Consumer Electronics has become Smart. How to sell it with improved margins smartly?

Consumer electronics are electronic equipment meant for non-commercial use. Consumer electronics include devices such as computers, laptops, mobile devices, smart wearables, television sets, refrigerators, smartphones, and home appliances that provide one or more functionalities to make day-to-day living easier and comfortable.
Revenue in the Consumer Electronics market amounts to US$1,062.00bn in 2022. The market is expected to grow annually by 2.51% (CAGR 2022-2027).

This is one of the fastest-growing industries attributed to the emergence of new technologies. Rapid advancements in technology to cater to consumer demands is creating market opportunities during the forecast period. The market trend of integrating microLED technology into televisions for high-resolution density is augmenting the market expansion. Prominent market leaders including LG, Sony, Samsung, and others have launched microLED TVs for commercial and residential uses.

Continuous and aggressive investments by market players in R&D for the development of new consumer electronic products with enhanced features have fuelled the industry growth of consumer electronics. Rapidly increasing internet penetration across the globe drives the market growth furthermore.

Rising preference for smart homes supports the adoption of audio & video equipment. Proliferation of smartphones and growing preference for smart homes augments the demand for audio & video equipment. The integration of consumer electronics, such as speakers, and earphones, with voice assistant equipment, will provide a positive market outlook. In addition, product upgrades and new product launches by several consumer electronics companies to increase consumer experience are also driving the industry progression. The personal application segment is anticipated to witness a 9% growth rate by 2027 on account of the growing spending capacity on discretionary products due to rising income. Falling prices of personal consumer electronics, such as Bluetooth speakers, earphones, smartphones, and smart wearables are coercing the industry demand for these products.
After North America, the Asia-Pacific region generates the most revenue in the electronics segment. Asia Pacific consumer electronics market size was over USD 400 billion in 2020. Growing urbanization and rising disposable income in the region are propelling the usage of consumer electronics in high and middle-income households. The emergence of new regional manufacturers and the adoption of low pricing strategies by several manufacturers is driving this regional growth. Furthermore, rising technological awareness among the youth population regarding the latest features and functionalities in electronics is also fuelling the demand in this market.

Short product lifecycles and the availability of counterfeit products pose significant challenges to the market progression. The rapidly changing technological landscape is encouraging consumers to adopt new gadgets integrated with the latest technologies. To identify original and counterfeit electronic products accurately, the industry relies heavily on capturing attributes such as batch number, serial number and material.

The retail POS software should be capable of handling these attributes efficiently and with ease. Besides this, there are several other important points to watch out for while investing in a POS software and inventory management solution. To name a few, the retail software being used should be able to –

  • Provide buy back option to customers and support businesses with cash & carry as well home delivery options
  • Enable near real-time inventory tracking for faster replenishments and support omni-channel retailing
  • Track customer buying behavior to enable cross-selling/up-selling across categories/brands/accessories of interest
  • Extend the options of ‘click & collect’, ‘click & deliver’ or ‘endless aisle’ to customers
  • Enable in-store mobility with a secure Mobile POS to service customers or setup small store formats
  • Capture ‘shop-in-shop’ sales for daily sales analysis and regular replenishments based on sell-throughs
  • Enable collection of advances for orders that can be delivered later
  • Manage product, price and promotions across multiple retail channels
  • Fulfill online/e-commerce orders from store inventory and allow for any store returns for both in-store and online purchases

ETP has been helping several eminent Electronics retailers across the region to offer all the above mentioned benefits and deliver amazing customer moments to their customers. If you are an electronics brand or retailer and would like to speed up your growth in the next 5 years and beyond, speak with our Retail Software Solutions expert to help you expand your electronics retail business today.

Talk to us: https://www.etpgroup.com/industries/electronics/

Are Sports Goods & Athleisure Retailers Scoring it Right with their Customers?

The global sporting equipment and athleisurewear market size was valued at USD 170.94 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6% to $267.61 billion in 2028. The increased passion for sports and outdoor recreational activities among the world’s young population is predicted to fuel the demand for athleisure gear over the forecast period. One of the primary aspects driving this trend is a rise in consumer fitness and health consciousness, which is generating the demand for comfortable and fashionable clothes.

Wellness has progressed from a niche lifestyle choice to a new status symbol and expression of personal beliefs that transcends many industries, from luxury travel to high-end beauty and fitness. Luxury fashion has been significantly affected by streetwear athleisure trends, which are motivated by current consumers’ need to mix comfort and style. To tap into the booming athletic sector, luxury labels are launching new sporting items ranging from sneakers to leggings and gym accessories. More luxury fashion options that are both comfortable and stylish are desired by today’s consumers.

Ever since the pandemic spread across the globe, consumers have become more concerned about their health and are adopting healthy life habits. Thus, with lockdown measures in place, yoga studios, gyms, health clubs, and other settings where in-person group sessions used to took place were shut down or temporarily closed, which encouraged fitness enthusiasts to take up online base home classes. This increased the demand for activewear apparel.

Manufacturers are launching new products made using strong, durable, and quality materials. The availability of such sports apparel with enhanced properties including temperature control, moisture management, and other performance-boosting characteristics that prevent potential injury and discomfort has captured consumers’ interest. With all of these unique features, consumers are willing to pay more for such additional benefits. This, in turn, has propelled consumer habits to wear athletic apparel during their leisure period.

An increasing number of women taking membership in sports activities and growing participation in fitness clubs are also contributing to the growth of the market. Leggings form an essential component of athleisure wear today, since they are multi-purpose and can be easily worn as activewear as well as casual wear. Over the forecast period, leggings are projected to register a CAGR of 8.6%.

With more people are working from home than ever before and not having to dress up for work, consumers are mostly preferring to work in sweats, pajamas, and athleisure. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, 14% of consumers have purchased comfortable clothing, such as pajamas or athleisure.

In terms of distribution and deliveries, the offline segment dominated the market and held a revenue share of over 60.0% in 2021. The online segment is projected to expand at the highest CAGR from 2022 to 2030. The fashion business is undergoing seismic shifts as a result of digital innovation, increased globalization, and changes in consumer buying habits. Businesses are making use of online purchasing and the ease of social media marketing to create celebrity collaborations that can aid a brand’s discoverability as celebrities frequently share products on social media channels.

Retailers in this segment experience that a delay in shipment of goods is the primary reason for a decrease in sales. The rising number of counterfeit products in footwear, clothing, and others is hampering market growth in this segment.

ETP Group has been enabling several major Sports Goods and Atheleisurewear retailers in the Asia Pacific region to delight their customers with a higher order fulfilment percentage and have a higher inventory turnaround with real-time inventory sync across channels.

Learn more how ETP is doing this: https://www.etpgroup.com/industries/sports-goods/

Following are some of the benefits ETP has repeatedly delivered to the sports goods and athleisure industry:

  • End-to-end integrated solution from online to offline that provides an improved brand and shopping experience to customers.
  • Promotions management tool helps in swiftly rolling out new promotions to stores centrally & helps improve sales. Seamless promotions customer experience online & offline.
  • Integration with legacy ERP systems ensures smooth and hassle-free flow of information to stores & back to the Finance & BI system.
  • Real-time inventory visibility across all stores.
  • Automated payment gateway integrations at store leading for higher accuracy of transactions & faster checkouts.
  • Offering a true omni-channel experience to customers in terms of Click & Collect, Click & Deliver and Endless Aisle. This improves brand position and leads to increased sales.
  • Drive footfalls to offline stores and upsell leading to increased sales.
  • Optimal utilization of inventory across channels helps increase margins.
  • Improved customer relationship management leading to insights into customer buying behavior & pattern and increased sales opportunities.
  • Building a loyal customer database leading to a strong foundation for continued sales growth.

Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right in Footwear Retail, Don’t You Think?

Two Lefts Don't Make a Right in Footwear Retail, Don't You Think?

Shoes are one of the most beloved items people purchase for themselves and their near and dear ones every year. In 2021, the U.S. alone imported over 2.4 billion pairs of shoes and its annual sales topped $100.7 billion in revenue. Footwear retail has changed dramatically during the recent years – where brands have to cater to customer expectations based on the latest trends and styles that consumers are looking to buy. Post the global pandemic of 2019-2020, just like other verticals in the retail industry, footwear retail too is facing uphill challenges like how to adapt to rapid consumer demand shifts from the pandemic, discounting, how to develop and implement speed to market strategies, and how to manage and replenish store inventory real-time.

Each year, footwear companies invest several million dollars in their store staff and platforms to ensure they deliver high-quality shoes in a timely manner. Amid all the changes and challenges, footwear retailers continue to survive through the use of innovative and robust strategies both online and in shoe stores. In fact, the footwear industry has one of the most robust supply chains in the world.

ETP Group has repeatedly delivered both business and technology benefits to footwear retailers across the Asia Pacific, India and the Middle East. One of the largest fashion footwear retailer in the region with a wide network of hundreds of prime locations offering a mix of local and international designs had the following business needs:

  • Inventory visibility across the supply chain
  • Scalability of different concepts and number of stores
  • User-friendly POS for faster customer service with an integrated CRM system
  • Accurate cash management at the stores
  • Recognition of loyal customers and customer profiling
  • Reduce cut-size of footwear at stores and increase the fill rate with faster inventory turns
  • Managing shop-in-shop inventory for the brand to ensure accurate replenishment

ETP V5 Omni-channel Retail Solutions implemented for the brand include ETP Store, ETP Accelerator, ETP Omni-channel Connect and ETP Integrator. The implementation seamlessly integrates all the retail processes of the brand including showroom sales, pricing, stock management, loyalty management, campaign and promotions management, repairs process, customer profiling and CRM, and cash management to name a few with their legacy ERP.

This implementation of ETP V5 delivers substantial business and technology benefits to the brand, such as –

  • A colour/size/fit matrix for managing multiple sizing as well as
  • Scanning of SKUs in pairs to avoid item mismatch at the time of billing
  • Reduced pilferage and cut-size by tagging high-value footwear
  • Fulfill online/e-commerce orders from store inventory and allow for any store returns for both in-store and online purchases
  • Have a single customer ID across all retail channels to enable unified loyalty management
  • Avoid lost sales by providing ‘endless aisle’ capability in-store to service customers better
  • Complete inventory visibility and control with seamless data integration
  • Capturing of reasons for every stock movement to analyse and provide for faster inventory turns
  • Manage promotions, gift voucher, sales return and credit notes to provide high level of customer service across all the stores
  • Manage EOSS (end of season sale) efficiently; implement promotions quickly to complement merchandise planning
  • Display of line level and header level discount during billing, educating sales staff to promote sales
  • Handle complex local tax structure across all locations using charge model functionality of ETP and track accurate cost and margins across locations
  • Manage third party brands. Handle direct delivery to stores and seamless integration with vendors for timely replenishment
  • Manage customer service levels with regards to after sales service for repairs at store level
  • Banking transaction and cash management using ETP to ensure tight control over the collections at each store location

ETP has enabled several retailers achieve greater business efficiency in their quest to be a leader in the footwear market by improving inventory visibility and control to facilitate decisions on store replenishments, and enhancing customer loyalty and experience through improved marketing and promotions.