H1 2025: Haier Refrigerator Tops The List Without Contest, Who Sees The Highest Growth?

In the first half of 2025, driven by consumption upgrade and policy benefits, the Chinese refrigerator market steadily grew. According to GfK Zhongyikang H1 data, the offline market retail sales reached 9.93 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.4%; the retail volume was approximately 1.392 million units, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%.

From the perspective of brand competition landscape, market concentration continues to increase. According to GfK Zhongyikang H1 data, the TOP3 brand pattern remains stable, with Haier Group, Hisense Group, and Midea Group occupying the top three positions with market shares of 46.4%, 16.4%, and 15.5% respectively, totaling 78.3%. The industry's Matthew effect is further highlighted.

In the context of intensified stock competition, incremental performance better reflects a brand’s growth momentum.Data shows that in the first half of the year, the growth among leading brands varied significantly: Haier saw a net increase of 2.3 percentage points year-on-year, Midea increased by 0.6 percentage points, while Hisense declined by 0.2 percentage points. This means that, despite having the highest base, Haier refrigerators still achieved the largest market share expansion, demonstrating strong competitiveness in both maintaining its core market and seizing growth opportunities.

Carefully analyzing, there are two major differences in the refrigerator market in the first half of the year. On one hand, the product release speed is increasing.Compared to last year, this year’s TOP20 best-selling list features mostly “new faces,” with 13 refrigerator models making the list for the first time, including the Haier Heyue 625 at TOP1 and several Haier Mailang models. At the same time, the number of listed products is proportional to brand share: Haier series, Hisense series, and Midea series have 15, 4, and 1 products on the list respectively, demonstrating the strong pull of popular models.

On the other hand, thanks to national subsidy policies, users' sensitivity to price has decreased, making technology and experience the decisive factors for upgrades.From a macro perspective, the average price in the refrigerator industry increased by 1.9% year-on-year. Specifically, the Haier series saw a 3.1% year-on-year price increase, the Midea series a 1.2% decrease, and the Hisense series a 3.7% increase. Among them, the Haier series is the only refrigerator brand in the industry to achieve simultaneous growth in both market share and price. This corresponds to an enhancement in user experience, as seen with the TOP1 model Haier Yue 625, which features the latest magnetic control full-space freshness technology, allowing deep-sea fish and shrimp to remain fresh and flavorful after 60 days of freezing. This nationally award-winning technology is also applied to the new Mai Lang refrigerator model, which will be launched in August.

In the first half of the year, the competition in the refrigerator industry has entered a new stage of "technology defines value, users define products." Leading brands must continue to make efforts in core technology breakthroughs, responding to user needs, and optimizing product structures to consolidate their market position. How the industry landscape will evolve in the second half of the year is a dynamic worth continuous attention.