Smart product sales are showing impressive growth, and new consumption drivers are accelerating their release.

Since the beginning of this year, smart products represented by smart glasses and service robots have shown impressive sales performance. On March 25, the head of the E-commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the development of China’s e-commerce from January to February 2026, stating that the smart products monitored by the key business data monitoring platform have seen remarkable growth, with smart glasses and window-cleaning robots increasing by 183.5% and 130.8% respectively.

Song Xiangqing, Vice President of the China Business Economics Association, told reporters from the Securities Daily that the growth of categories such as smart glasses and window-cleaning robots marks a transformation in consumer structure from basic necessities to quality upgrades and accelerated technological empowerment, with online consumption shifting from standardized products and low prices to high-value-added smart hardware.

The rapid growth in sales of smart products is a result of the synergy between demand upgrading, supply innovation, and policy support.

From the demand side, in recent years, residents’ demands for quality and efficiency of life have continuously increased, driving consumption towards smart and service-oriented directions. The “Digital Home 2025 White Paper” shows that home-based consumption upgrades have driven a surge in demand for digital home hardware devices represented by smart home products, with smart devices covering an increasing number of ordinary users and bringing new lifestyles.

From the supply side, technological advancements and the improvement of the industrial chain have laid the foundation for the popularization of smart products. Taking window-cleaning robots as an example, the “Research Report on the Current Status and Development Trends of the Window-Cleaning Robot Industry in China (2025-2032)” mentions that the window-cleaning robot industry in China has formed a complete industrial chain, including upstream component supply (structural parts, power systems, etc.), midstream machine manufacturing, and downstream sales systems reaching household and commercial users through “online + offline” channels. In terms of collaboration, manufacturers actively work with upstream suppliers to promote standardization of components and cost optimization, while continually expanding online and offline sales channels to enhance market penetration capabilities.

At the policy level, this year’s “Government Work Report” proposed the creation of a new form of intelligent economy. It aims to deepen and expand “Artificial Intelligence +”, promote the accelerated deployment of a new generation of intelligent terminals and intelligent entities, drive large-scale commercialization of artificial intelligence in key industries, and cultivate new business formats and models based on intelligence. The “Notice on Implementing Large-Scale Equipment Updates and Consumer Goods Replacement Policies in 2026” also includes smart glasses in the subsidy scope, which helps to reduce the actual purchase cost of some smart products, enhance consumers’ willingness to pay, and further amplify market demand.

Liu Chunsheng, an associate professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, stated that the synergy of demand upgrading, supply innovation, and policy support forms a closed loop: consumption upgrades lead to demands for quality and convenience, guiding the direction for the industry; the supply side matches and creates new demands through technological iterations and product optimizations; and policies reduce consumption and R&D costs through subsidies and industrial guidance, accelerating the connection between supply and demand.

iMedia Consulting’s “2025 Development Status and User Behavior Survey Data of China’s Smart Hardware Market” predicts that by 2030, the scale of China’s core artificial intelligence industry will reach 1 trillion yuan.

Song Xiangqing stated that smart hardware represented by smart glasses and window-cleaning robots has the conditions to become a new driving force for consumption growth. With the addition of policy support, technological maturity, and channel penetration, the medium to long-term growth is highly certain. Smart glasses benefit from AI and state subsidies, with penetration still at a low level, and are expected to enter a market worth hundreds of billions in the next three years; window-cleaning robots and other household service robots cater to high-rise and lazy consumer demands, with the market space continuing to expand. Together, they are driving the explosion of smart home appliances and wearable devices, becoming important incremental engines for boosting online retail and activating domestic demand.