Technical consumer goods market hit by Covid-19 disruption

JOHANNESBURG – The South African technical consumer goods market was hit by Covid-19 disruption with the PC, tablet, smartphone and small domestic appliance sectors revenues dropping 7 percent for the period January to end August, according to the latest Point of Sale research by GfK South Africa.

GfK said its data revealed that the lockdown battered the technical goods market, with revenues in rand dropping 25 percent year on year for the period April to July.

However, aggressive retail promotions and the easing of the lockdown to level 2 in August helped to drive strong performance for the month compared to the same period in 2019.

The total technical goods market was up 15 percent year on year, with small domestic appliances growing 37 percent, office equipment and stationery up 83 percent, major domestic appliances up 24 percent, consumer electronics up 21 percent and IT up 47 percent.

GfK said its survey of online and offline retailers in South Africa indicated that they were expecting demand in the technical consumer goods market to rebound in the fourth quarter, ushered in by Black Friday and Cyber Monday.