Retailers struggle with Samsung phone sales
Austerity in Oman coupled with Galaxy Note 7 problems have hit sale of Samsung phones
MUSCAT: Local retailers in Muscat are struggling to sell Samsung phones following the problems that Galaxy Note 7 posed to customers, a scenario further worsened by the ongoing period of austerity in Oman.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 was launched in August 2016, only to be recalled globally two weeks later as customers complained about spontaneous combustion of the device due to faulty batteries.
“Earlier, even with the current economic climate, I used to ship about 10 to 15 pieces of Samsung phones a day to customers,” said Basheer, who runs a phone sale and repair shop in Ruwi.
“Now, I get very few customers looking to buy Samsung phones on a Friday and I am lucky if I sell even five phones.”
“People do not want to take a risk when it comes to buying a phone, because they don’t know if the same issue will recur again,” he added. “There are many other brands like Huawei and iPhone, and so people have other options.”
The situation was no different at the wholesale phone outlet,Playphone.
“Before the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 caused us such problems, we used to easily sell about 35 phones a week,” said Jaseem, an employee at the store.
“Now, we’re struggling to move even 20 pieces.”
“People don’t want to buy Samsung devices because they’re scared about what will happen to their phones,” he continued.
“They don’t have a lot of money to spend and prefer opting for other brands instead. They always ask what will happen to their Samsung phones if they chose to buy one and are not convinced enough to opt for the brand.”
“The market is pretty bad right now,” added Mayeen, who also runs a phone store.
“I manage to sell two to three phones a day, while earlier, I used to sell at least 15.
“It’s because of what happened with the Note 7, and it happened at the worst time,” he said.
“The market is pretty bad right now, so people want a phone they can trust.”
However, some of the bigger stores are managing to sell more phones. “People believe that whatever happened with the Note 7 won’t happen again because they are loyal Samsung customers,” said one store manager, who operates his establishment opposite the OC Centre. “We’re still managing to sell about 10 to 15 phones a day.
“However, business is not what it used to be,” he added.
“We used to do business of up to OMR4,000 a month. Now, people don’t have money to spend, so we just about manage to cross OMR1,000 in sales.”
Following the Note 7 recall, people think twice before signing up for Samsung’s latest models. The A3, A5 and A7 models are expected to hit stores this March.
While most stores used to have waiting lists for customers who would pay an advance so that they can collect their phones as soon as these were launched, it is not happening this time around.
“We used to have a waiting list for the iPhone and the Note 7, but not this time around because we know people will be concerned about Samsung’s new arrivals,” he added. “Those loyal to the brand will buy it, though.”
The slump in Samsung sales is not restricted to Oman alone. According to the research firm, Gartner, Samsung suffered a 14 per cent drop in sales during the third quarter of 2016, and sold 11.8 million fewer phones than it did during the same period in 2015.
Samsung has estimated the direct cost of the recall to be $3.9 billion.