‘Make your displays sexier,’ urges manufacturer

Tim Hutchinson, UK divisional manager of appliance manufacturer Liebherr, has encouraged retailers to ‘seduce’ consumers into replacing their cooling appliances by improving the quality of their displays.

With new data from GfK showing refrigeration appliances sales have grown by 8% between January and September 2016 when compared with the previous year, Hutchinson (pictured) argued that retailers are missing out on an opportunity to encourage early cooling appliance replacement purchases.

“There’s a big replacement market as appliances only have a certain lifespan and need replacing,” he argued. “Unlike manufacturers of kitchen furniture and bathrooms whose products are fitted and are changed much less frequently. You also have to consider that, with refrigeration, many models are freestanding and sold through electrical retailers for consumers who don’t have a completely fitted kitchen or prefer a slot-in/slot-out fridge-freezer.”

According to the report, the style of refrigerator with the highest value growth was traditional fridge freezers at 10% (60% value share). This was followed by single door fridges at 7% value growth (18% value share) and US and multi door fridge freezers at 1% (22% value share).

He concluded: “I would advise retailers to look at what cooling appliances they are currently showing. Are their showroom displays sexy enough to entice customers into replacing an appliance ahead of time? Are the design aesthetics current and especially give consideration to performance as ‘green’ remains important to consumers, especially when you indicate how some newer machines can make noticeable savings on electrical bills and will keep stored foods fresher for longer.

“Liebherr has launched a range of highly technical new models this year with ground-breaking innovations that will satisfy the aforementioned criterion and beyond and I’m sure our competitors will have newer, better models too so do have a good hard look at your cooling appliance offering and see if you need to make a change or two.”

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