TVs and tablets support electronic commerce

The Fifa World Cup in Brazil hurt the performance of retailers, according to the largest number of holidays in the first half. Nevertheless, part of the favorable sales performance presented retail of electronics during the period from January to July, influenced by an atypical demand of TVs, tablets and smartphones for the period. A survey conducted by GfK showed that the electronic retailing grew 21% in the first seven months of the year, compared to the same period last year.
The market for TVs had featured in the period, with 39% increase in sales in about 2013. Sales of tablets advanced 43% and the segment of smartphones have increased 30%. José Guedes, Director of consumer choices of GfK, said that the strong expansion is due to the fact that the demand for these items have focused more in the first half this year due to the World Cup.
Traditionally, 60% of the sales of these lines are made in the second half of the year, but this year the trend was reversed. The GfK does not disclose sales projection for the Brazilian market in the year, but already informed sector entities provide a weak scenario for this semester. The Brazilian Association of electrical and Electronics Industry (Abinee) reported that retail orders to industries are slow and the forecast for the year is to present real fall of 4%, compared to projection made in April growth of 3% in the year.
This month, the Brazilian Association of wholesalers and distributors of industrial products (Abad), representing the "atacarejo" (networks that sell in bulk to consumers), revised the projection of real growth of sales for the year of 2.5% to 1.5% to 2%. The Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Open) also reduced the growth forecast for the year from 3% to 1.9%.
According to GfK, in the period from January to July, retailers, like Ricardo Eletro, Walmart, Casas Bahia and New Dotcom, submitted the most favourable performance in sales of electronics. Grids increased sales 43%, while in specialised networks grew 13%. The major networks now account for 32% of sales in the industry, compared with 27 percent last year. "The growth could have been stronger if not for the holidays of the World Cup and election-related political uncertainties," said Guedes.
The analyst said that the online stores accounted for 21% of sales of electronics-index similar to that of countries such as England (26%) and Germany (24 percent). Ghani said that while internet sales are significant, they do not guarantee better results for the retailers. That's because companies are still challenge high costs of logistics and inventory management problems, which reduce the profitability of online operations.
The GfK reported that, although retailers have an underwhelming performance at the beginning of the year, sales in Brazil helped South America to elevate the global electronics market participation. The region responds this year by 8% of worldwide sales of these products, compared to 7% last year. The consultancy estimates for South America 8% growth in revenue from electronics sales this year. For worldwide sales of the segment, the expectation of GfK is an increment of 1% on the year.