By Aimee Chanthadavong
Consumers this Christmas will have the opportunity to take advantage of the decreased prices of consumer electronics.
Results from the latest GfK TEMAX report indicate that this quarter saw the third consecutive quarterly year-on-year decline in the value of the Australian technical consumer goods industry, with an overall decrease of 5.5 per cent. The consumer electronics category – dominated by flat planet televisions – suffered the biggest decline, dropping 18 per cent in value compared to the same time last year.
However, according to Gwenno Hopkin, Gfk TEMAX strategic planning manger, this would mean that retailers will need to work a lot harder.
“Retailers have to remain competitive with each other or potentially lose business, but at the same time they are having to work much harder to sell a lot more units, without the making the same kinds of revenue,” she said speaking to Retailbiz.
Hopkin also noted that the increasing number in unit sales in a number of categories including TVs, smartphones and large domestic appliances, have not been able to mask the loss of revenue due to the declining prices.
“The quantity of sales aren’t quite high enough to balance the lowering average prices, which is why there have been overall declines in spend in these sectors, apart from IT and small domestic appliances that are still experiencing value growth,” she said.
Looking forward, Hopkin said it’s unlikely that value growth will return to the majority of consumer electronics sector in the coming sector as the last quarter of the year is often characterised by heavy promotional activity.
“Declining prices are good news for consumers, but a difficult issue to manage for retailers and brands. I would expect a big promotional push in the final quarter on the latest, innovative technologies, which should benefit all the interested parties,” she said.