Home confinement and the closure of many consumer electronics stores are changing consumer habits and guaranteeing an above-normal use of online shopping. GfK data for the week of March 30 to April 5 reveal an increase of over 250% in purchases over the internet compared to the same week of 2019, accumulating a trend that had already been felt in the previous week and which deepens the results of the first week of confinement.
Rui Reis, product manager at GfK, explained to SAPO TEK that this third week of mandatory confinement also has good indicators of the total recovery of the market. When in the previous week the total of the technology market accompanied by the consultant had recorded a 20% drop, this week the fall in the value of sales of technological goods was only 5%, with good results in the areas of Home Office, especially multifunction printers and portable computers, which rose 163 and 76%, respectively.
"Online continues to grow extraordinarily and almost compensates for the fall in the total market", explains Rui Reis. "It already represents one third of the market, the paradigm is changing," he says.
Several major electronics and communications retail brands have chosen to close all stores, such as FNAC and Phone House, directing all efforts towards online sales. Also other brands that keep some stores open, such as Worten or MediaMarket, are betting more on internet sales.
Among the products that grew the most in the last week, consoles also count, with an increase of 145%, but on the other hand the categories that lose the most are digital cameras, with losses of 81%. Some products such as Vacuum Cleaners and Washing Machines are already recovering to normal values, growing 2% in the case of vacuum cleaners.
The latest data released by SIBS show that the sectors that saw the greatest increase during the pandemic were entertainment and culture, with a 64% increase, followed by food and retail trade with a 45% rise, catering, food delivery and take-away with 52% growth.
In general, the organization revealed that e-commerce purchases rose 17%, while physical retail stores registered an increase of 6%. The average value of online purchases increased last week to 38.9 euros, compared to the 37.5 euros (+ 4%) of average verified before the confirmation of cases in Portugal.
