White goods at crux of consumption push

China's latest efforts to boost consumption of green and smart household appliances and home furnishings are expected to further stimulate consumer spending appetites, propel industrial upgrades and provide fresh momentum for high-quality economic growth, said experts and company executives.

They noted that promoting green and smart home devices aligns with the country's emphasis on pursuing a green, low-carbon and sustainable development path.

Their comments came as the country recently unveiled a comprehensive plan to improve the alignment of the supply and demand of consumer goods, in its latest move to further unleash consumption potential, given that stimulating consumption has been a top economic priority this year.

The plan, which was unveiled by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other government departments last week, outlines measures such as promoting the expansion and upgrade of green products, and encouraging green and low-carbon consumption in areas such as new energy vehicles, high-efficiency home appliances, green construction materials and home decor.

The measures to spur the consumption of green and smart home products signify that the country supports enterprises to increase research and development investment in eco-friendly and smart home technologies, enrich product offerings and improve product performance and quality, thus driving industrial transformation and upgrading, said Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy.

Zhu is bullish on the enormous growth potential of green consumption.

"As people pay more attention to environmental protection and pursue high-quality lifestyles, the concept of green consumption is gaining widespread acceptance. Environmentally friendly products not only offer convenient and comfortable living experiences, but also align with the trend of consumption upgrading."

He highlighted that the launch of the plan will further stimulate market vitality, make green consumption a new driver of consumption growth and propel the coordinated development of relevant industries, while calling for issuing green consumption vouchers and offering fiscal subsidies and tax incentives to boost people's willingness to buy green and smart white goods.

Efforts will also be made to formulate national standards for the interconnectivity of smart homes and support leading enterprises to jointly create intelligent and green home solutions, according to the plan.

"Enterprises should develop more green and eco-friendly products that meet consumer needs, accelerate the construction of green infrastructure — such as charging stations, waste sorting and recycling facilities — and pour more resources into technological R&D to elevate the intelligence level, energy-saving and environmentally friendly performances," Zhu added.

China has become the world's largest consumption market for smart home devices, accounting for a 50-60 percent share in the global smart home sector, said market research company AskCI Consulting.

A report released by the Beijing-based market consultancy All View Cloud said environmentally friendly and energy-saving home appliance products — such as air conditioners and gas stoves — are increasingly favored by Chinese consumers, while sales of smart household appliances that integrate artificial intelligence-powered large language models have witnessed robust growth.

Hong Yong, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the plan drives the technological innovation of green and smart home products, and the scale of China's green consumption market has reached more than 1 trillion yuan ($141.4 billion).

Hong said the post-1980s generation and middle-income groups have become the main driving forces of consumption, adding that more efforts should be made to develop green consumption credit, and improve green certification and carbon footprint traceability of products.

Chinese home appliance manufacturers are accelerating steps to launch more green and intelligent household appliances, and promote the recycling of aging or inefficient products.

Home appliance giant Midea Group has distributed shopping vouchers to consumers who replace old home appliances with energy-saving and intelligent alternatives via its offline stores. It has also ramped up efforts to recycle such household appliances in coordination with companies involved in dismantling discarded white goods and electronics.

Zhou Yunjie, chairman and CEO of Haier, said more efforts are needed to build the whole industrial chain covering the recycling, dismantling and reuse of raw materials, regulating recycling channels and establishing standards to encourage the use of recycled goods.

Zhao Meimei, assistant president of All View Cloud, said these stimulus measures to spur the consumption of green household appliances will not only satisfy people's demand for higher-quality products, but also propel the digital and intelligent transformation of the traditional home appliances sector and provide sustained momentum for economic growth.