Population aging is a major problem faced by human society in the 21st century. With the acceleration of population aging in China, the state attaches great importance to the aging of pension and products. On August 20, the State Administration of market supervision and the State Standardization Administration issued GB / T 40439-2021 intelligent home appliance system architecture model for life assistance for the elderly and GB / T 40443-2021 general technical requirements for home appliances for the elderly, which are applicable to the national standard of home appliances, and the implementation date is March 1, 2022.

According to the data of the seventh national census, the population aged 60 and over has reached 18.7% of the total population, and the population aged 65 and over has reached 13.5%. As a special consumer group, the elderly are very different from ordinary consumer groups and need more life assistance. Smart home appliance system can help the elderly live a more convenient, independent and comfortable life. Therefore, starting from the needs of the elderly, using intelligent, Internet of things and other technologies to study the architecture model of intelligent home appliance system for the elderly can provide basic technical support and guidance for the development and design of assisted living system for the elderly.

Xiaobian learned that as early as June this year, China Household Appliance Research Institute released a series of standards on aging technology for smart household appliances, including five group standards and four company technical specifications, covering eight categories of products: air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, range hoods, water purifiers (drinking fountains), toilet covers and water heaters, It basically covers all types of household appliances that the elderly will use in their daily life. After the household appliances meeting the series standards have been tested and certified by China Household Appliance Research Institute, they will obtain the certification of intelligent aging appliances.

This time, the standard GB / T 40439-2021 "architecture model of smart home appliance system for life assistance for the elderly" specifies the architecture model, interpretation and use case examples of smart home appliance system for life assistance for the elderly. The standard gives a three-dimensional model of the system architecture composed of user domain, system components, model and process view, and explains the constituent elements of each dimension. The appendix gives three use cases of intelligent home appliance systems to assist the life of the elderly, "intelligent refrigerator system with drug storage and reminder function", "intelligent water heater system with fall detection and alarm function" and "voice assistance system based on smart TV", which provides a detailed reference for the specific application of the framework model. The standard is applicable to the planning, development and design of intelligent home appliance systems to assist the elderly, and can also be used for reference to the planning, development and design of intelligent systems to assist the disabled and other people in need of auxiliary life.

The picture comes from the screenshot of e-commerce products

According to statistics, buying new electrical appliances for the elderly has become the main way for the younger generation to express filial piety. Many businesses see this business opportunity, but there is a big gap between the products launched and the real needs of the elderly. "Some manufacturers simply think that the enlarged words, loud voice and reduced functions are in line with the use habits of the elderly. Such simple and rough thinking and cognition also leads to the chaotic situation of the elderly household appliance consumer market, which needs to be standardized." An e-commerce related staff said that how to meet the real needs of the elderly is a subject worthy of research.

There are deep-seated reasons behind the chaos of the elderly home appliance market. "Intelligence" and "interconnection" are the mainstream trends in the home appliance market. But for some elderly people, it is difficult to accept. For example, some refrigerators have several doors. Different things are placed in different doors, which the old man can't understand; The cabin door of some washing machines is designed too low, which is very inconvenient for the elderly with bending difficulties. Such problems are actually widespread. Although some manufacturers have noticed these problems, due to the lack of unified standards, aging appliances have not formed a climate.

Up to now, as the standard is still in the certification stage, there is no category of "suitable for old appliances" in the market. At present, the standards drafted by the e-commerce platform only involve large household appliances such as TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, range hoods, gas stoves and disinfection cabinets. "It is reported that appliances produced according to this standard will be labeled with the logo of" certification of aging appliances ".

At present, although some e-commerce platforms will also have recommendations like "for parents", most of these are vague recommendations based on some popular products, which are not necessarily suitable for the elderly.

1. The consumption potential of silver haired people should not be underestimated

With the deepening of China's aging, a large number of elderly groups are quietly becoming new users of Internet consumption. According to the data publicly released from e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and jd.com, the online shopping group of middle-aged and elderly people in China has been very large. For example, Taobao tmall has more than 30 million middle-aged and elderly buyers. Jingdong's online shopping sales of silver haired people increased by 4.8 times year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2021.

Alibaba big data shows that last year's double 11, more than 5 million middle-aged and elderly people participated in the carnival. Among the top 15 online shopping brands for the middle-aged and the elderly, excluding three clothing and sports brands, 12 brands are related to electronic products and household appliances. In the view of the industry, the consumption potential of silver haired people should not be underestimated.

At present, there is no home appliance enterprise in China that has successfully mined the gold and silver economy. On the one hand, the society is aging rapidly, which is considered to have a huge consumer population and market; On the other hand, enterprises, including home appliances, complain incessantly. The elderly can't find home appliances developed for the middle-aged and the elderly in the market, and middle-aged and elderly consumers can't spend money to buy high-quality home appliances suitable for the elderly.

In addition, the cost of producing elderly products is high and the profit is low. Even home appliance enterprises that have been engaged in elderly products also show a lack of internal power in product R & D and innovation, brand cultivation and market development. Either the product types are not rich enough, the grade is low, or it is lack of pertinence. Affected by many factors, although the silver haired people have great consumption potential, the development of the aging home appliance industry is very slow.

The picture comes from the screenshot of e-commerce products

The elderly is a special social group. They have special consumer psychology and behavior characteristics, which leads to great differences between them and the general population in terms of consumption ability, consumption preference, consumption mode, consumption concept and consumption decision-making. In the view of the industry, in the era of consumption upgrading, in order to better meet the consumption needs of elderly consumers, the segmentation of elderly household appliance market has become inevitable.

2. There will be standards for old household appliances

Compared with young consumers, middle-aged and elderly users have differences in using household appliances. At present, most of the household appliances sold in the market focus on solving the needs of young consumers, ignoring the use needs of middle-aged and elderly consumers for household appliances and other products. It is difficult for middle-aged and elderly consumers to buy household appliances and other products that meet their own use needs. The introduction of two national standards for aging household appliances may solve these problems to a certain extent.

In the general technical requirements for household appliances for the elderly, the stability, operation safety, ease of use and evaluation scheme of the product are standardized. For example, the standard stipulates that for appliances with a cover, the cover shall have a slow lowering function to prevent the cover from closing quickly due to gravity and causing harm to users.

The general technical requirements for household appliances for the elderly also regulates the power connection and external flexible cord. For appliances that need to be moved and with external flexible cord in use, such as wired vacuum cleaners, the design of appliances should consider reducing and avoiding the risk that the power cord may cause the elderly to fall.

Another standard GB / t40439-2021 architecture model of smart home appliance system for life assistance of the elderly specifies the architecture model, interpretation and use case examples of smart home appliance system for life assistance of the elderly. For example, the appendix gives three use cases of intelligent home appliance systems to assist the life of the elderly, such as "intelligent refrigerator system with drug storage and reminder function", "intelligent water heater system with fall detection and alarm function" and "voice assistance system based on smart TV", which provides a detailed reference for the specific application of the architecture model.

The author believes that there are no corresponding standards and specifications for suitable old household appliances, and household appliances and other enterprises are relatively passive in promoting products. With the implementation of the standard, in the future, there will be more and more aging appliances in the home appliance market, and the silver hair economy market will gradually open.

"Sunset red" is giving birth to a "new" market, and its development is still not hot

With the deepening of China's aging and the growth of pension demand, for home appliance enterprises, elderly home appliances are undoubtedly an attractive "big cake", which makes many home appliance brands actively innovate and upgrade in order to meet the needs of middle-aged and elderly consumers. For example, a touch screen is set on the refrigerator, and the screen menu and operation panel are designed to be simple and convenient for users to operate; The TV has the function of artificial intelligence, and the operation of switching on and off and changing stations can be completed through voice

For example, Skyworth, Changhong and other brands have tried water TV for the elderly. The products are tailored for the elderly based on their use habits. The product solves the problems that the old people forget to turn off when they fall asleep watching TV, shake their hands, easily press the wrong key, can't see words in reading glasses, can't hear clearly in the back of their ears, etc. For example, starting from the concept of smart family, Haier Zhijia provides life scene solutions for the elderly at home. For example, in the washing and care scene, the washing machine supports "large screen display, large font size and large picture", and the refrigerator in the kitchen scene can place an order to buy food materials with one click.

From the perspective of functional design, the micro innovation of refrigerators, televisions and other household appliances can improve the product performance. For older users, some function designs may just look "tall". Unfortunately, although these household appliances have a certain sales volume after they are sold, they have not aroused a big spark in the market. If they want to learn "new functions" or "new applications", they also need to learn networking, delete small programs and new operation methods. The aging appliances produced by some brands do not bring convenience, but aggravate their lack of understanding of product operation.

The picture comes from the screenshot of e-commerce products

At the same time, from the perspective of manufacturers, consumers can see many mother and child appliances and children's appliances in the home appliance market, but it is difficult to find a home appliance product completely suitable for the elderly. Compared with the lively situation of mother and child household appliances, elderly household appliances seem to be "forgotten" by the market.

Why did this happen? On the one hand, young consumers are the focus of the current strategy of household appliance enterprises; On the other hand, almost all home appliance brands are taking the youth strategy. Only some home appliance manufacturers see the business opportunities of silver economy, resulting in the lack of home appliance products for the elderly.

At present, the aging products in the home appliance market are "just trying to get old" - the special category of "aging appliances", the market is mixed, the scale is limited, and the effect is poor. Further efforts are needed to dig deep into the silver economy. In the future, under the guidance of relevant standards, the home appliance industry will return to the product standard and produce home appliances suitable for middle-aged and elderly users. As a vast market of young people with comparable purchasing power, there is no leader in the industry, just because everyone has the opportunity: who can accurately grasp the needs of the elderly, who can seize a place in the elderly market in the future.

What will the appliances made according to the aging standards look like?

According to the analysis of e-commerce big data, due to the generally low height of the elderly and the limited hand lifting height, arm spread and squatting height, the design of "age appropriate refrigerator" should not only consider the clarity and easy operation of the operation interface, but also consider the height and depth of the storage space. At the same time, the door opening method and angle and door closing feedback should also be taken into account.

On the other hand, the elderly like daily rush buying and hoarding in winter, and need a large freezer. In addition, elderly people generally have chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, and their memory decreases. Therefore, the division of the internal area of the refrigerator should be obvious. Special storage areas should be set up, and the derivatives should be used outside the refrigerator to help them record the shelf-life of food, so as to help the elderly reasonably classify and keep all kinds of food.

Big data analysis shows that the average width of the hand belly of the elderly is about 12mm. With the growth of age, the flexibility of the fingers of the elderly gradually decreases. Therefore, the remote control button of "age appropriate TV" should not be too small. The size of the button icon should be designed according to the width of the hand belly of the elderly to facilitate their use.

In addition, the key setting should also be simple and easy to understand, and have the function of one key storage, which can save the program channels often watched by the elderly. As for some infrequently used functions, the fewer the better.

Old appliances are not equal to "low-end"

Suitable for old appliances is to make the product simple and easy to use, not to make the product low-end. Age appropriate appliances should make it easy for the elderly to learn and use, and certainly for young people. Therefore, to some extent, aging appliances are not independent from ordinary household appliances, but universal.

The staff of standard e-commerce said that, for example, the washing machine is now very powerful. The elderly don't understand what kind of clothes to wash, what temperature of water to use, and a lot of buttons. We don't cancel all these functions, but only one function of washing clothes. Instead, we should consider how to optimize its operation process. For example, it takes five or six steps to choose what we understand. The elderly only need one step and two steps to choose what we understand, while retaining various high-end washing modes of intelligent washing machines.

Now many home appliances are very different from the past, with more and more functions and more complex remote controls. However, there are still some home appliances that have not changed so much. The fitness of these appliances is mainly considered from the physical condition of the elderly. For example, for range hoods and gas stoves, the elderly may have to stand on tiptoe to reach the button. The corresponding aging products can start from this angle, adjust the height of the button down and print the words on it larger. Another example is the refrigerator. You can make the lower handle higher and the upper handle lower. You can also add a power assist device on the refrigerator door to make it more convenient for the elderly to use the refrigerator.

The picture comes from the screenshot of e-commerce products

Finally, health attributes. Different from young people's pursuit of fashionable appearance, diverse functions and high-end brands, elderly household appliance consumption is more rational and pays more attention to the health attributes of products. Since this year, consumers' health awareness has been significantly improved, and the concept of product health has been raised to an unprecedented level. Household appliance enterprises should seize the opportunity of "health attributes" and speed up the promotion of new product concepts.

Xiaobian believes that with the intensification of aging, the development of aging home appliance industry will usher in a golden development period. Including fresh air conditioners, sterilized washing machines, clothes dryers, fresh-keeping refrigerators, dishwashers, disinfection cabinets, floor sweeping robots and other household appliances that can reduce household chores for users or free their hands will become hot-selling products of aging home appliances. If enterprises can do well in aging home appliances, they will gain the favor of more consumers and promote the development of the industry.

Summary:

China's aging society is further intensified, which will activate and reshape elderly consumption into a new commercial trend of thought, and the silver economy has great prospects in the future. For elderly consumers, they pay more attention to the comprehensive quality, one-stop life and consumption solutions of household appliances than improving the technology of household appliances. For home appliance enterprises, only when they calm down to develop special home appliance solutions or products suitable for the elderly can they have the opportunity to catch the express train of "silver economy" and get better development.