Wednesday

04


October , 2017
Consumer durable sale rises
16:20 pm

Ankita Chakraborty


The great Indian festive season has arrived. It is that time of the year when consumers head to their nearest electronic stores. The one-month long Diwali sale gives manufacturers and retailers a major boost. Major companies like Samsung, Whirlpool, LG, Onida and others are luring consumers by giving out attractive festive offers to accelerate their sales.

Retailers with whom BE interacted, informed that they have already witnessed a surge in sales, especially in the mid- and premium-priced products. Home appliances pick up the most during this time as consumers find it auspicious to buy white goods during this period. Consumers also tend to buy home appliances as the marriage season begins right after Diwali.

 

Buying trend in consumer durables

According to IBEF reports, by 2025 India would rise from the 12th to the 5th largest position in the consumer durables market. The production market is expected to reach $104 billion by 2020.The rising disposable income of the middle class in India and an easy access to credit have spurred the demand for white goods. The rise in working age population has also stimulated the demand.  Increasing electrification of rural areas and wide usability of online sales has also aided the growth.

The demand for white goods remains throughout India but the period around Diwali is traditionally considered to be the biggest buying period and contributes to around 30-40% of the industry’s annual sales. Recently, Remson Prime which is well known for home and kitchen appliances, unveiled their new range of products, which include LED lights, water heaters, juicer-mixer-grinder, coil stoves, ovens, voltage stabilisers, tandoors and iron. “The company is also expanding in wide array of products like LED TVs, washing machine and air conditioner,” said Narsimha R Namala, CEO, Remson Prime Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Sandip Kumar Ghosh, Branch Manager, Khoshla Electronics, Behala, Kolkata, attributed the spur in sale of mobile phones and other consumer durable items to a better lifestyle and easier credit. He informed BE, “These days, mobile phones are incurring the greatest sale. Each and every product, be it TV, washing machine, refrigerator or microwave is witnessing a large leap in sales. During this period, high range products are sold in less as compared to medium range products. We are targeting a sales growth of at least 50% as compared to last year.”

Online portals like Flipkart and Amazon are giving bumper sale offers on goods like washing machine, air conditioners, refrigerators, microwave, laptops, and mobile phones.

 

Special offers

Narsimha R. Namala told BE, “For this festive season, we have launched our mobile app for an extended warranty period and we are coming up with free installation for the customers. Through this app, the customer can also directly engage with the company for getting direct appointment and queries for servicing. We provide servicing on weekends and holidays as well.”

Ghosh added, “There are gifts for different products purchased by a customer. Customers are given to choose from a ballot box and they get attractive gifts depending on what they choose. These gifts include lunch boxes, ice cream mugs and others.”

The billion day sale on online platforms like Flipkart and Amazon is giving out special deals on television, refrigerator, and other kitchen appliances. While some goods incur huge discounts of `20,000, other goods are being sold with an extended warranty period. The online giants are also giving discounts up to 90% in addition to exchange offers, no cost EMI and buy back guarantees. Banks are also tying up with the online portals for specials discounts of up to 10- 15% and other cash back offers.

E-tailers like Amazon India, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Shopclues etc. are offering huge sale and exclusive discounts on a wide range of consumer products including mobile phones and home appliances. However, according to a report of  Economic Times, these brands have been asked to give up some of their margins, while the e-tailers may partly give up their commissions.

While Flipkart and Myntra are offering exciting deals across 80+ categories, and offering up to 30% to 80% of discount, Amazon is competing by also giving huge discounts on a variety of products including phones, laptops, gadgets, kitchen appliances, fitness products, and furniture. Paytm Mall’s Mera Cashback sale is offering up to 100% cashbacks. ShopClues is offering discounts of 50-80% under its Maha Bharat Diwali Sale.

According to an IANS report, Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Category Management, Amazon India, said, “We expect more customers to join the digital ecosystem and shop with us during this festive season. With expanded selection and a robust logistical support system, we are ready to handle the massive customer traffic that we are bound to receive this season.”

Swati Bhargava, co-founder of CashKaro, also said that CashKaro, which is partner to more than 1,500 e-commerce sites, provides its members with cashback offers on their online shopping at various sites like Flipkart, Amazon.in, Paytm, Shopclues and Jabong. She informed that they typically see about a 300% increase in their  merchandise volume, which goes through CashKaro during the festive season.  She added that CashKaro will probably be driving over Rs.100 crore of sales in this month alone to all their partner retailers.

Suchi Mukherjee, Founder and CEO of LimeRoad, also told IANS that approximately 30% of the total revenue inflow is seen during the festive months.

As most Indians consider it auspicious to purchase consumer durables, precious metals and jewellery, and automobiles during the festive season, the offline and online stores are giving out discounts to double up their sales, particularly during late August till the end of December. The GST also built up demand on consumer durables owing to huge quantity sales both in rural and urban markets. The buying trend seems to continue till the end of this festive season.

Add new comment

Filtered HTML

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.