Dubai: Electronics retailer Emax has registered a 73 per cent year-on-year growth in TV sales during the Fifa World Cup promotions.
“TV sales have been growing at an enormous pace during the month of June. This is the season for TVs, not only due to football but also due to Ramadan. We have seen a 30 per cent growth in footfalls,” said Neelesh Bhatnagar, Chief Executive Officer of Emax.
Compared to May, he said sales have grown by 28 per cent. “Most of the purchases were done through credit cards. About 40 per cent sales are by cash payments. Large panels costs around Dh7,000 and generally people don’t carry that much cash in their purses,” he said.
The 4K TVs, also known as ultra high-definition (UHD) TVs, were the fast moving category in 55 inches, according to Bhatnagar.
He said that only very high-end customers are going for screens beyond 75 inches and curved UHDs as they are still expensive.
“The price of large-size TVs has become less. Samsung is number one, followed by LG, Sony and Sharp.
LCD TVs will not survive more than a year and everything will be LED. Plasma TVs are not much available in the market,” he said.
The promotions will continue throughout the year. The market is mostly “promotion driven and event driven”. Sales pick up drastically whenever there are promotions and events. So, he said retailers are forced to do this continuously to remain in the market.
Emax is spending Dh3 million for the 45-day promotional campaign.
Bhatnagar sees only very high-end customers going for screens beyond 75 inches and curved UHDs as they are still expensive.
He said demand began picking up right after the Gitex Shopper Spring 2014 in April, which was followed by IPL cricket games being played here in Dubai.