Higher disposable income, greater product awareness and affordable pricing have pushed up the sales of frost-free refrigerators in India. The easy availability of finance schemes and a booming economy are further providing a push to the frost free refrigerator market. Refrigerator market is growing at a rapid pace in India. Soaring temperatures helped boost sale of refrigerators in the first few months of 2014. The two main categories of refrigerator in Indian market are direct cool and Frost free refrigerators. Traditionally direct cool refrigerator have dominated the market but with the change in lifestyles of Indian people, frost free refrigerator is gaining immense popularity over direct cool. According to recently published report of Bonafide Research "India Refrigerator Market Outlook 2021", the market for frost free refrigerators in India is anticipated to surge at a CAGR of more than 14% during 2015-2021. Frost free comes in different variants like double door, side by side refrigerator and highly energy efficient models. The side by side refrigerator segment is expected to grow with higher ranging capacity demand that come with smart inverter and advanced features. LG dominates the refrigerator market but Samsung holds maximum share in the frost free segment because of its smart feature refrigerators and different variants. To compete with Samsung, LG Electronics recently announced Industry’s first 5 star rated frost free refrigerator in India. In frost free segment, models with larger storage capacities are recording huge growth while lesser capacity models have modest share. Western India is a major market for frost free refrigerators and accounts for highest market share as consumers in this region value technology and they are comparatively less price sensitive. Consumers are interested in investing extra while receiving unique features and technology in return. The frost free segment is witnessing introduction of innovative features like moisture control technology, ozone fresh technique and it is the major contributor to the growth of the refrigerator market. Further, it has been observed that the demand for frost free refrigerator in the country is mainly dominated by the urban region. Low penetration in the rural market is set to provide sufficient growth opportunities to the players to increase their market base by capitalizing on the un-penetrated segment.
