Christmas week sales of consumer durables chains rise by 50%

Retailers of consumer durables and electronics (CDE) had a blast during the Christmas-New Year season, with many of them posting 50 per cent jump in sales compared with the same period last year.

Future Group's CDE formats "� eZone and Electronic Bazaar "� did a business of Rs 37 crore against the target of Rs 150 crore for the period between December 22 to January 31. Both the retailers have seen sales growth of 40-50 per cent on the same store level during the period, while the group's total CDE business saw a jump of 200

per cent. "Our sales promotions have paid off well since we gave the consumers opportunity to upgrade from existing models, offered best deals and latest products. Higher aspirations and disposable incomes have led to higher sales," said Manoj Kumar, CEO, E Zone & Electronic Bazaar.

For its premium format eZone, the group devised ''Fast Forward 09'' marketing campaign, which promised assured gifts, while in the ''Now or Never'' campaign of Electronic Bazaar, the group offered discounts up to 75 per cent.

Though a newcomer, Reliance Digital, the CDE format of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail, did a good business during the season.

"The Christmas week accounted for 40 per cent our average monthly sales. Indian chains are beginning to see the kind of shopping action seen by the global retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour during Christmas," said a Reliance Retail executive. Reliance Digital's average monthly business is Rs 5 crore.

Ajit Joshi, CEO, Infiniti Retail, which runs 14 CDE outlets named Croma, said "Both Diwali and Christmas have been very well for us. We offered discounts and freegifts, which did garner higher sales for us."

"All the sectors are doing well and there is liquidity in the economy, which is why retail chains are doing well," Joshi said.

According to Industry-watchers, since most of the retailers are new players, they want to ensure better sales during the season. An analyst from a global consultancy firm said, "Traditionally, Diwali has been the shopping season in the country like Christmas in the US and Europe. But since most of the chains are in the first year of operations, they want to make sure that the Christmas-New Year season is as lucrative as Diwali."

Surprisingly, Vivek's, a South-based CDE chain, saw its sales dropping 10 per cent to nearly Rs 40 crore during the new year season from December 29 to January 4.

"Consumer finance companies have become conservative in lending to conusmers after some of the finance companies exited the business. It has impacted the sales," said BA Srinivas, CEO, Vivek's. However, he added, the launch of new high-end technology products coupled with aggressive marketing strategies of consumer durable companies had resulted in higher sales of LCD televisions, laptops and so on.