On the first day of 2026, Yang Huixiang from Hunan began to wait in the "trade in" zone for the "national subsidy voucher" for household appliances for the new year at six o'clock in the morning. After receiving it, she opened an e-commerce platform and bought a washing and drying set that had been added for a long time. After adding the national subsidy and the platform and merchant's subsidy, the original price of the washing and drying set, which was over 10000 yuan, was reduced to around 7400 yuan. However, when Yang Huixiang saw on social media that someone had bought the same product at a lower price during last year's Double Eleven promotion, she immediately refunded the payment. She told a reporter from "Frontline" that although she used "national subsidies", she didn't enjoy the most affordable price. On January 15th, she discovered that although the selling price of the same product had increased, she decided to buy it only after the store increased its subsidy efforts, combined with platform discounts and national subsidies, and the purchase price dropped to around 6500 yuan. In December last year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Notice on Implementing the Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in Policy by 2026" (referred to as the "National Subsidy"). In terms of promoting the trade in of consumer goods, the subsidy policy for household appliances has undergone significant changes compared to last year. Reduce the coverage from 12 categories of household appliances in 2025 to 6 categories of refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners, computers, and water heaters; The subsidy amount has been reduced from 20% of the sales price for first level energy efficiency last year to 15%, and the subsidy limit has been increased from 2000 yuan to 1500 yuan. Policies have been streamlined, but consumers' enthusiasm for "upgrading" remains undiminished. Zhao Tong from Beijing wants to replace his laptop with a new one. He told a reporter from "Frontline" that "the online national subsidy qualification in Beijing needs to be 'snatched'. It is distributed every morning at 8 o'clock, and I have been snatching it for several days in a row to get it." The reporter from "Frontline" visited multiple offline stores, and there were national subsidy related information and discount signs prominently displayed in the stores. During weekend afternoons, many consumers came to inquire and purchase home appliances. What puzzled Zhao Tong was that after obtaining the qualification for online national subsidy, his laptop in his shopping cart increased in price. "The few models I just selected the day before increased by 300 to 500 yuan the next day," he said. "When the new national subsidy for home appliances changes to the new trend and encounters product price adjustments, how do consumers calculate this" real savings account "? When policies clearly stipulate cracking down on the behavior of" raising first and then supplementing ", why do some home appliance manufacturers still choose to" adjust prices "? In the complex context of high raw material costs and other factors, how to ensure the implementation of the national subsidy policy, so that consumers can buy with more peace of mind and affordability? After the subsidy, it is more expensive than last year. "A reporter from" Frontline "searched for the historical price of the washing and drying set purchased by Yang Huixiang on a third-party comparison platform. In the past 60 days, the lowest historical price of this product was around 5600 yuan. Although there has been a slight reduction in discounts and national subsidy promotions on e-commerce platforms at the beginning of the year, it is still at a high level compared to last year's low prices. Zhao Tong wanted to buy a laptop from a top domestic brand in July last year. "At that time, there was no national subsidy available in my region, and I waited until the end of the year. After the beginning of the year, I found that the initial price of some brands' computers had increased by 1000 yuan." Zhao Tong calculated based on historical prices and found that during the "6.18" promotion period last year, the purchase price of this laptop was 6800 yuan. This year, it has risen to 7600 yuan on e-commerce platforms. This is still the price after adding platform points deduction, platform and merchant coupons on the basis of national subsidies. "A reporter from" Frontline "visited multiple offline stores such as JD.com Mall and Suning, but did not receive a clear response regarding the" product price adjustment ". Among them, a salesperson from a leading domestic laptop brand told reporters, "We have not yet received a clear notice of price adjustment, but the prices of raw materials such as memory chips are rising, and we cannot guarantee that we will not adjust prices forever." In the field of household white goods, the most obvious price change reported by consumers is air conditioning. According to media reports, in mid January, the prices of three best-selling household 1.5-horsepower air conditioners on e-commerce platforms were all raised compared to last year's "6.18" period, ranging from 500 to 800 yuan. Yang Huixiang is currently in the stage of purchasing household appliances after the renovation of her new house. Faced with the "price adjustment trend" of air conditioners at the beginning of the year, she chooses to continue to observe. She showed the shopping records shared by other consumers to the reporter. The price of a brand of 3-horsepower first level energy-efficient cabinet air conditioner she was interested in fluctuated between 4200 and 5000 yuan in July last year, while the current price of the product after enjoying national subsidies is 5779 yuan. You can be expensive, but not just when I buy it. ”She told reporters that it also represents the psychology of some consumers choosing to wait and see when facing price adjustments for home appliances. She had originally planned to move into her new home after the Spring Festival, but the prices of the appliances and decorations she was interested in exceeded her budget. She chose to wait for the first half of the year's big promotion before placing an order, and postponed her move in to the new home until June. Wang Juan, a senior analyst at Gaoqi Cost Industry Online, told reporters that "at the beginning of the year, there was a significant increase in core raw material prices, and companies urgently need to repair their previously shrinking profit margins. Coupled with the optimization and adjustment of the relevant rules of the new national subsidy policy, multiple factors prompted home appliance merchants to make price adjustments at the beginning of the year." The "rise" of computers had already laid the groundwork as early as last year. Due to the explosive growth in demand for storage chips based on AI technology, the price of DDR5 memory modules has increased by over 300% and DDR4 memory modules by over 150% since the second half of 2025. Hard drives and graphics cards have also experienced varying degrees of price increases. The cost pressure from upstream is transmitted to terminal computer prices. On December 30, 2025, Lenovo issued a letter of explanation to customers stating, 'After careful consideration, we have had to make a difficult but necessary decision - to increase the prices of PC related products.'. ”Asus, Dell and other PC manufacturers have also initiated price adjustment mechanisms. Zhao Tong finally bought a certain Lenovo laptop for 7600 yuan. He told reporters, "If it weren't for the urgent need, I wouldn't have chosen to buy it at this stage. It's really too expensive." The reporter from "Frontline" noticed that copper, as a raw material for many household appliances, has seen a significant increase from the end of 2025 to the beginning of 2026. In 2025, the domestic copper price will increase by 32.97%. Recently, the main contract price of copper in Shanghai has exceeded 110000 yuan/ton for the first time, setting a new historical high. Wang Juan told reporters, "From the global market trend of copper and other metal raw materials this year, there is still a possibility of structural cost increases in the industry in the future. Copper accounts for 20% -25% of the raw materials for air conditioners. As a category with high copper consumption, the cost pressure faced by air conditioners will be more prominent." Against the backdrop of high costs, Meibo Air Conditioning announced in early December last year that the delivery prices of its entire product line would increase by 5% from November to December 16, 2025. AUX also announced that starting from January 19, 2026, home air conditioners and home central air conditioners will increase their prices by 3% to 8% based on differences in product models and configurations. Industry research report data shows that the overall gross profit margin of the home appliance industry in the first three quarters of 2025 was 25.6%, a year-on-year decline of 1.2%. Wang Juan stated that the overall profit margin of current home appliance manufacturing enterprises is relatively limited. Industry leaders, relying on their scale advantages and mature supply chain management capabilities, have relatively stable profit performance; however, most small and medium-sized brands are hovering around the breakeven line, with particularly prominent survival pressure. The game between cost and profit has become a key factor for home appliance companies to measure whether to adjust prices. Wang Jiayun, a salesperson of a domestic refrigerator brand, felt that the industry was relatively competitive last year, and during the promotion period, merchants would lower the product prices. In terms of offline stores, the overall gross profit is low, and they also have to bear various costs such as sales and manpower. After the new national subsidy policy is introduced, some merchants will choose to adjust last year's promotional prices back to the product sales price, and then let consumers enjoy the price after participating in the national subsidy. Wang Juan believes that in the short term, the price adjustment behavior of merchants will indeed make consumers intuitively feel that the benefits brought by the national subsidy policy have been reduced. But from a long-term development perspective, "this market phenomenon can force the regulatory system to continuously improve, guiding the entire home appliance industry to abandon the extensive mode of disorderly low price competition in the past, and truly shift towards benign competition centered on technology, quality, and value," she added. Several experts told the reporter of "Frontline" that the policy adjustments in the scope and upper limit of subsidies in 2026 will not only guide consumers to choose greener and higher quality essential home appliances, but also guide the market to shift the focus of competition from "low price quantity" to "quality upgrading". How to cope with policy changes and the pressure of rising costs? Wang Juan suggests that home appliance manufacturing companies should digest cost pressures through diversification measures, such as accelerating product iteration and updates, optimizing product structure, launching home appliance combination sets, and locking in raw material procurement prices in advance, using financial instruments to hedge price fluctuations risks, rather than adopting simple and crude price increases. During a visit to home appliance stores, the reporter from "Frontline" also noticed that under the implementation of the national subsidy policy, some businesses have begun to launch "self subsidy" products, which means that consumers do not need to obtain national subsidy qualifications, and businesses lower the prices of some products to the same level as after participating in the national subsidy through self subsidy. A salesperson from a domestic air conditioning brand told reporters that "the main target consumer group for 'self supplementing' products is middle-aged and elderly people who are unable to apply for national subsidy qualifications and those who purchase on a household basis." In 2026, the new changes in the national subsidy policy will adjust the air conditioning category from last year's limit of 3 units per person to 1 unit per person. The emergence of 'self supplementing' products has simplified the purchasing process on a household basis. Regarding the advantages of manufacturers' "self replenishing" products, Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that "self replenishing" products often have a smoother experience, without the need to compete or repeatedly verify, and can meet the needs of some consumers for peace of mind and immediate reduction. They can also form effective supplements when the national subsidy quota is tight. "However, he also pointed out the risks of" self replenishing "products: if there is a lack of unified standards, it is easy to encounter problems such as" self replenishing under the guise of changing labels to clear inventory "and" creating false low prices with complex rules ", which can damage consumer trust. In this regard, he suggested that "self supplementing products should be included in the explicit list of platform governance: clearly indicating the source and calculation method of subsidies, limiting promotional language, synchronously implementing price protection/refund and after-sales standards, to ensure that consumers' benefits are 'visible'." Yang Huixiang and Zhao Tong, after experiencing this wave of "price adjustment tide", unanimously believe that the "price adjustment" of merchants will not last long, but when comparing prices, they both hope to see the platform and merchants provide clearer price composition. In Hong Yong's view, the implementation of the national subsidy policy has entered its third year, and the consumption level has shifted from "impulse replacement" to "planned replacement", which means allowing families to complete "replacement" at the appropriate time. At this stage, consumers are more concerned about the timing, rules, and certainty of the purchase price. He emphasized that the key to breaking the deadlock is to make the discounts "verifiable". Platforms and merchants should strengthen the 'price comparison upon receipt', such as providing historical price range prompts for the same product, publicly disclosing the subsidy composition (including national subsidies, store subsidies, and coupon subsidies), and establishing a more rigid price protection and refund mechanism. Transparency should be used to bring price disputes back from feelings to evidence. At the level of market supervision, Wang Juan suggests building a nationwide digital monitoring and early warning platform for subsidies to achieve traceability and differentiation throughout the entire subsidy process