Dubai: It is not just retailers and organisers who anticipated a successful conclusion to the third Gitex Shopper Spring, consumers are also enthusiastic about securing big bargains.
The four-day consumer electronics shopping event, which is held each year in April, ends at 11pm on Saturday.
The official figures, relating to footfall and sales revenues, are not expected to be released until later next week, but retailers were in a buoyant mood as shoppers thronged the venue hunting for best deals.
The promotions and bundled offers are paying off, with retailers reporting a boost in revenues compared to last year.
Retailers said that the footfall has been much better than last year right from day one, except on Thursday morning due to the sandstorm
“Overall [footfall] has been good except the sandstorm on Thursday. The footfall was bad until evening but we managed to pickup sales and the closing was good. We have exceeded our targets,” said Nadeem Khanzadah, head of Omni-retail at Jumbo Group.
To entice consumers, some retailers have reduced prices and even the bundled packages.
Khaled Ebrahim, an Omani national, said that it is his first time at Gitex and he was surprised to see the crowd and the offers.
“I bought a Samsung 4K TV for my new villa. I was undecided whether to buy a Samsung or LG TV but I found the Samsung’s bundled offer much better,” he said.
Ebrahim said that he will definitely come in October for the main Gitex Shopper and fill his home with gadgets. This time, “I don’t have enough money.”
Madhukesh Thampi, a first timer to Dubai as well as the Shopper, came to buy a Microsoft mouse for his new Microsoft Surface 3 Pro, but finally ended up buying the mouse as well as a Toshiba 40-inch TV.
“The prices are cheaper here than at the stores and you are tempted by the offers,” he said.
Growth
Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO of Emax, said that sales have been very good at the shopper as well as at the retail outlets.
“We achieved 28 per cent growth in the first three days compared to last year. The interesting part is that our retail outlets achieved around 60 per cent growth with the same Gitex offers,” he said.
Smartphones were the top seller, followed by laptops, TVs and cameras.
Surprisingly, laptops have done really well despite the industry heading southward.
“Our sales target was 15 per cent but we grew 20 per cent compared to last year. Notebooks were number one by far, followed by smartphones and SLR cameras,” said Mahesh Chotrani, assistant vice-president at Jacky’s Electronics.
One retailer was selling the Blackberry Passport smartphone, which was priced at Dh2,399 with bundled offers for the event, for Dh1,750.
There are retailers offering “buy one get one free” offers and are not facing any out of stock issues so far.
“We are pretty much on target as we expected. We expected more of the turnover to come from the last two days,” said Omar Abu Shaban, head of operations at Plug Ins.
