Business | Technology
First day Gitex sales result same as last year
Positive vibes prevalent across other stalls as consumers look for bargains
- By Suzanne Fenton, Staff Reporter, Gulf News
- Published: 00:00 October 20, 2009
Dubai: This year's Gitex event is going well with industry professionals saying sales are on par with last year.
"Sales are more or less on a par with last year as far as the first day and a half has gone. It is surprising to see that day one sales are as last year. With Diwali, we didn't expect people to be shopping," said Ashish Panjabi, chief operating officer of Jacky's Electronics.
Number one
While Panjabi could not comment on exact sales figures, he said that Jacky's grabbed the number one spot at last year's Gitex in terms of sales.
However, Panjabi said that he was expecting an increase in unit sales.
"We are anticipating an increase as far as unit sales go, of around 15 to 20 per cent in certain categories," Panjabi told Gulf News.
While the first quarter of 2009 was seen as disastrous across the board including retail, Panjabi said activity in the third quarter has been fairly average and likely to jump back to normal in the fourth quarter, due partly to good traffic in the malls, the opening of the Dubai Metro and the hotels being busier.
Notebooks have dominated Jacky's sales so far as they are complete with Windows 7, the next version of Windows. Dubai's Airport Expo is the only place you can currently get Windows 7.
"For Microsoft to say Dubai Expo is the only place to [sell] Windows 7 says a lot," Panjabi added.
The positive vibe was prevalent across the other stalls also with hundreds of consumers crowding the stands looking for a bargain.
"Sales have been good which is a good sign. Three months ago [sales] were nothing like this. People are waiting for the last three days because companies keep something back for the last days," explained Rakesh Sharma, group sales head at Sharaf DG.
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