Gitex Shopper brings brisk business for major electronic retailers

The IT retail segment saw brisk trade at this year's Gitex Shopper and Consumer Electronics 2008, which ended last week, with regional retail heavyweights Jumbo and Jacky's registering heavy sales.

The UAE-based retailers, active participants at Gitex Shopper, reported increase in sales of 40 and 60 per cent for Jumbo and Jacky's respectively compared to the last edition of the event.

Jumbo attributed the sharp increase in sales to a "mega promotion", in which it offered free laptops to shoppers and an opportunity to win up to Dh1 million in prizes.

JP Nambiar, Head – Retail at Jumbo Electronics, said: "We have had a fantastic response from shoppers. As a leading technology retailer, we are quite excited by our performance so far. Our innovative marketing strategies built around the slogan "Jumbo is Gitex" has helped pull in the crowds.

The Jumbo stand has become a big hit mainly because of the first-ever promotion of giving away two free laptops every hour for a lucky shopper and the convenience of shopping for consumers' favourite brands.

"We have witnessed a 40 per cent increase in the number of visitors to the Jumbo stand in the first three days with sales of laptops alone recording a 50 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.

"We estimate our overall sales have increased by more than 40 per cent."

For Jacky's, the most in-demand products during the event were notebooks from Sony, HP, Dell, Toshiba and Acer, contributing nearly two-thirds of total sales.

Gaming products and consoles were also runway hits due to the company's participation at the Gitex Digital Game World, claimed a Jacky's official. "Gitex Shopper continues to be a notebook-selling event as a lot of vendors launched sleeker and stylish products with improved looks," said Jimmy Patel, General Manager, Jacky's Electronics. "Better processing power was also a major driver for the growth this year, thanks to technologies such as Intel Centrino 2 processors giving longer battery life and better wireless performance. The innovative designs of HP's new range of notebooks, Sony Viaos and Dell's rainbow-coloured laptop models were consistently the most purchased products at Gitex.

"Meanwhile, many customers also opted for Acer's and Toshiba's enhanced features and functionalities," said Patel.

"In gaming, with Sony's Blu-ray technology, the Sony PlayStation 3 continued to gain wider acceptance.

Also, among the saleable gaming products were Sony's new PSP slim, Nintendo's revolutionary interactive Wii and Microsoft's Xbox Elite," he added.

During Gitex, Jacky's also recorded growth in sales in the business phone segment through sets such as the BlackBerry, HTC, etc.

BlackBerry's newly launched Bold series was an attraction due to its built-in high speed internet accessibility and many innovative features. Additionally, the company saw robust growth in the LCD and Plasma screens segment.

In the photographic segment, there was a clear shift this year towards hybrid high definition cameras that can both record videos and take pictures directly onto the hard disk and memory card.

"At this year's Gitex, we have seen a variety of shoppers coming in not only from Dubai but also from Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Sharjah," said Patel.

"There were also more expatriates and GCC visitors, particularly Omani nationals and Emiratis who visited Gitex to buy the latest technological products in the market," he said.

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