IT retailers see sparkling Dhanteras and Diwali

Every year during Diwali time, market witnesses a huge demand for a variety of products like jewelry, automobiles etc. Same is the case with the IT products, this Diwali, Nehru Place IT market was completely packed with buyers and customers. IT retail stores were flooded with offers and discounts. Throwing light on the Delhi market, Ajaya Kumar of Park Network pointed out that for a week, around Dhanteras and Diwali time, the market picked up drastically. "Our retail stores sales did phenomenally good business as compared to previous year. We have noticed laptop sales of Sony and Lenovo have scored huge numbers." According to Sunil Narang, director, Elcom Trading, "Market has seen some growth. Previous quarter (JAS) saw better numbers and even during Diwali we did good sales. The demand for notebooks has gone up."

On the flip side, Mahinder Aggarwal, president of Delhi based traders association ADCTA said, "The market maintained a status quo. We failed to push sales, owing to rupee weakening and tight supply chain. The pricing of IT products were skyrocketing, wherein customers were looking for heavy discounts. However we manged to gain sales with the sales of IT hardware and peripherals." In other cities like Jaipur and Ludhiana, Diwali sales were more than partners' expectations. Deepak Sharda, secretary, Jaipur based IT dealers association, RCTA said, "Most of our members had seen bumper sales during Dhanteras and Diwali days. On the whole, Diwali sales met our expectations, laptops remained high on buyers' list."

In some places, partners did not seem to be banking on vendors' discounts and offers, rather they came up with their own innovative schemes. For instances, Ludhiana based Ankur Jain, partner, Royal Infovision said, "We had sold more than 100 laptops on these 2 days. Although, this year, none of the PC vendors rolled out any channel and customers schemes. But, to push more sales, we had partnered with one of the cinema multiplex and sold Ra.One couple movie tickets with the purchase of every laptop." He also added, "This year vendors were worried more for LFRs sales, that is why their focus on small retailers were not much. Despite this, we have done great business." Moreover, large format IT retail stores also witnessed high footfall and double digit sales figures. These stores attracted customers while offering free gifts such as silver coins and idols to attract consumers. Retail reported a 25% jump in sales in the run-up to Dhanteras, driven by high demand for LCD mobile phones and laptops.