As sales of ice makers surge, homes, hostels, offices across China chill out

Owing to soaring summer temperatures, household ice makers are selling like hotcakes in China as consumers, be it families, office workers or university scholars, have developed a habit of enjoying iced drinks, market players observed.

The idea of beating the summer heat with drinks enhanced by self-made ice cubes is fast catching on, with iced americano, iced Coke and iced beer emerging as the season's favorites.

From June 1 to July 10, sales of ice makers on Alibaba's e-commerce platform Tmall surged 315 percent year-on-year. Small-sized, portable and perfect for use at homes, offices and other places like party or get-together venues, ice makers take little space on table tops and desks. They retail in the range of 200 yuan ($27.6) to 600 yuan, and can churn out ice cubes within six to eight minutes. Their automatic self-cleaning feature is a big hit among consumers, market observers said.

"Drink delivery orders take time and cost money. A growing number of young Chinese consumers prefer to buy ice makers and make iced drinks themselves. Sales of ice makers have climbed for two straight years," said Yi Han, director of household ice maker segment at Tmall.

As adding ice to certain drinks has become popular, sales of ice makers in China have been growing rapidly, especially in summer, he said.

In the past, the business of ice-making in China was mainly supported by demand from commercial players. Now, sales of household ice makers account for more than 76 percent of the market share. The figure is expected to swell, according to China IRN, a consultancy based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Coca-Cola China's distributor said its small-sized home appliance products like ice makers, fans and mini-refrigerators have been much sought after among Chinese consumers.

This summer, the firm sold up to 30,000 ice makers. About 80 percent of the sales came from e-commerce platforms, and the rest from supermarket chains such as Sam's Club and Freshippo, Coca-Cola China said.

"Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese consumers' spending habits have changed to some extent. This year, we have witnessed a significant growth in the sales of ice makers and this is related to rising temperatures," said Du Wen, general manager of the distributor of small household appliances of Coca-Cola China's distributor.

Du said a large number of Chinese consumers who buy ice makers hail from Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces as well as Shanghai, where summer temperatures tend to soar toward the 35-40+ C range.

Consumers aged above 35 have been a major group who buy household ice makers, as younger consumers and college students tend to buy soft drinks online for delivery to their homes or hostels. Some parents prefer to buy ice makers to make smoothies for their children at home as they believe homemade beverages would be better for health.

"Consumption of iced water and beverages calls for consumer education and awareness. To be sure, ice maker sales in China are still in their initial stage of development compared with the United States and Europe. The rapid growth of the milk tea beverage sector in China, which is strongly related to ice, has helped drive the popularity of iced drinks," Du said.