Samsung banks on premium electronics to cash in on festive season sales

South Korean electronics firm Samsung is planning to double down on premium products to push revenues in the upcoming festive sales in India, a senior executive told Mint. In an interview, Mohandeep Singh, senior vice president, consumer electronics business, at Samsung India said that the company will offer “better value” to consumers through enhanced offers during the sales, both online and offline. 

This includes bundling premium Samsung smartphones, like the flagship Galaxy S22 series, with high-end refrigerators, extended warranties on TVs, cashbacks, and EMIs. 

“Premiumization as a trend is gaining momentum. Consumers want to upgrade but affordability is a barrier. We are enabling the consumer with these offers,” Singh said. 

He projected a 45% year-on-year (YoY) growth during the upcoming festive season sales and 80% growth in the premium segment. The company has seen similar growth during the Independence Day and Onam sales in August, he added. 

“Consumers are buying premium products or larger capacity fridges, larger TV, high-end QLED TVs, and projectors. This trend gained momentum during the August sales. Premium TV grew by more than 100%, soundbars grew by 3x,” said Singh.

Further, Singh noted that the company’s retail investments in India have “almost doubled” over the past year. A significant part of this has gone into thinking about our planogram, and also to train in-store promoters to offer the right experience,” he said. Planograms are schematic plans for retail stores which focus on product placement and point-of-sale locations in stores.

According to a July report by the Retailers Association of India, offline stores registered a 13% YoY growth in sales in June 2022 as compared June 2019. Consumer electronics was one of the fastest growing segments offline.

He added that stores that were only selling mobile, tablets, and laptops, will now sell high-end TVs, and refrigerators.