Retailers reported lower than expected sales yesterday at Gitex Shopper, Dubai's key electronics show, on soft demand for mobile phones amid a lack of supply of the latest Apple and Samsung devices.
The large number of visitors to the event failed to convert into a similar amount of purchases, with Jumbo Electronics saying that sales were half of usual volumes.
“Yesterday was a bit slow,” said Eric Elcabasa, stall manager for Jumbo. “We did some sales but definitely below expectations. A good day for us would be Dh2 million, however we only did about Dh1m yesterday. A really good day we would be selling 1,500-1,800 units across all brands. It will get better for the last four days, we know that.”
Gitex Shopper is one of the most important events of the year for electronic retailers when they can “showcase their strength in product offering, their experience and expertise”.
“It underlines our trust [worthiness] and reliability,” said Mahesh Chotrani, assistant vice president of Jacky’s Electronics.
One of the draws of the show was expected to be Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which arrived officially in the UAE on Saturday. However, a lack of supply meant Gitex was yesterday virtually iPhone 6-free, with only limited numbers available.
“I think the footfall was good yesterday. It was encouraging, the conversion into sales was not the best but it was decent,” said Mr Chotrani. “There has been some concern in mobile phone sales because a number of new launches have not reached shoppers yet – we have got iPhones 6 to sell, they only just arrived. However, the Note 4 got delayed.”
The mobile segment is also now more focused on devices priced between US$200 and $500, meaning lower margins and revenues for retailers even if unit sales remain robust, he added.
Sales of PCs and notebooks accounted for almost 40 per cent of Jacky’s revenue at Gitex, Mr Chotrani said.
However, Sharaf DG said its co-branding strategy with the football club Manchester City and luxury car marque BMW had paid off and sales exceeded expectations by 150 per cent.
“We did 150 per cent of our forecast yesterday selling 1.5 times the amount of product we thought we would,” said Nilesh Khalkho, the chief executive of Sharaf DG. “That’s down to two factors. We have signed an agreement with Manchester City to create products with their logo. This is official Manchester City merchandise that we have been giving away with the sales of our electronics. We have a fabulous BMW offer, the new 2015 3 series costs Dh130,000 [but] you give us Dh99,990 – you get a Dh30,000 discount – plus you get an LG 55-inch TV worth Dh20,000 free with that. Yesterday we sold 30 of them, incredible now we have customers asking for more. BMW expected us to sell 10 [and] we sold out in six hours.”
The organisers of Gitex Shopper, Dubai World Trade Centre, were upbeat about the event having hosted 58 exhibitions between January and June this year – a 20.8 per cent increase on the 48 exhibitions hosted during the corresponding six-month period in 2013.
“It is difficult to comment on this, since we only receive both visitors’ numbers and the sales generated from retailers during the eight days when the show ends,” said Rajesh Gopinath, exhibitions direct-consumer cluster in exhibitions and events management at DWTC. “As this time of the year is one of the busiest with the start of the school year, people coming back from summer holidays and Eid Al Adha closely following the show, we anticipate many people to capitalise on the unbeatable offers at Gitex Shopper.”
ascott@thenational.ae
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