Consumer shift to premium products drives India's electronics market growth
premiumisation trend further got magnified in sales of electronic products such as smartphones, appliances and televisions in the January to June period of this year, with the industry’s value growth significantly outpacing volume or number of units sold in brick-and-mortar stores.
The overall consumer electronics market in offline retail grew by 11% by value in the first half of this calendar year as compared to the same period last year, whereas volume went up by a marginal 1%, latest data by market researcher GfK India shows.
This indicates consumers only purchased premium or high value goods with sales of the entry-to-mid segment continue to be severely impacted. For instance, GfK reported overall mobile phone sales by volume declined by 6% in the Jan-Jun period whereas by value it went up by 10%. The smartphone segment registered a 12% increase in value, while by volume there was no growth.
Small domestic appliances such as kitchen appliances value sales grew by 29%, whereas major domestic appliances by 18% driven by cooling products due to the extreme heatwave this summer. The sales of major appliances went up three times over last year with air conditioners and refrigerators growing by 30% and 7% respectively.
GfK India’s head of customer success Anant Jain said India has emerged as the fastest-growing large market in the technical consumer goods industry. “Valued at around Rs 2 lakh crores, the market saw over 125 million units sold in the first half of 2024. This represents a notable 11% increase in
