It’s weekend and shopping time
Consumers are increasingly looking for smart health products and wearables
DUBAI — Consumers at Gitex Shopper 2016 know what they want, and ready to brave the weekend rush to grab the best deals in town.
“The spring edition of the Gitex show is always a popular event, and now that the weekend has started we can definitely expect to see an increase in visitor footfall,” said Mahesh Chotrani, assistant vice president of Jacky’s Electronics.
Speaking on the second day of the event, Chotrani said that the crowds of shoppers would start streaming into the exhibition after 5pm, with Friday and Saturday being the busiest days of the event.
“The weekend has always been the best time for us as many of the shoppers have finished browsing and debating on the deals and are ready to start making their purchases. We are very optimistic about the reception and crowds this year. Going by the shopper footfall on the opening day of the exhibition, we feel very encour- aged and are looking forward to what the weekend will bring.” Speaking on some of the most popular electronic items at the exhibition, he revealed that a lot of the consumers were looking at tablets and notebooks, in addition to the usual demand for the latest smartphones.
“An interesting trend that we are seeing this year is that a lot of the shoppers are looking at smart health products. Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about their health and lifestyles in the region and that means that they are increasingly looking at items such as smart wearables. And this is a trend that we will continue to see growing strongly in the coming years,” Chotrani said.
Neelesh Bhatnagar, chief executive officer of Emax Electronics, also spoke on how sales would be picking up over the weekend. “As is always the case, on day one of the event, people come in and start looking at the various deals being offered before retiring to compare prices and making a final purchasing decision,” he said. “The last two days, as always, will mean skyrocketing sales for us.”
His thoughts on the popular electronics this year was: “Laptops did very well on the first day of the exhibition. This was surprising, but a
The last two days, as always, will mean skyrocketing sales for us
Neelesh Bhatnagar, chief executive officer of
Emax Electronics very good sign for us. We also did very well in television sales; again, I attribute this to the ongoing cricket matches and the desire to watch the action in HD!”
He added: “Phone sales on the first day of the event were a bit subdued, but I expect them to pick up over the weekend, with all the interest in the new smartphone launches. I can safely say that they biggest interest from our consumers is on the phones segment, and as always Apple and Samsung are leading the way. However, the smaller mid segment phones, such as Huawei and HTC are also doing very well with a fair bit of visitor interest.”