Electronics and appliance sales up 12% to 15% this holiday season

Discretionary spending on electronics, which declined after demonetization in November 2016, appears to have rebounded, courtesy factors such as the festive e-commerce discount, the reduction of the GST rate to over 50 property in July and a deeper penetration of consumer finance.

Sales of consumer electronics and white goods increased 12% to 15% over last year, The Economic Times reported. The last Diwali had stable sales due to higher prices after the GST, but things are clearly different this time around. Global TV sales have increased Diwali by 12 to 15%, thanks to online players such as Xiaomi, TCL, Vu, Thomson, BPL and Sanyo, which have generated sales on 32- to 43-inch TVs. and Samsung, Sony and LG have generated increased demand for screen televisions.

Not insignificant, Indians not only buy white goods, but also spend more. At Croma, a Tata-owned chain, the average ticket size would have increased by 29%, with overall holiday sales up 61%. The newspaper quoting marketers adds that the return of consumer discretionary spending was favored by the ease of setting up free EMIs, allowing consumers to improve their purchase.

Nilesh Gupta, director of Vijay Sales, told the daily that consumers were buying more value this year with an average billing value up 2,000 rupees despite price cuts. "Same-store sales increased 5 percent despite the impact of the online discount on restaurant sales on entry-level TVs and smartphones," he added.

According to Sony India general manager Sunil Nayyar, the company had no stock of 55-inch televisions, even before Dhanteras. He added that sales of big-screen models, at the price of lakhs, had increased three-to-twenty times compared to Diwali, while Sony was meeting its ambitious sales target of 20% growth in sales. 39; business.

Meanwhile, LG India has announced that it has completely sold refrigerators side by side at a price of between Rs 80,000 and Rs 5,000. Sales doubled, while refrigerators of 300 liters and more grew by 50%. Sales of LG's 4K and OLED TVs (from 58,590 to 30 lakh) have tripled.

Kamal Nandi, director of Godrej Appliances, told the daily that the holiday period – covering Onam, Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali – Appliance sales jumped 7% despite the floods in Kerala, rising gasoline prices and negative feelings regarding rupee rates. "Premiumization has driven sales, even for entry-level products and high-end markets, with prices 4% lower than in the summer," he added.

It is interesting to note that the financing accounted for more than 80% of the purchases this holiday season, against 60% last year. Although the small non-bank finance companies stopped lending money because of the shortage of liquidity, consumer loans were easy to obtain because the largest lenders such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank had forced them to fill their gaps. In fact, Kotak Mahindra Bank reportedly saw its card transactions increase by 30% over the previous year – with stronger growth in level 2 and 3 cities – and UPI transactions up 300%.

The same trend has occurred in e-commerce. A spokeswoman for Amazon India said daily that customers have purchased more premium products this year and that EMI transactions have doubled compared to last year. In addition, 70% of customers who used the option came from tier 2 and higher cities, and the adoption of credit customers was multiplied by 19.

(Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal )