Air Purifiers Sales Surge At Breakneck Speed
With consumers staying indoors throughout this year, staying healthy is becoming the new normal. These factors are building further momentum for ‘Air Purifiers’, which were a rare commodity until a few years back. Leveraging on this unprecedented growth in volumes in this category, numerous companies- from MNCs, Chinese to even homegrown players —are offering products ranging from sub Rs. 1,000 to nearly Rs. 1 lakh. Some of the prominent players jostling for this space in this market are Sharp Corporation, Kent RO Systems Ltd., Honeywell International Inc., Xiaomi Corporation, Blueair, Panasonic Corporation, Philips India Ltd., Samsung Electronics, Eureka Forbes, Amway India, Dyson, Daikin Airconditioning India Pvt. Ltd, among others.
As Dipanjan Chakraborty, Business Lead, Domestic Appliances, Philips Indian Subcontinent, puts it succinctly, “There is a rapid increase in the demand for air purifiers as people are getting more conscious of the quality of the air they breathe in, and air purifiers provide that necessary respite for the indoor environment. Additionally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an increased awareness amongst the consumers on the quality of the air they breathe. Thus, consumer focus in the current scenario is shifting towards health and hygiene, making air purifiers a year-long phenomenon.”
Though the size of the air purifier industry is estimated in varying proportions by different research firms, TechSci Research pegs the market size at around US$ 63 million ((Rs. 441 crore) in terms of value and 228 thousand units in terms of volumes in 2019 and expects the industry to be worth US$ 80 million (Rs. 560 crore) and stand at around 284 thousand units for this year. The average selling price per unit assumed for the projection in the year 2020 would be around 280.21 US$/Unit (Rs. 19,614.7/Unit). The research firm claims that the market share of top three leading players in the country are· Philips at 25% · Honeywell at 14+% and Eureka Forbes at 10%.
Karan Chechi, Research Director, TechSci Research, reveals “Increasing air pollution level, rising number of respiratory diseases, rising urbanization, impact of COVID-19, growing technological advancements, product innovation by leading players, increasing focus on health and well-being among consumers and growing demand from residential sector are some of the key factors that are driving the air purifier market in India.”
Likewise, 6Wresearch claims that the Indian Air Purifier (room, commercial and car included) market generated Rs. 727 crore revenue in 2019 and is expected to reach around Rs. 2,420 crore by 2026 (ASP Rs. 13,500 for room air purifier segment). The research firm also claims that the leading brands in India such as Philips, Honeywell, Sharp, Kent and Xiaomi capture around 80% of the market volume share. Rajjat Kharbanda, Senior Consultant at 6Wresearch opines attributes the key factors for brisk sales of air purifiers to deteriorating air quality, increasing cases of air borne diseases, strengthening healthcare industry, declining prices of air purifiers and easy financing options available.
Meanwhile, industry players are witnessing unprecedented growth in numbers despite the economy not recovering. Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India, affirms, “We have received an overwhelming response from our direct sellers and their customers for the products. Keeping in mind the current scenario, we are foreseeing a sharp surge in demand for our air purifier category in the next three to four months. Given the market demand, we are eyeing at a sales volume of more than 6,000 units in the next three months and looking to close this year with healthy double-digit growth. In a short span of time, with just two variants of the product, we achieved a market share of 5%, and are aiming to double our market share to 10% by 2022.”
Similarly, Suguru Takamatsu, Divisional Head – Consumers Sales Division, Panasonic India maintains, “With the increasing pollution levels backed by awareness and growing preferences for health and wellness products, air purifiers have become a necessity today. At Panasonic, we have seen a 5x increase in sale of our Nanoe Air Purifiers, which also help inhibit viruses. We also introduced attractive discounts during the festive period to make it a must-have purchase this season.”
Likewise, Amazon Indian spokesperson, in response to queries sent by BW Businessworld maintains, “Our sellers have seen a 2.5X increase in unit sales of Air Purifiers. Products from popular brands such as Philips, Mi, Coway, Dyson, Honeywell and Sharp are seeing considerable uptake amongst customers. With the onset of winter, northern regions of Delhi & NCR have seen an increase in demand of around 70%. On Amazon.in, customers can choose from a wide selection of products including new launches from brands like Molekule and Aeroguard Air purifier by Eureka Forbes. Interestingly, customers are also showing interest in Alexa compatible air purifiers by Mi and Dyson for smarter app connectivity and convenience.”
Industry players reckon that the biggest market for air purifiers is in north India, which has many of the worst air-polluted cities in the world. These include Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Varanasi, Lucknow and Ludhiana.
As Raghu Reddy, Chief Business Officer at Mi India highlights, “The growing preferences for health and wellness products has resulted in a 100% growth for Mi air purifiers over the last year, with cities in northern India accounting for 70% of the sales. The sales and demand for this category is directly proportional to AQI of a city with Delhi NCR leading, followed by Bengaluru and Mumbai. “He also maintained, “Increased awareness around air quality has led for our consumers to proactively place their orders in advance this year starting October 2020 so as to be better prepared to fight the worsening air quality.”
“The north and east regions are predominantly a PM2.5 market, essentially meaning that most consumers purchase air purifiers to combat pollution. Whereas, for southern and western regions, the key factor for buying a purifier are allergies and construction dust, respectively. The awareness around the importance of air quality has increased exponentially among consumers across the country, reflecting directly on the growth in demand,” Chakraborty from Philips further added.
