic in 2019, the market has grown by around 13.5 percent since then.”
Average prices increased
While the growth rates were lower than in 2021 and sales or unit numbers were down, the average price has risen in almost all segments, sometimes in double digits. On the one hand, this is a consequence of purchasing behaviour and, on the other hand, it is also due to inflation and increased unit prices. Higher quality and better equipped products, to which buyers have increasingly resorted, have achieved higher prices.
In the case of TV sets, for example, these are models with a larger screen size or with OLED displays. The average price for television sets rose by 1.8 percent to 689 euros last year. The average price of smartphones also rose again, by 12.7 percent to 626 euros. For core wearables, such as fitness trackers or smartwatches, the average price rose by 10.4 percent to 203 euros. In the photo sector, the average prices in 2022 were between around 46 percent (action cams) and around 11 percent (interchangeable lenses) higher than in the previous year. Video games consoles recorded an average price that had risen by 6 percent to 384 euros. Desktop PCs (+ 6.6 percent) and tablet PCs (+ 7.8 percent) also recorded higher average prices.
Development in Consumer Electronics:
With sales of more than 30.7 billion euros in 2022, the consumer electronics sector with the product areas of consumer electronics, privately used telecommunications and privately used IT products shows a decline of 1.5 percent compared to 2021.
Telecommunications for private use
The segment of privately used telecommunications products once again developed very positively with sales growth of 8.5 percent to more than 14.7 billion euros. Growth drivers were the core wearables with an increase in sales of 8 percent and smartphones with 9.3 percent more sales than in the previous year.
IT products used privately
The privately used IT products recorded a decline of 11.1 percent to 7.7 billion euros. The division of PCs and PC monitors recorded a decline in sales of between almost ten and almost 18 percent and a decline in the number of units between nine and almost 23 percent.
Consumer Electronics
The consumer electronics segment had to accept a drop of 7.2 percent with sales of almost 8.3 billion euros. In the case of television sets, the number of units fell by 15.4 percent to just under 4.9 million, while sales fell by 13.9 percent to just under 3.4 billion euros. The OLED TV segment developed positively: the number of units rose by 11.7 percent and sales by 5 percent. In 2022, OLED TVs already accounted for 31.5 percent of TV sales. The home audio segment recorded a decrease of 4.9 percent to just under 0.9 billion euros. In the audio/video accessories segment, sales rose to 1.7 billion euros (+ 6.7 percent), with both headphones and Bluetooth speakers growing here. The number of video game consoles fell by 22 percent to almost 1.8 million and the turnover by 17.3 percent to 672 million euros.
Development of home appliances
In the area of home appliances, sales remained almost stable at a total of 17.6 billion euros (-1 percent). The increase in sales of major domestic appliances for the year as a whole was 0.6 percent to almost 10.5 billion euros. Sales of small domestic appliances fell by 3.4 percent to 7.1 billion euros.
Forecast 2023
Due to the geopolitical situation and the associated reluctance to buy, the industry expects sales for the current year 2023 to be at the previous year’s level.
The market figures for the HE industry are collected by the industry organisation gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH and GfK jointly for all market participants in the form of the official Home Electronics Market Index HEMIX and published for each quarter. The HEMIX contains current market information from the sources of the competent partners involved.
The HEMIX shows the quarterly market development in Germany based on volume and value. The home electronics market is defined firmly and uniformly as the sum of sales in Germany to private consumers.
All of the HEMIX data is available on the websites of the partners involved: HEMIX | Home Electronics Markt Index Deutschland (gfu.de)
For further information:
gfu Consumer & Home Electronics GmbH
Dr. Sara Warneke (Geschäftsführerin) Tel. 069 509293 411
Roland M. Stehle (Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit) Tel. 0911 3777900
E-Mail: sara.warneke@gfu.de, stehle@gfu.de
Internet: www.gfu.de
GfK
Andreas Peplinski Tel. 0911 395–4802
E-Mail: Andreas.Peplinski@gfk.com
Internet: www.gfk.com
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