Gitex Shopper sales hit Dh259 million

Laptops and smartphones continued to remain the top items on demand as Dh259 million worth of electronics flew off the shelves during the recently-concluded Gitex Shopper in Dubai.

Dubai World Trade Centre on Monday released the overall sales figures for the Gitex Shopper and said the combination of the Shopper with Eid holidays helped boost the momentum.

Interestingly, although the overall annual growth in sales was just about 5.7 per cent, most retailers said they had registered a 20 to 40 per cent increase compared to the previous edition of Gitex Shopper.

When asked to explain one retailer said at least his figures are accurate.

The overall sales increase of 5.7 per cent is marginally higher compared to the 3.3 per cent in 2013. In 2013, the total sales at Shopper stood at Dh245 million, while the 2012 Shopper saw record increase of 26.9 per cent with sales worth Dh237m compared to Dh193m in 2011.

Among the leaders in laptop sales this year was Lenovo, HP and Dell. Within the smartphone segment too medium range devices continued to sell in volumes, although there was pretty high demand for the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus, despite non availability of stocks.

Among the retailers Plug-Ins said its sales had increased by 42 per cent. Emax and Sharaf DG both saw a sales increase of 40 per cent compared to the previous edition.

ECity said it had witnessed the largest increase with a sales growth of 30 per cent at the Shopper and almost 70 per cent at other retail outlets.

Jumbo Electronics said they had witnessed a 20 per cent increase in sales volume, while Jacky’s registered a 16 per cent increase in sales.

Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax, said: “We were expecting a 30 per cent increase in sales but thanks to some of our offers including the ‘Fly for Free’ offer we managed to achieve the 40 per cent mark," he said.

According to him, about 12,000 ‘Fly for Free’ vouchers were issued during the Gitex Shopper.

"All categories performed extremely well with laptops, smartphones and UHD panels taking the lead during the show,” said Bhatnagar.

Nadeem Khanzadah of Jumbo Electronics said smartphone sales alone saw a 58 per cent increase compared to the last Gitex Shopper.

“Mid-range models attracted the majority of sales. An interesting outcome was the increase in laptop sales following flat demand in the category over the last couple of years. We also saw strong demand for TVs, which were especially attractive given the valuable add-ons we offered in bundled deals.”

For Mueez Rahman, General Manager, ECity, the Shopper’s Autumn Edition 2014 delivered one of the best performances for ECity to-date.

“This year’s show has been exceptional, with sales up by 30 per cent on last year. Importantly, our Gitex Shopper deals were also made available in all our retail stores in the UAE, driving sales up by more than 70% for the same period last year. This proved to be an excellent business strategy.”

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