Dubai: Players in the consumer electronics segment remain upbeat about the jump in sales this DSF (Dubai Shopping Festival), with smartphones, large screen TVs and laptops dominating sales.
A bargain chaser’s dream, the 22nd edition of Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) was launched a week earlier this time — on December 26, 2016 — as opposed to its previous editions, which have typically kicked off in the first week of the year.
Retailers welcome the move. “We think it was a great strategy to start DSF 2017 a week earlier than usual to attract the tourists visiting Dubai to experience shopping during DSF,” says Nadeem Khanzadah, head of omni-channel retail, Jumbo Electronics Co Ltd, a key sponsor of DSF 2017. “We had planned our offers to specifically cater to this floating population of UAE, and we are on target for that.”
The company is expecting a 12 per cent growth overall in comparison to last year’s DSF.
Khanzadah said that as residents return from holidays, the coming two weeks will be seeing an even stronger growth in sales. “Key drivers for growth this year have been smartphones, VR headsets and super large 4K TV’s. Among the brands, the iconic Big 3 — Apple, Samsung, Sony — are leading the way,” he said.
Sharaf DG also took advantage of the holiday season retail buzz that overlapped with the earlier weeks of DSF.
“New Year’s Eve saw many people skip shopping to welcome the New Year but the next day saw a huge number of customers visit our stores to start the year with some new gadgets,” said Nilesh Khalkho, CEO of Sharaf DG.
Free ticket
The retailer has launched offers on over 500 products with discounts of up to 70 per cent as well as other promotions. For instance, all customers who make a purchase valued above Dh499 get a discount booklet worth Dh2,000 from Cleartrip, and all customers who shop for accessories worth Dh450 get a free ticket to Ferrari World or Yas Water World.
“This year we have seen consumer preferences rise for 2-in-1 convertible laptops, large screen Smart TVs and mobile phones. There is a good demand for 5.5” and larger screen phones with models such as the iPhone 7+ and Lenovo Phab doing well,” Khalkho said.
He added that the iPhone 7 remains a strong favourite, while other recently launched products such as the GoPro Hero 5, PS4 Pro, Xbox 1S have also seen an uptake. Among laptops, ultrabooks such as HP Spectre, Dell XPS and Microsoft Surface have shown preference among the more top end consumers.
“Overall, sales have been similar to last year’s event, but given the number of visitors browsing for products and offers that we are observing on our website and mobile app, we expect the last week to see a good spurt in demand.”
Online retailers such as Souq.com have also reported to have experienced considerable growth this DSF.
“We have had a phenomenal response to the DSF sales on Souq.com this year with 40 per cent growth compared to 2016. We are witnessing that year on year the market is shifting more towards online consumption- DSF is a great example of this trend as it’s an event which used to be purely offline,” said Mahendra Asar, general manager at Souq.com.
Online sales
Among electronics, mobiles are a major contributor for this growth with Apple, Samsung, and OnePlus leading the electronics category this month.
“Our top sellers were mobile phones as well as gaming and large size appliances,” Asar added.
JadoPado, another online retailer, also expects to see growth in its online sales in the coming week and the next but, as of now, sales over the DSF period have been slower than previous years.
“It’s still a touch early to tell but we should see growth in online sales. Anecdotally, offline sales haven’t been as strong as in prior years.” said Omar Kassim, CEO of JadoPado. “From our perspective, when it comes to brands, Apple, OnePlus, Philips, Google and Xiaomi continue to attract a lot of interest!”
Kassim added that Apple iPhone 7, 7 Plus, the OnePlus 3T, the Google Pixel XL and the new Macbooks have seen a stronger growth in sales.
The writer is an intern with Gulf News.
