NEW DELHI : Even as 2022 noticed e-commerce beat offline retail when it comes to the variety of smartphones offered in India, electronics companies are stepping up their retail footprints in 2023. According to trade consultants, weakening demand for digital merchandise has led companies to focus extra on premium units, which in flip requires extra offline presence since shoppers need to contact and really feel such merchandise earlier than making buying choices.
For occasion, final month South Korea’s Samsung opened its largest expertise retailer in north India in New Delhi to showcase premium electronics merchandise. It additionally began new gaming and good house expertise zones at its Samsung Opera House retailer in Bengaluru.
Meanwhile, PC maker HP opened eight gaming shops throughout seven cities in India earlier this month. These shops will permit clients to check out gaming PCs and equipment and play video games for hours. HP has plans to open 40 such shops in 2023.
“By launching these shops, we additionally hope to broaden our retail footprint in India and improve our model recall among the many gaming neighborhood,” said Nitish Singal, head of personal systems (Consumer) at HP India.
Several other brands, including OnePlus, Asus, and Realme are also planning to step up focus on offline experience-driven stores this year. Apple’s flagship stores are also expected to open sometime in the first half of this year.
“In 2023, our strategy is to open stores in high-traffic locations that are easily accessible to customers. We believe we can tap into the growing demand for retail services in both urban and suburban markets by offering a wide range of products and a convenient shopping experience,” stated Arnold Su, enterprise head, Consumer and Gaming PC, System Business Group at Asus India. The firm opened its third expertise retailer in New Delhi final month.
A OnePlus spokesperson stated the corporate’s focus in 2023 will probably be on extending premium expertise throughout product classes to offline areas by way of its OnePlus expertise shops.
According to analysts, premium merchandise permit greater margins for manufacturers. For occasion, in smartphones, the premium phase solely accounted for 11% of smartphone shipments in 2022 however its income share was 35%, in line with a January report by market analysis agency Counterpoint Research.
Gaming and high-end notebooks like Apple MacBooks within the client phase have remained resistant to demand hunch. For occasion, premium notebooks grew 14.6% from a 12 months within the client phase, whilst the general pocket book phase declined by 8.4% in This fall 2022, in line with knowledge from the International Data Corporation (IDC). Offline channels accounted for 66% of PCs shipped in India.
Prachir Singh, senior analysis analyst at Counterpoint, famous that premium merchandise are anticipated to stay forward of different value bands this 12 months too.
“Purchase of premium merchandise normally takes place in shops. As we see units changing into pricey, customers would need to expertise them first. Having extra such shops is making lots of sense for manufacturers and likewise for folks in retail,” said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst and founder of techARC, a market research firm. He added that 65% of smartphones are still sold offline.
Counterpoint’s Singh also noted the proliferation of online channels seen in the last two years as covid-19 changed consumer behavior. “The probability of selling a premium device is a lot higher in offline stores than online. We will see a renewed effort from all brands in offline space this year,” he added.
According to knowledge from Counterpoint, 52% of smartphones have been offered by way of on-line channels in 2022, up from 41% in 2019. “Growth momentum will probably be seen in each channels, however offline will develop at a a lot sooner fee. They could have an elevated share over 2022,” stated Singh.
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