With a sales volume of 52%, wireless headphones account for half of the Russian headphone market

Wireless headset sales account for 52% of the Russian headset market

M.Video-Eldorado , a Russian electronics and home appliance retailer, analyzed the situation of the headphone market in Russia in the first quarter of this year. The research showed that in terms of quantity, wireless headphone sales accounted for more than half of the total headphone sales for the first time, reaching 52%, compared with 39% in 2019.

Data shows that M.Video-Eldorado's Bluetooth headsets accounted for 65% of total sales from January to March this year, of which TWS headsets accounted for 42%. TWS refers to True Wireless Stereo. This type of headset can be worn on one or both ears, and has intelligent noise reduction, and is very popular among consumers.

M. Video-Eldorado said that in the first quarter of this year, the Russian headphone market reached 12.8 billion rubles, with sales of about 4.9 million units. In terms of sales, wireless headphones accounted for about 86%, of which fully automatic TWS accounted for 72%, which shows how popular TWS is.

Of all the types of headphones sold in the Russian market in the first quarter, one in every three pairs were TWS headphones, about 8.5% were wireless in-ear headphones (including sports headphones), and another 6.5% were wireless headphones.

The head of the retailer's electronics and innovation department said: "As people work and study remotely during the epidemic, the demand for wireless headphones has increased significantly." In addition, the removal of 3.5mm headphone jacks on smartphones by mobile phone brands has also driven the demand for wireless headphones.

Smart home is hot, sales doubled in the first quarter

In addition to wireless headphones, smart homes are also becoming increasingly popular in Russia. Russian e-commerce company Citilink recently studied consumer demand for smart home products in the first quarter of this year, including smart speakers, smart lamps, smart sockets, smart switches, sockets, etc.

According to Citilink research for the first quarter, all smart home sales in online stores and online points of sale increased by 91% year-on-year. The company said one of the factors for the sales growth was the increase in the range of smart speakers.

Most of the smart speakers sold support voice assistants Alice, Marusya, Salyut and Google Assistant.

Specifically, sales of smart sockets increased by 53% and smart lamps increased by 73% compared with the same period last year. Sales of basic equipment control units, switches, relays and buttons increased by 261% compared with the same period last year.

Ivan Polikarpov, head of office equipment at Citilink, said that smart speakers are a logical step in the development of portable and fixed speakers. During the pandemic, smart speakers have also become a companion for people in home isolation. In addition, smart speakers also play the role of the "hub" of smart homes. By calling the voice assistant in the smart speaker, other smart homes can be controlled to form a complete ecosystem.

Ivan also said that young Russians nowadays will take smart homes into consideration when renting or renovating a house for the first time.

Russia