Robot vacuum cleaner and bread machine live hangover from the pandemic

Working from home for almost a year and without many leisure options during most of the pandemic, operational assistant Gabriella Leite, 23, decided to try a new hobby: she bought an analog camera with the aim of learning photography. Except that the device arrived practically with the notice that she would have to return to the office.

“The first months of the pandemic were uncertain, we didn’t know how long we would be stuck at home and I decided to buy the camera”, he says. “I already had the habit of buying used products on the internet, so I researched and bought a camera and film. But the next day, I went back to face-to-face work.”

As she works and goes to college, the time that was already short during the quarantine, took the picture out of the plans for now. She also resold a smartwatch purchased during the health crisis.

The longer time at home and the search for distractions or devices to facilitate housework led to an above-average performance of the electronics segments during the quarantine, but the reduction of distancing measures brings changes in consumer behavior.

A survey with some products that have become symbolic in the quarantine made by the OLX advertising website, mostly used and semi-new items, helps to understand this movement.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, sales of robot vacuum cleaners jumped 168%; dishwashers, 52%, bread machines, 44%, exercise bikes, 39%; and air fryers, 20%.

With the return to the office, the sales situation was reversed: in the comparison of the second half of last year with the first six months of 2021, all these items registered a drop by the platform.

Throughout 2021, with the advancement of vaccination, ads for people selling this equipment increased by up to 91% compared to 2020.

The retired public servant Márcia Neide, 67, for example, went through a kind of accordion effect in the pandemic years. She used to live on a farm with her husband in the countryside of Rio Grande do Sul. “With the quarantine, the two children came, bringing their daughters-in-law and three grandchildren.”

The house is equipped with a bread machine, two hair dryers, an electric shaver and an exercise mat. “With the return of relatives to their homes, products that were not donated to neighbors ended up in the closet. It’s their turn to be locked up”, he jokes.

An exclusive survey by CNC (National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism) shows that only 3 out of 10 retail segments showed a positive change in sales volume in January this year compared to February 2020 — the last full month before health crisis. Among furniture and appliances, the fall is 12.3%; computing and communication, 14%.

The survey also points out that home appliance and furniture sales had the worst performance since March 2021, when the country was hit by the second wave of Covid-19.

Also according to CNC, which used Google Shopping ads to compare the most searched items, there is a six-month price variation of up to 25% for vacuum robot models. For bakery machines, this increase can reach 35%.

“The rise in the prices of these products is the first factor to harm the performance of these segments in 2022”, says the entity’s senior economist, Fabio Bentes. “A second problem is that there was a certain exhaustion of the consumption cycle of durable goods. As of June 2021, furniture and appliances began to have months of declines or low growth, and retail has difficulty sustaining the level of before. .”

Bentes also highlights a third obstacle for these segments: credit. With high interest rates, and the basic rate at 11.75% per year, the consumer has more difficulties in paying in installments for higher value items, such as household products.

CNC simulated that the consumer would pay installments of R$ 129.44 in a loan of R$ 1,000, for 11 months, at terms and rates in force in January of this year. Five months ago, the installments would have been R$ 114.05.
“As inflation does not let up, interest rates should continue to rise.”

Inflation, which spread to more than 70% of the items in the IPCA (Extended Consumer Price Index) in February, did not spare home appliances and electronics. In 12 months, the category accumulates inflation of 15.46%. Refrigerators rose 24.71%; video games, 21.24%, and televisions, 19.61%.

PRICE COLLECTION

Biggest increases among the most wanted items

Source: CNC, from Google Shopping

SECTOR EXPECTS 2022 TO BE A DIFFICULT YEAR

The industry recognizes that 2020 and 2021 were atypical sales years. With no leisure and entertainment options competing for the consumer’s pocket and with Brazilians spending more time at home, electronics have gained space on the list of priorities for those who can spend.

“We have lived through an unusual, atypical and chaotic moment in recent years”, says José Jorge do Nascimento Júnior, president of Eletros, which brings together companies in the sector. “In April 2020, everything closed and we were practically without revenue. The market then took a leap from July, with people staying at home and transforming their domestic space into offices and study rooms.”

In 2021, the first semester was still one of growth and high prices and production costs, with a high dollar and more expensive energy. In the second half of last year, with the advancement of vaccination, demand for products began to fall.

Today, Eletros expects to return in 2022 to the level of 2020, recovering the losses of last year.
The sector left an idle capacity of 30% and came to operate with 100%, working on Saturdays and in three shifts.

In the case of Abinee (Brazilian Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry) the expectation for this year is a real drop (already considering inflation) of 3%.

“Without a doubt, we are noticing changes in consumer behavior and our expectation is that the information technology area may not have a positive growth, due to the anticipation of purchases that occurred during the quarantine”, says the president of the entity, Humberto Barbato.

He recalls that consumers who worked from home in recent years were forced to change computers or buy new equipment for their school-age children, for example. “No one changes appliances or computers every year, so 2022 should be even weaker.”

But the increase in the number of device ads on these platforms is not always a sign of regret. Some of the consumers took advantage of the period at home to discover utensils that would facilitate their daily lives. The couple Bruno, 37, and Sabrina Escabora, 41, is an example of this.

São Paulo residents, the engineering supervisor and the sales manager placed an ad to sell a robot vacuum in March, but not because they were dissatisfied with the technology. The intention is to stick with a more modern model, which empties the trash by itself and was purchased during the pandemic.

“My wife has always been interested in this type of appliance and uses the robot daily. I never expected to spend twice on the same product”, he says. The two remain at home office and are expecting their second child. During the quarantine, without spending on leisure and travel, most of the resources ended up going to equip the house and toys to distract the couple’s daughter, Eva, 3.

With the return to the office, some companies are betting on equipment that does not depend on the presence of people in the house, such as air conditioners that can be activated over the internet, robot vacuum cleaners that do the entire cleaning cycle by themselves or pans and bakery machines programmed with late trigger.

“As the sector’s fuel is innovation, companies are always investing in new products to captivate the consumer. The year will be more difficult, but we have no drop in the number of jobs in the sector, this demonstrates that there is optimism”, says Barbato .

“This year is the World Cup, the hangover of an economic crisis may be ending and we hope to sell many televisions and refrigeration products. The dollar at a lower level and with the expected reduction in the energy bill can lead to a reduction of costs”, says Nascimento Júnior.