REVIEW


March 2022 ertonline.co.uk


14


‘Retail sales have been going up, and staying up’ The first presentation at this year’s Turning Point Live Conference was from


Nick Simon, Client Insight Director, Consumer Electronics at GfK, who presented a fascinating overview of the consumer electronics and home appliances market.


numbers have been quite buoyant. From March 2020 retail sales have been going up, and staying up, and we had a wonderful boom into the start of 2021. But then suddenly we got to a point where so many people bought so much product that we were never going to double up on those figures. So of course 2021 figures did not match those from 2020. For example in the TV market, we saw sales of around seven million


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units in 2020 but for 2021 is was more like five-and-a-half million units – and that’s been the story across the consumer electronics side. While on the major domestic appliances side it’s a little different


because it’s quite clear that market did not take off – with the exception of chest freezers and similar products at the start of the pandemic. So that whole time of ‘stay at home’ was actually very important and had its impact on these markets.


Growth of online So where are consumers purchasing durable goods? The growth of online has been really important as that has remained right the way through the pandemic; but of course go back before the pandemic and online was very much the minority consideration. And linking in with that, there is a whole smart home industry


developing and from an independent retailer’s point of view I think this is very important indeed. It’s worth remembering that the area with the head start, like smart TVs and smart audio, is now the area that is actually growing less now. A lot of the other categories are showing much more dramatic increases. This is something we should bear in mind because it’s clear that consumers are increasingly focused on the smart market, and it’s just getting smarter and bigger. The consumer electronics sector was booming since the start of the


pandemic, but since around April 2021 we have seen a few months of decline here and there. Looking at which products have actually done


well, it’s always TV, but in value terms turntables is the strongest segment – in the long term, turntables are still a very popular proposition. Headphones and headsets is another similar area which has kept an even keel; it hasn’t declined from the previous year.


Slow and steady MDA Elsewhere, in MDA, the figures didn’t show a rush to buy fridges, washing machines and dishwashers; I guess that’s not something you do in a state of panic, like at the start of the pandemic. The MDA market has carried on steadily with figures pretty even


between 2020 and 2021. We are talking quite mainstream products here, for example with new energy labels coming in as well. The market has performed very well overall in terms of turnover, and is much more positive compared to consumer electronics. And lastly SDA, which has been fantastic over the past couple of years


and enjoyed the biggest pandemic boom of all the categories. It is experiencing a bit of a come-down now; people all of a sudden have stopped buying kettles and then in terms of sales units, toasters and irons were also in decline in 2021.


t the moment, people are being, unsurprisingly, quite cautious when it comes to spending. Everyone has been rather preoccupied of late and it’s had an effect on the economy. Looking in more detail at the durables market and the


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