Retail in Asia

In Trends

‘World Cup effect’ boosts sales of flat panel TV in Southeast Asia

More TV sets were sold in every single market across Southeast Asia in the month prior to the commencement of the the FIFA World Cup in June, market research firm GfK’s retail sales tracking reveals.

Its retail audit of TV sales for May 2014 reported nearly 957,000 units sold for the combined markets of Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

GfK said reports also showed that demand for TV in May surged significantly at 15 percent more than the average sales volume achieved in the non-peak months of February, March and April. In markets, growth is in the range of 4 to 31 percent. Thailand showed the greatest spike, followed by 19 percent in Vietnam, and 16 percent in Singapore. Moreover, the 232,000 TV sets snapped up in Thailand in May was the highest monthly sales achieved by the market in 2014 so far.

“It is interesting to highlight that this trend of higher demand for TVs in the month leading to World Cup was also observed four years ago,” said Gerard Tan, Account Director for Digital World in GfK. “GfK’s weekly retail audit for TV sales further showed apparent spikes in take-up volume in various June weeks for Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand to achieve the highest weekly sales since January.”

Overall TV sales in the region have slowed down after several years of rapid growth in developing markets where large number of households were upgrading to flat panel TV from the traditional CRT. With the near completion of the switchover, consumers are now focusing on new features and technology, as well as bigger screen sizes instead.