GfK, Germany's largest market research institute and the world's fourth-largest market research organization, behind Nielsen Company, Kantar Group and Ipsos, said its consumer electronics sales figures for the first nine months of the The year closed with a decrease of 1% (after a stable first half).
The detail speaks for itself: -6,7% for audio-video, -7,3 for photography, -0,5 for information technology and office equipment. As for the phonesa, there is a -3,8% decidedly worrying which is part of a general decline in the sector in other countries as well. The reason? Buying a smartphone is no longer a rewarding purchase. It's a household appliance indispensable and no longer the object of desire that triggers the craving for the superfluous as it was in the past.
Telephony is the larger sector by turnover of all home and personal technology (38,2%). If confirmed with the end of the year, these percentages are likely to put in crisis the whole electronics market of consumption.
The lifeline might just be the Christmas time which will play the del card 5G to all hardware manufacturers as leverage for the replacement of incompatible devices.
The good news instead comes from the brilliant sales of items for the conditioning and heating of homes (+38,3%), by +7,8 for small appliances and by +2,1 per cent of large appliances (in technical-economic jargon they are identified with the acronym "Majap") which now accounts for almost 15 percent of the market.
As for i sales channels,online it rises with a +14,5% and manages to take 16,1% of the total sales. Among the retailers, large and small specialized surfaces grew by +2%, followed by mass merchandisers by +1,9%.
Ultimately, major appliances save retail sales budgets. The Black Friday is imminent, but hopes for a positive year-end need i large numbers of the Christmas holidays. Waiting will also bring good advice for the new year.
