Panasonic growth this festive season

Panasonic is optimistic about the next holiday season and is aiming for a double-digit gain on the strength of the smart air conditioners and home appliance category, despite the negative sentiments caused by growing prices, the depreciation of the Indian rupee, and consumer fear of a recession. 
 
After a protracted pause, shoppers are anticipating the impending holiday season, which begins with Onam. They will continue to spend sparingly on connected (smart), practical, and cosy appliances, predicts Fumiyasu Fujimori, managing director of PMIL and head of Panasonic India’s consumer division.

Panasonic

Consumers are becoming more amenable to investing in value-proposition appliances as they become aware that consumer appliances are an indispensable “essential” item assisting in multitasking and that the situation is returning to pre-Covid levels. Consumers in India’s cities and rural areas have now adapted to a post-pandemic lifestyle in which value and safety come first when making judgments about what to buy. According to Fujimori, “we are witnessing an increase in demand for value proposition appliances that are simple to use (enabling consumers to multitask), effective in terms of energy use, linked (smart), and healthful and hygienic. 
 
As a result, Panasonic offers a variety of smart products in various categories, including fans, plugs, switches, washing machines, air conditioners, and refrigerators, all of which are powered by Miraie, an IoT-based platform that wirelessly connects to Panasonic appliances to enable simple control and remote monitoring. Fujimori continues, “This trend is here to stay.” Panasonic has introduced a variety of consumer appliances, including a 30 litre microwave oven with recipes requiring no oil and Monster Super Mixer Grinders with Double Safety Lock for increased safety. Panasonic has also introduced 20 new models of LED TVs, including 4K and Smart TV models.

The pattern of growth

The premium line of home appliances is driving the expansion of Panasonic’s consumer business in India. With a value increase of 10% from January to July of this year over the same period in the previous year, Panasonic saw growth. “This season, we had a record demand for air conditioners as we saw more than a 45% increase from January to July of last year, with the 4-star and 5-star inverter ACs contributing the most. Similar to this, multi-tasking gadgets like microwaves and washing machines had double-digit increase from January to July of this year. The entire sales are strongly impacted by the holiday season. Although the previous two years were an exception, we aim for double-digit increase this holiday season. 
 
Keeping up the pace, Panasonic started its holiday celebrations in August and announced its “The Festival of Life” deal. It includes a number of rewards programmes, practical financing options, warranty advantages, and fun presents when buying Panasonic equipment. The corporation has enough supplies and inventories, including both premium and value-proposition appliances, planned in advance to meet local requests.

Back in style is offline retail

Consumers are increasingly more tech-savvy thanks to digitization, since they now prefer to conduct their research online and make their purchases in physical locations. Additionally, people in India still want to “touch & feel” an item before making a purchase, therefore offline sales will predominate. 

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