According to GfK, the global Technical Consumer Goods (TCG) industry has inched back to 799 billion dollar (excluding North America), which is a 2% in the full year. Smart product segments performed better than average, resulting in a revival of 24% to 28 billion dollar across EU7 markets (Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium). The products recording the best performance have been alert detectors, robot vacuum cleaners and cooking ranges. Sales of voice-controlled products saw explosive growth of almost 61% in 2020, making them one of the best sellers of the year. Overall TCG delivered a V-shaped recovery, with the developed world experiencing a much stronger revival as consumers invested in their homes. «The pandemic is certainly fast-tracking digitization in our homes – GfK explains – The focus on home as headquarters is driving demand for tech goods. Restricted to working and studying at home and prevented from travel and outdoor leisure, consumers turned to indoor options. This delivered good growth of 19 percent for Smart Entertainment & Office products across EU7 markets.» Morever, according to GfK, TVs claimed a significant portion of that value uptick but sales of smart headsets increased over 100% in 2020. Looking at 2021, in week 7 (w/c February 8) this category continues to enjoy high demand at 54%. GfK expects this appetite to continue throughout the year. The pandemic also spotlighted health and hygiene which catapulted the Smart Small Domestic Appliances (SDA) and Smart Health Sector (i.e. vacuum cleaner, personal diagnostics, fitness trackers, wrist sport computers) to growth. This was the fastest growing segment across EU7* with +41% increase. Smart vacuum cleaners by 43% in value terms. Smart cooking also saw a strong grew by 71.5% percent. According to GfK’s new Market Intelligence Smart Home Report covering total smart home and individual sector views, in 2020, Germany and Great Britain were the biggest markets by value for smart products. The Netherlands led the growth with an increase of 44percent in value. However, smart growth was concentrated: two thirds (66 percent) of the total smart segments value rises originated from Entertainment and Office sector. Smart penetration in other sectors remained much lower.
