On May 22, the "AI Unbounded, Freshness Boundless - 2025 China Refrigerator Industry Summit Forum", guided by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and hosted by China Household Appliance Network, was held in Changsha. At the meeting, many well - known upstream and downstream brands and the data support unit GfK China jointly explored the development direction of the refrigerator industry in the face of policy and technological changes, and searched for new paths for sustainable growth and innovative development.
In the first quarter of 2025, driven by the coordination of supply and demand and the "national subsidy" policy, the refrigerator market showed a steady development trend. Data from GfK Zhongyikang shows that the retail volume and retail sales of the domestic refrigerator market in this quarter increased by 2.7% and 3.8% year - on - year respectively.
Wang Lei, the secretary - general of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, said that in the current environment, stability and development are of great importance. Policy support and enterprises' technological innovation have jointly promoted the recovery and growth of the refrigerator market. However, stimulus policies are not a long - term solution. To achieve sustainable growth, it is necessary to rely on technological innovation and service upgrading to find new growth points in the stock competition.
Looking back at the development history of the refrigerator industry, in the early days, from the use of inverter technology to improve energy efficiency to the adoption of air - cooling technology to solve the frosting problem; in recent years, since entering the stock market, from the competition in fresh - keeping technology, to the capacity upgrade driven by the stockpiling demand during the epidemic, to the embedded design becoming a new growth point due to its fit with the trend of home integration, and the intelligent upgrade to enhance the user experience... Every breakthrough has verified the truth that "differentiated innovation is the core driving force".
At the meeting, the report "How to Achieve Differentiated Innovation of Refrigerators in the Stock Era", jointly released by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association and the conference organizer China Household Appliance Network, deeply analyzed different sub - fields from multiple dimensions such as fresh - keeping technology upgrade, design philosophy breakthrough, and AI technology application, and proposed targeted innovation paths, providing ideas and directions for the industry to achieve sustainable growth in the stock competition.
Lv Shenghua, the chief editor of China Household Appliance Network, believes that in the era of stock competition, replacement consumption dominates the market. Understanding the needs of young consumers and carrying out differentiated innovation is the key to responding to policy changes and achieving stable growth. "The freshness of ingredients is the core demand of consumers for refrigerators, and fresh - keeping is the core function of refrigerators. Enterprises need to continuously research and develop to improve fresh - keeping technology to meet consumers' pursuit of high - quality products. At the same time, the refrigerator industry also needs to continue to innovate in fresh - keeping technology, design, service, and intelligence to meet the diversified needs of consumers," he said.
Wang Hongji, the general manager of the White Goods Division of GfK Zhongyikang, predicts that the refrigerator market will face fluctuations in 2025, but factors such as category upgrade, volume modification, and the increase in the proportion of mid - to - high - end products will help meet the challenges. AI technology has an important impact on the innovation and development of the refrigerator industry.
The representatives at the meeting said that they will focus on directions such as innovating product design, developing new tracks, and enhancing the user experience, such as realizing automatic ingredient identification and management through AI technology, and developing age - appropriate products and shared refrigerators.
With the trend of home appliance intelligence, AI technology is gradually being integrated into refrigerator products. Guo Longquan, the product director of Lingsi Technology, proposed the AI upgrade directions for smart refrigerators, including smart label upgrade, the concept of intelligent ingredient entities, and the combination of ingredient and health management, aiming to break through data silos and enhance the user experience.
Wang Lei concluded that innovation is the core force driving the development of the refrigerator industry. The industry should carry out innovation around technological deepening, forward - looking design, and service systematization, integrate advanced technologies, improve fresh - keeping quality and health management, build an intelligent ingredient management system, conform to the trend of home integration, improve the service system, and enhance the user experience value.
