In early May, the first LABUBU co-branded retro mini fridge launched by Pop Mart saw its price instantly surge over tenfold on secondary platforms, sparking a phenomenal consumer frenzy. Around the same time, the leading creative small appliance company Bear Electric Appliance disclosed its Q1 2026 financial report, showing a 6.14% year-on-year decline in revenue and a sharp 38.67% drop in net profit, with its stock price continuing to fall. This stark contrast in market performance may stem from shifts in consumer behavior or perhaps from the exposure of long-standing weaknesses in the small appliance market.
Bear Electric Appliance initially captured the market with a yogurt maker, precisely winning over Generation Z and once dominating the creative small appliance segment. However, with the entry of IP-driven companies like Pop Mart, Bear Electric Appliance's core audience is beginning to be shaken. A deeper conflict lies in Bear Electric Appliance's long-term reliance on a light-asset model, where its core competitiveness centers on creative aesthetics and scenario adaptation. Under the impact of trendy toy IP traffic, this easily leads to an industry shift between old and new forces. If the advantages of appearance and cost-performance eventually fade, where will companies like Bear Electric Appliance go next?
IP-driven, the frenzy for a mini fridge with multiples of premium Zhu Yueyue rents an apartment in Shanghai's Xuhui District with a kitchen of less than 5 square meters. On a metal storage rack, she has stacked a mini rice cooker, an all-glass health kettle, an air fryer, and an electric stew pot. These small appliances almost meet all her daily cooking needs, while the traditional stove is rarely used.
"I live alone, and the kitchen is particularly small. Large appliances won't fit. I followed bloggers on short videos and ordered from Bear Electric Appliance, firstly because the design appeals to my aesthetic, and secondly because they are compact, perfectly suiting my rented apartment," Zhu Yueyue explained. "Moreover, they are not expensive, so I wouldn't mind discarding them when moving. This is especially important for someone like me."
University sophomore Gao Yun also chose Bear Electric Appliance for small appliances in her dorm. "I usually use a mini rice cooker to make a single serving of rice or instant noodles. It doesn't take up much space, has a particularly girly appearance, and is affordable, suitable for us students. As for whether the technology is good, I don't really care as long as it meets basic needs."
The core consumer group in the small appliance market consists precisely of people like Zhu Yueyue and Gao Yun—Generation Z aged 18-35, young people living alone, and renters. Their demand for small appliances is often linked to factors like appearance, IP, and portability. Compared to the previous generation of consumers who listened to salespeople's introductions in stores and compared functions and prices, they are more inclined to make purchases based on recommendations from influencers.
Bear Electric Appliance's offline lifestyle store Since gaining popularity with a yogurt maker in 2006, Bear Electric Appliance has consistently focused on niche markets, promoting cute appliances. In 2025, its revenue reached 5.23 billion yuan, leading in market share for segmented categories like yogurt makers and health kettles. However, the core of this advantage lies in scenario adaptation and cost-performance. From consumer interviews, it is evident that user stickiness relies too heavily on price and novelty rather than brand loyalty or emotional connection, leaving hidden risks for maintaining future market competitiveness.
Pop Mart's entry into the small appliance industry indeed presents new challenges. Some industry insiders believe that although there is a price gap between the two brands, their consumer groups overlap to some extent. Different operational approaches may alter consumer habits in the small appliance industry, where slightly higher premiums can sometimes be offset by factors like IP, marketing, and social attributes.
After Pop Mart announced its plans to launch small appliance products, Bear Electric Appliance responded to investor inquiries on an interactive platform, stating that the company is closely monitoring Pop Mart's strategic move into the small appliance market. Now competing in the same arena, to some extent, means their market competition is a zero-sum game. Every user attracted by Pop Mart could mean a potential loss for Bear Electric Appliance, and this squeeze effect is becoming increasingly apparent in the market.
Strong social attributes also contribute to the sell-out success of the LABUBU fridge. On the evening of April 30, Pop Mart's first fridge product launched simultaneously on JD.com and Tmall, with each of the two versions limited to 999 units, priced at 5,999 yuan, and selling out instantly. Subsequently, Pop Mart and related products not only topped trending lists on major platforms but also saw prices skyrocket to nearly 100,000 yuan on secondary markets.
Meanwhile, since May, Bear Electric Appliance's stock price has repeatedly declined, with consecutive days of net selling by major funds. This stark contrast in fortunes can be attributed to intensifying competition, but perhaps a deeper reason is that Bear Electric Appliance has its own challenges to address first.
Intensifying competition, Bear Electric Appliance faces its own challenges Although Pop Mart's entry may alter the landscape of the small appliance industry, the shift in user choice reflects a clash between two consumption logics. As a leader in the trendy toy industry, Pop Mart holds top IPs like LABUBU, MOLLY, and DIMOO, along with over 100 million registered members. This means Pop Mart inherently possesses the core competitiveness of the small appliance industry. When the collectible nature and emotional value of trendy toys are infused into small appliances, they naturally resonate with Generation Z's willingness to pay for passion and collections.
Take the limited-edition "THE MONSTERS" lifestyle series refrigerator, for example. Priced at 5,999 yuan, it far exceeds the market average. Yet, upon release, it not only sold out instantly but also saw prices surge to nearly 100,000 yuan on secondary markets. Consumers who managed to purchase it showcased their fridges on social media, flaunting serial numbers, with different numbers implying varying market values.
"My LABUBU fridge has arrived, it's awesome! 121 is a great number, a perfect match for my home," posted netizen "Cool Little Bounce" on social media after receiving the product. Comments ranged from admiration for the product surpassing promotional images, with vows to snag one next time, to explanations that Pop Mart's fridge uses integrated die-casting, comparable to SMEG but at half the price.
Limited product serial numbers are highly attractive to consumers. Thus, for Generation Z, purchasing a Pop Mart small appliance is not just about buying an appliance; it is about owning exclusive IP collectibles, integrating into the trendy toy community, and gaining social currency. This emotional value is something that "Bear Electric Appliance and similar companies" find hard to match.
More importantly, the mid-to-high-end market is being directly captured. Bear Electric Appliance has been attempting to upgrade to the mid-to-high-end segment in recent years, but Pop Mart directly priced its products above 5,000 yuan, quickly occupying the high-end aesthetic small appliance track with IP premium and scarcity.
As one Pop Mart user stated in an interview, "I am willing to pay for IP because it brings me emotional value. Other products may be cheaper and meet basic needs, but they cannot evoke the same resonance."
The gap in user stickiness may also intensify the substitution effect. Bear Electric Appliance's users are mostly price-sensitive, easily attracted by lower prices or more novel designs, while Pop Mart's users are IP-loyal, with high repurchase rates. Once consumption habits form, they are hard to replace.
Looking back at Bear Electric Appliance's initial success, it resulted from the synergy of e-commerce traffic dividends, the rise of the aesthetic economy, and the release of cost-performance demand. In its early days, giants like Midea, Supor, and Joyoung dominated the market. Bear Electric Appliance's founder, Li Yifeng, decided to create a product no one else was making—a yogurt maker. This niche product quickly became a hit upon launch. Subsequently, Bear Electric Appliance introduced various products like egg boilers, electric lunch boxes, and bean sprout machines, avoiding direct competition with giants while building brand recognition for creative small appliances.
However, Bear Electric Appliance's lack of technological barriers and severe product homogenization have long been unavoidable objective issues. Data shows that Bear Electric Appliance's R&D investment has consistently been below the industry average, with an R&D expense ratio of only about 2%–3%. Therefore, during industry iterations, technological shortcomings have become a major obstacle to Bear Electric Appliance's transformation towards the high-end segment.
Bear Electric Appliance's revenue trend From a profitability perspective, Bear Electric Appliance heavily relies on a cost-performance strategy, with narrow profit margins and weak resilience against cost fluctuations. In Q1 2026, affected by rising raw material prices and the exclusion of small appliance categories from national subsidies, Bear Electric Appliance achieved operating revenue of 1.239 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.14%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 79.5706 million yuan, a significant year-on-year decline of 38.67%.
An industry insider from the traditional home appliance sector commented, "The competition in the aesthetic small appliance track is too fierce now. Many small brands are imitating Bear's designs at even lower prices, making Bear's cost-performance advantage less obvious. Moreover, giants like Midea, Supor, and Joyoung have long started producing youthful models, with greater brand influence and more reliable quality, leading many consumers to switch to these brands."
As the small appliance industry evolves into a red ocean, it is natural for consumer demand to upgrade, competition logic to be reconstructed, and value systems to be reassessed. Market saturation makes the traditional cost-performance model unsustainable, and the industry urgently needs new growth drivers and value logic. Pop Mart's crossover恰好 provides the industry with a new direction of IP empowerment.
In the future, the small appliance market will no longer be about单一的 functional or price competition but rather a comprehensive competition involving IP, technology, quality, emotion, and user operations. For Bear Electric Appliance, the stock price decline represents both a crisis and an opportunity for transformation.
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