Report Wire

Tag: Retailers

  • Smartphones brace for one more lacklustre festive season

    Last yr, smartphone manufacturers launched an early onset to festive season gross sales in a bid to clear stock and drive demand. This, nonetheless, couldn’t save the phase from seeing one among its largest dip in shipments within the September quarter, which precedes the festive season interval. Market analysis agency International Data Corporation (IDC) tabulated a ten% year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in shipments throughout this era.

    The business analysts and retailers, whom Mint spoke with, projected smartphone shipments to stay flat in the course of the ongoing September quarter, and even decline additional.

    “Smartphone shipments this yr in India are anticipated to witness de-growth, and never simply stay flat since final yr. The decline in shipments is predicted for the general calendar yr of 2023, with the festive season accounting the most important chunk of it,” said Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India.

    The festive season, which begins from the last week of September and extends until December-end through the new year’s first week, typically accounts for 60-65% of India’s annual smartphone shipments, according to industry experts.

    The industry is also seen as a bellwether for the broader consumer electronics market. According to IDC data, smartphone shipments fell 10% to 144 million units in 2022, with the second half of the year clocking shipments of 73 million units.

    Tarun Pathak, research director at market research firm Counterpoint India, said in January that the decline in shipments during the festive period last year occurred due to record-high unsold inventories of more than 10 weeks. Typically, smartphone retailers keep around 3-4 weeks of inventory.

    “Inventories have somewhat normalized now–down to about 7 or 8 weeks. There has been a slight uptick in demand even as the launch of new devices has seen the average selling price (ASP) of smartphones come down to between ₹17,000 to ₹18,000 now from over ₹20,000 at the start of the year,” Pathak mentioned on Monday. This, he mentioned, may result in “low single-digit development” in smartphone shipments within the present quarter.

    However, shopper demand stays tepid. Manish Khatri, accomplice at Mumbai-based retailer Mahesh Telecom, mentioned system gross sales and shopper curiosity “proceed to stay low”.

    “The mid-range price bracket of smartphones has continued to decline and remain low in demand. There are some isolated demand factors in the premium segment such as in Samsung’s Galaxy Flip series, and Apple’s iPhones. However, the bulk segment shipments remain weak, and there is no sign of revival from the previous year,” Khatri mentioned.

    Kailash Lakhyani, founder and chairman of business physique All India Mobile Retailers’ Association (Aimra), mentioned there isn’t a indication of any demand revival to this point in addition to festive season presents.

    “Most of the retailers proceed to see lukewarm demand, and till the majority of the low cost presents start publish Independence Day, there isn’t a signal of an increase in demand,” he said.

    IDC’s Singh added that a clear reason could be the void left in the market by a lack of compelling device options in the mainstream price categories of under ₹20,000—pushing more buyers towards the second-hand smartphone market.

    “Xiaomi and Realme, two of the largest brands by volume, are likely to remain conservative this festive season, and the entire year. Xiaomi is struggling to pick up their device shipment figures, which has left a void in the market that multiple brands such as Samsung, the Transsion group and homegrown Lava are trying to fill-up. This is for devices in the mainstream market at a price range of around ₹15,000. However, high component costs in the supply chain are preventing brands from lowering the price of 5G smartphones to this point. As a result, buyers looking for 5G phones in the price range of ₹7,000 to ₹12,000 are moving to the second-hand market for their devices,” Singh mentioned.

    Industry projections peg smartphone shipments within the June quarter at round 35 million items, which can cumulatively account for round 65 million items of smartphones shipped within the first half of the yr. With a scarcity of demand out there, smartphone shipments thus look unlikely to choose up tempo within the second half of the yr—resulting in a possible decline of one other 10% y-o-y, this yr.

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    Updated: 24 Jul 2023, 10:55 PM IST

  • Retailers eye 5G to spice up festive demand

    NEW DELHI : Retailers are banking on 5G and 5G- enabled smartphones to stimulate demand forward of the festive season as high manufacturers put together to launch fashions based mostly on the know-how and telcos provoke new companies.

    Most companies count on 5G telephones to make up the majority of shipments, whereas some count on costs to fall beneath ₹10,000 inside six months, which in flip, will drive adoption.

    “About one-third or one-fourth of the prevailing telephones being shipped are 5G-ready, however value remains to be over ₹15,000. The sub ₹10,000 mark will likely be an inflection level which can drive adoption,” said Vikas Jain, co-founder of Micromax, who has now ventured into connected devices under the World of Play brand.

    With the festive season approaching, top players such as Xiaomi, Realme, Motorola, Oppo and OnePlus have introduced new 5G devices with others expected to launch more models in the coming months. The prices however, will remain on the upper side of ₹15,000.

    “A consumer upgrading their phone today will surely be doing so to a 5G device. It is more or less becoming a hygiene factor in the mid-tier phone segments across brands,” mentioned Navkendar Singh, affiliate vice-president for gadgets analysis at IDC India, South Asia & ANZ. He added that manufacturers could effectively need to providing reductions and incentive plans to drive demand this festive season.

    According to IDC, 11 million 5G smartphones have been shipped in India between January 2022 and June 2022, with a mean promoting value of $377 or about ₹30,000. It mentioned that about 51 million 5G smartphones have shipped from 2020 to 1H22, and they’re anticipated to cross 50% market share by 2023. However, 5G telephones within the mass market have fewer fashions.

    That could change with the brand new launches. For occasion, Realme launched the realme 9i 5G beginning at ₹14,999 for its 4GB RAM and 64 GB storage mannequin which went on sale on Wednesday. Earlier this month, Motorola launched the moto g62 5G beginning at ₹16,249.

    Analysts at Frost and Sullivan mentioned in a current report that producers offering higher-specification gadgets at lower cost will likely be one of many prime causes for the typical alternative cycle for sensible smartphones getting lowered to of 20 months from 24-27 months.

    On the companies aspect, Vodafone Idea despatched out messages to its customers in Delhi NCR on Wednesday informing them about 5G community companies starting on its community “quickly”.

    Competitors Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have indicated launches inside this month.

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  • BMC taking steps to curb unfold of COVID

    The Bhilai Municipal Corporation has been gearing as much as avert chance of second wave of COVID-19 in metropolis as twin cities, Bhilai and Durg have witnessed contemporary instances of COVID-19 following New Year and different festive celebrations within the final couple of weeks. According to the knowledge, the BMC authority in help with district well being division to conduct common well being screening of the super-spreaders, together with staffers of its numerous departments, sanitary staff, discipline workers, frontline staff and small-time distributors at market locations, fearing a second wave of COVID-19 instances and rise in COVID-19 instances in metropolis.

    Recently, the BMC Commissioner, Rituraj Raghuvanshi has chaired a overview assembly with zonal officers, well being officers and nodal officers on the coronavirus state of affairs within the metropolis. On the opposite hand, the implementing officers from BMC authorities have been persevering with intense drive in opposition to Covidiots and begun penalizing them for not sporting masks whereas in public to keep away from the potential of a second wave of COVID-19 hitting state, in addition to district, within the late wintry season. In addition, the implementing officers of BMC have been strictly directed to renew taking motion in opposition to individuals not sporting masks and reluctant to obey social distancing in public locations.

    According to the knowledge the BMC officers have been directed to make sure that there is no such thing as a complacency in testing and stated labs needs to be practical in each zone underneath the BMC limits. In the identical context, the civic authority has intensified consciousness drives whereas all of the COVID testing facilities and BMC run fever clinics even have been requested to made sufficient preparations at there to ramp up their capability for early detection of instances. Moreover, the BMC officers have been discussing with the assorted Traders and Retailers Associations within the metropolis to attract up a plan for the screening of the shopkeepers, distributors and retailers, contemplating them super-spreader.