Revenues in South Africa\u2019s technical consumer goods market climbed 8% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018 – boosted by a 16% rise in the telecommunications sector and a 17.4% increase in small domestic appliances.<\/p>\n
This is according to point of sale data from market research firm, GfK South Africa, which also showed that the major domestic appliances and consumer IT segments grew by 3% and 6.6% respectively.<\/p>\n
The smartphone segment, one of the biggest contributors to South Africa\u2019s technical consumer goods market, was given a boost by growth in sales of larger display devices together with the continued adoption of entry-level smartphones.<\/p>\n
“The South African consumer technology market is holding up reasonably well under difficult economic conditions. Consumer confidence in Q2 2018 was significantly up compared to Q2 2017, which helped to lift sales in the consumer technical goods market,” said Kali Moahloli, commercial head for Market Insights at GfK South Africa.<\/p>\n
“In the telecommunications and IT sector, consumers are looking for value, and vendors are responding with affordable products. Tier-two manufacturers are doing well with value-for-money smartphones with large displays, while we saw strong sales for entry-level (sub-R4,000) mobile computers,” said Moahloli.<\/p>\n
In the IT segment, sales in the media tablet category continued to deteriorate with a 42% drop in unit sales, while smartphones\u2019 value overall increased by 16%.<\/p>\n
Revenues in the consumer electronics sector grew 7.8%, driven by strong demand for ultra-high definition and large screen panel televisions. However, revenues in audio home systems, receivers and headphone categories all dropped sharply.<\/p>\n
Other highlights from the Q2 2018 report include:<\/p>\n