Splurge on great deals this festive season

This festive season, technology gadgets are witnessing enormous demand with major brands lining up special discounts on their products to woo their customers and pinning up big hopes on generating huge sales- 

As another festive season winds up, the new deals and discount scheme has made headway in the market to meet the festive season demands.  Festive season is the time when vendors and dealers come up with lucrative deals, offers major discounts, schemes and other such benefits on their products to lure their customers to get more profits. Customers on their part hold a sentimental approach towards the purchase of this time, as they consider such purchases auspicious for their family and wealth.

On these festival days, the Indian market witnesses an evident growth due to the seasonal impact on various products.

Gadgets generate more leads... 
In context of the market, the IT & Telecom gadgets and electronics in particular spurts up and witnesses a boom in sales each year due to change or development of new technology. Talking on this trend and current consumer behaviour, Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India says, “These days, technology is playing the multi-functional role in people’s lives, it has led customers to unveil a demand for more from their technology companions. Keeping this in mind it is expected that demand for personal technology devices to continue to grow this year as Indian consumer are becoming more tech-savvy and knowledgeable.”

Agreeing on this, Ritu Gupta, Director – Marketing, Dell India shares, “Customers have been upbeat about bringing home the gift of technology this auspicious season, as they recognize and accept the various ways in which technology is woven into their lives. With a deep desire to be an integral part of the celebrations, as customers soak in the spirit of festivities, Dell has curated exciting offers across a diverse portfolio, ensuring that the offer caters to customers across different age groups and user segments.”

Expectations from this season....
The festal days are also the time when brands witness high growth revenue. With a visible increase in new launches and marketing activities, the fourth quarter generally tends to generate more revenue for the companies that contribute a large share in total profit. Subsequently, the enterprises also hold large expectations from this season. 

As Vishal Parekh, Marketing director, Kingston Technology, HyperX says, “For us, the festive season has always shown a steady rise, boosting sales and revenue. With the new launches and buzz around it we are expecting a healthy rise in Sales expecting a good business. Overall we shall see positive sentiments and buying spree among the audience considering the festive buzz and our new launches timed during the season.” 

Panasonic is looking forward to offer great deals on its array of products. Discussing on this, Ajay Seth, Head- Sales & Services, Panasonic India says, “This year, the market is expected to grow by about 15% and Panasonic is aiming to grow by 30-40% by end of this festive season. Our festive sales started from Onam and we achieved a decent growth of around 30%. We are expecting the same momentum to be carried during Diwali days.”

“Similar to the last year, we are expecting good growth in both urban and rural areas this festive season. Our offers and product planning has been done catering to all customer/market segment. Such offers allow us to establish a strong customer connect and be part of the festive celebrations,” he adds further. 
 

A sneak- peek on Hot Deals

As the festive season feel is in full swing, here are some of the deals that are currently offered by prominent brands:

ACER
The mega offers from Acer include Premium Blaupunkt speakers worth Rs.2,990, Saregama Caravan Music System worth Rs.6,490 or 1TB External HDD, Bata Gift Voucher worth Rs.1,000, first-year accidental damage protection + two-year extended warranty worth Rs.6,999 and EMI benefits worth Rs.3,000,  depending on the purchase of model from its range of laptops, desktops, 2-in-1s, convertibles, desktops and All-in-One PCs. 

OnePlus
OnePlus Diwali Dash 2017, where users can avail the Bullet V2 earphones & Sandstone back cover free with purchase of any variant of the OnePlus 5 between 9th-19th October, from its online store, i.e. oneplusstore.in

Alternatively the brand also offered discounts on OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 3T. Such as additional cashback offer of Rs.1, 500 on HDFC bank credit and debit cards and up to 12 months of zero EMI on OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 3T.  Moreover, on the purchase of OnePlus 5 during this period, customers are eligible for extra Rs.3, 000 off on exchange of their old phone and domestic and international travel vouchers from Cleartrip worth Rs.25,000.

Zopo
ZOPO together with GrabOn, will be running a campaign named, “Bachat Wali Diwali”.  The campaign will comprise of a 4-day online gaming event from 14th October to 17th October 2017. Within these 4 days of the Bachat Wali Diwali campaign, the people of India will have a chance to win the latest ZOPO Smartphones.

Apical
Apical announces new offers on its Thecus solutions, will be available starting from September 2017 and will go on till the end of October 2017. If you happen to buy 2 Thecus N2350, N2810 or N4350 or N5810Apical is offering a Thecus Laptop Backpack for free. 

Vodafone
Vodafone India has tied up with itel Mobile to offer complete cashback worth Rs.900 on the purchase of new itel handset for its customers in Bihar and Jharkhand. The offer, valid till 31st October, 2017 is available for both new and existing Vodafone customers. The offer is applicable on the selected models of itel feature phones.

iVOOMI
iVOOMi is offering a bunch of deals to its customers for the “Big Diwali Sale” on their smartphones at e-commerce portal, Flipkart from 14th October till 17th October, 2017. Special discount up to 25% on its smartphones along with free screen replacement on its newly-launched flagship products Me3 and Me3S are there for up to 180 days. With this offer, customers will also get extra Rs.200/- supercash from MobiKwik on all iVOOMi smartphones. 

Infinix
Infinix is presenting a Special discount offer of Rs. 1000 and an additional exchange offer of Rs 1000 on its Note 4 handset which is priced at INR 8,999, while on Hot 4 Pro the Special offer discount is of Rs. 1500. After discounts the phones will be available at Rs. 6999 and Rs. 5999 respectively. 

The brand has also announced a bonus discount of 10% on using HDFC debit or credit cards for the customers. 

Sony
On the purchase of Xperia XZ Premium, Sony customers will get a free Bluetooth Speaker (SRS-XB10) worth Rs. 4990/- and a Style Cover Stand (SCSG10) worth Rs. 3490/-. This exhilarating offer starts from 7th October and is valid till 31st October, 2017.

This exhilarating offer is applicable across all Sony Centers, Sony Mobile retail partners like Croma, Reliance, Ezone, etc. and key mobile retail outlets. Sony has also come up with attractive price offers across several categories to add to the festivity cheer.

Vivo
 Vivo announces the first-ever Vivo Diwali Carnival starting 10th October. The three day carnival will witness exciting offers on the selected range of Vivo smartphones such as the latest V7+, V5Plus, V5s. exclusively on Flipkart. The Vivo Diwali Carnival offers some attractive exchange offers, zero cost EMI and cashbacks. Customers can avail up to Rs.2000 off on an exchange of any smartphone against the recently launched flagship V7+ and up to Rs.5000 off for V5 Plus and V5s. Additionally it offers a 12-month no-cost EMI and 10% cashback across all HDFC credit and debit cards for customers who place pre-paid orders on Flipkart. Other exciting offers include BookMyShow couple vouchers up to Rs. 500.

Honor
Till 22nd October, consumers can purchase the Honor 8 Lite smartphone with Triple Zero benefits -   zero down-payment, zero interest and zero processing fee.  Additionally, Honor brand in association with Bajaj Finserv, is also offering the customers “No cost EMIs” on the purchase of the Honor 8 Lite. Consumers can opt from 3 easy finance schemes - 1800 payable for 10 months, Rs. 2000 for 9 months and INR 2,250 for 8 months. In case you miss the date of 22nd Oct, there is still a window of opportunity for those aspiring to own an Honor 8 Lite. From Oct 23- 31st, this premium phone can be purchased availing the Double Zero Offer of Zero % interest and Zero processing fee.

For Honor Holly 4 & Holly3 smartphones the Double Zero Offer continues right until Oct 31st, whereby both models of these popular devices can be purchased at Zero % interest and Zero processing fee.

Paytm
The four-day sale starting from 10th October will offer up to 70% cashback across various categories including Appliances, Mobiles and Fashion including Apparel, Footwear and Accessories among others. The platform will also host limited period Flash offers that will run from 12pm to 4pm and 8pm to midnight during this four-day sale and bring customers handpicked offers across all categories.

Dell
For the festive season, Dell launched the real celebrations campaign. To leverage the festive sentiments this year, Dell is offering an array of exciting offers on the entire range of Inspiron notebooks, desktops, all-in-one’s and gaming PCs valid from September 21 to October 20, 2017.

Honeywell
Honeywell is giving 2 years extended warranty (total warranty being 3 years) during the festive season on some of the products along with special scheme based prices on the entire portfolio.

LG
LG offers a campaign titled ‘‘SaathRishtonKa, which includes offers worth 20 crores on products, special offer to pay Rs 20 and remaining balance in easy instalments, a 20% discount and upto 20-100% cashback offers on various products. The brand is also offering free backcover and screen replacement on the purchase of LG smartphones. Additionally, the company is offering a 7.5% cashback offer with HDFC Bank, zero down payment and zero processing fee with Bajaj Finserv and an easy EMI with no additional costs.

Samsung
Samsung is offering a number of discounts on its array of products including home appliances, gadgets etc. Customers can avail offers ranging from free Soundbar worth INR 23,990, Level U Bluetooth Headphone worth INR 2,999, Borosil Tea Set, extended warranty or cash back on its selective product models. 
The brand has also announced attractive finance offers such as Flexi EMI Scheme, Long Term Tenure schemes and zero down payment schemes available for consumers on selected products. There is an additional bonanza for customers purchasing Samsung products from September 11 to October 22 as the brand is offering 5% cash back on all purchases done by State Bank Debit and Credit Card during this period.

Lenovo
Lenovo has exciting offers and schemes line up for its customers such as additional 2 years warranty, Shopper Stop gift vouchers, easy EMIs and more worth up to INR 13,990. Under this festive scheme, the brand also provides Premium Care support on its premium range of notebooks worth up to Rs. 3499/- at Rs. 499/-. Users can avail McAfee Live Safe with 1 Year of Accidental Damage Protection on select laptops.

This offer is applicable on Lenovo’s new range of consumer laptops including the Yoga 720 & Yoga 520, Ideapad 520s & 320s, Ideapad 520 & 320 and Legion Y720. 

Paytm Mall
Paytm Mall celebrates Diwali Maha Cashback Sale, four-day sale starting from 10th October offer up to 70% cashback across various categories including Appliances, Mobiles and Fashion including Apparel, Footwear and Accessories among others. 

The Diwali Maha Cashback Sale will host up to Rs 20,000 Cashback on Refrigerators, up to Rs 15000 Cashback on Washing machines, up to 50% Cashback on Kitchen Appliances and up to 40% Cashback on Personal Care Appliances like Trimmers, Hair Dryers and more. Intel Core i3 Laptops will feature Min Rs. 4,000 Cashback, DSLRs will host minimum 20% Cashback and Printers will be available at up to Rs. 8,000 Cashback.

Canon
Canon is providing a Motorola Bluetooth headset on each purchase of EOS 200D, EOS 1300D and EOS 750D. Additionally, 1000 lucky customers will win a chance to secure a ‘Make My Trip’ voucher worth INR 10,000 on each of these purchases. Not stopping at this, its Consumer System Products team has announced a 50 city roadshow ‘SPARKLE’ as well.

“Festivities in India during this time of the year witness a significant traction in terms of market sales for almost all industry verticals. We would be offering special discounts as well as bundled offerings on discounted prices to help bolster the festive mood of consumers. We are also expecting an encouraging growth in terms of our overall sales figures during this festive time period as our partners across India will strive to offer the most relevant products to consumers as per their requirements at attractive prices,” says Kuldeep Malhotra, Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication) Konica Minolta Business Solutions India as he also expects a healthy traction in number of sales this time.

Samsung’s expectations are also high with this festive season, as the brand counts on its digital appliance business to exhibit strong growth.  This year, Samsung is expecting a healthy double digit growth from its range of Television, Refrigerator, Air Conditioner, Washing Machine and Microwave categories across India.  

Same expectations are from Acer as it feels encouraged with the current response from its customers. The company believes that it is not just the positive business, but also the channel relations it builds and nurtures with the customers and partners during this time which makes this time of the year special to the brand.

Considering this time propitious to make big purchases, many companies start coming up with special offers to gratify the special demands of the consumers. Many brands have launched their season exclusive campaigns and initiatives to add to the fervour of celebrations. 

Sales war B/W online and Offline
During this time the brands also try to manage their presence on both the channels through their uniform retail strategy. This Diwali, major brands are offering loads of discounts with a host of benefits on both the online and offline platform. Also, through these offered benefits, customers can avail special discount on whichever platform they prefer to shop. This indicates that the companies generate a good portion from both the channels. When asked from the companies about which channel is contributing more shares to the revenue, Vishal from Kingston technology discusses, “We are a channel friendly brand, we deal with both retail and etail stores globally. While the Online Market has seen more aggression during the festive season, we also believe in promoting our channel partners on to the online platforms. With best in class quality and discounts being offered, the consumers are more inclined to Kingston and HyperX in general.”

For Samsung as well, both the channels are flourishing thoroughly as Rishi Suri, Consumer Electronics, Samsung India recalls. “Samsung products are sold across the country and across channel, built through 22 years of strong partnership. A strong distribution network along with healthy relationship with retail partners has enabled us to sustain our market leadership across categories.”

He further adds, “We have a very strong retail network coupled with excellent customer service that has been a pivotal in retaining loyalty for the brand. Samsung has maintained a strong presence across all major towns and cities. We will continue to grow our extensive dealer network comprising of Samsung Distributors, Samsung Plaza, Samsung Smart Cafés, large retail format and multi brand outlets.”

Similarly iVoomi also believes that both its channels are growing at the same pace, as Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, iVOOMi says, “on the basis of our products experience we see both the channels have similar growth in-terms of numbers. Although, we being an online-focused brand the traction online has been bigger and higher if not less compared to the offline market.”

Kuldeep from Konica Minolta shares, “Both offline as well as online channels are observing a considerably higher traction in sales this festive season. While online channels are offering the customers with ease of delivery at their doorstep, offline partners are furnishing the customers with a real world experience of the offerings to help them pick the best offering as per their budget and requirements.”

Sudhir Pillai, General Manager, Homes, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies, India also mentions that the brand is selling aggressively already both online through e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, and PayTM, as well as large and small format retail stores.” 

However Acer, as a brand believes in co existence of both the platforms, but places confidence more in its retail presence, as it gives the brand a chance to directly connect with their customers. On this, Chandrahas asserts, “We believe, both the platforms-Online and offline have their own positives. We endeavor to build Acer community on each of these platforms and make the brand seamlessly accessible anywhere, anytime. Acer is constantly strengthening retail presence in order to ensure easy availability of their products. While already having a robust presence on e-commerce stores, we have simultaneously increased our retail stores with over 2000 stores and approximately 100 exclusive Acer stores. 

"We believe retail stores give our customers the opportunity to interact with the brand and to get the first-hand experience of the products. Besides being available at Acer Exclusive Stores, Acer products are also easily available at all leading technology stores as well. As these online and offline platforms continue to co-exist, we would also be leveraging both for our ultimate focus of ascertaining convenience for our users,” he further adds.

Sharing her thoughts on the channel presence, Ritu from Dell points out, “We make it a point to be present on all platforms where customers want to access the brand – online or offline. Customer choices tend to vary across these platforms based on their preferred method of purchase. We see a large number of first-time buyers of technology, who prefer to touch and feel the product before a purchase. They may do this at the Dell Exclusive Store or the multi-brand retail outlets. Seasoned technology buyers prefer the online route as they can compare prices and specifications online and make informed buying decisions. Some consumers also prefer to compare products online, but when it comes to buying, they will make their final purchase at a store. As the environment becomes increasingly digitalized, consumers see PC’s as the ideal gift in the form of a tool that aids individual’s growth and productivity, and acts as a digital companion.” 

Abha Singh
abha@varindia.com

Festive quotes from major brands

Chandrahas Panigrahi
CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India 

In a market like India, the festive enthusiasm grips consumers, and purchases are made across product categories. We welcome our customers to avail these special offers across our range of products. We hope that these great offers will usher in a joyous occasion for all our consumers.
 

Ajay Seth
Head- Sales & Services, Panasonic India

Major part of our festive sales comes from offline channels. Online sales are also expected to do well in this season, We have announced our ‘India Ka Tyohaar. Panasonic Ka Uphaar’ festive offers and ‘Maha Phone Utsav’ for the customer on Panasonic’s  wide range of products. 
 

Ritu Gupta
Director – Marketing, Dell India 

As always, Dell hopes to add value and empower its customers and partners by providing them with a complete package to celebrate the gifting spirit of the festive season.This season, Dell is offering a wide range of products with attractive offers and EMI options and a robust support and training for channels. 
 

Ashwin Bhandari
CEO, iVOOMi, India

We are pleased to see the colour of Indian market this festive season. There is a huge spike in the overall consumption/demand for all our products for last 2 months. We see this as a big booster for us, we have almost grown to 3 times and this gives us confidence in the Indian market and further growth can be achieved.


 

Kazutada Kobayashi
President and CEO, Canon India

Festive season is that time of the year when celebrations are in full spirit. We are profoundly committed towards our customers, partners and the community, this festive season we are providing each one of them with increased reasons to rejoice. While we are spreading the culture of imaging among our customers, through theme based photography workshops, our partners would attend dealer meets across the country. Our employees are engaging with the community with increased vigor, through our CSR programs.


 

Amit Gujral
Chief Marketing officer, LG Electronics

The festive season is the best time for us to strengthen our relationship with our consumers.  SaathRishtonKa  offers campaign is a token from LG which will enable all consumers to enjoy the much-awaited festival season even more, as they get to bring home their favourite gadgets and appliances at never-before prices.
 

 Sudhir Pillai
General Manager, Homes, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies, India

Diwali, every year brings about great cheer and we are ecstatic for the season. We are expecting (and already noticing) an increase in the demand of air purifiers as the pollution level is increasing by the day. We are expecting an increase in sales of our products, which will impact the company’s overall growth.


 

Rishi Suri
Consumer Electronics, Samsung India

The post-monsoon festive season is a bonanza time for the consumer durable market in India. A good monsoon has further improved the sentiment with people in smaller markets having higher income at their disposal from a good agricultural return. This, coupled with our increased focus in tier-2 and tier-3 areas, has made us very confident of the coming months.


 

Nidhi Markanday
Director, Intex Technologies  

At Intex, we eagerly wait for this time of the year as festiveseason is the best time to connect with consumers and be part of their joy & happiness. During festive season, we make concerted efforts to make sure to give consumers a special and exceptional buying experience throughout our product categories. This year, we have come up with some special offers and gifts, which will surely prove to be a delight for consumers.


 

Kuldeep Malohtra
Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication)  Konica Minolta Business Solutions India 

As Konica Minolta pre dominantly runs through indirect channels like dealers in Indian Market. There are lot of festive schemes which they are running for the end customers. We have been targeting all products across categories, though schemes are offered by the dealers & distributors to end customers.

Anish Kapoor
CEO, Infinix India 

As the consumer sentiments amidst the festivities is already on a high and Diwali is the best time for us to be a part of this celebration to make it bigger and better.  We are giving another reason to our consumers to buy their favorite Infinix all-rounder smartphones at the best festive price on Flipkart “Big Diwali Sale”.  We wish all our customers the very best and look forward to serving many more customers this festive season.

S.M Ramprasad
Executive Vice President, Graphic Arts Division, Fujifilm

We have some of the exclusive customer offers on various ranges of products varying from Rs. 3000 to Rs. 10000 as discounts along with other offers that as being offered by Fujifilm. We feel there is a lot of traction and demand during this time. We have already seen a lot of spike in sales in the last couple of months. And I believe because of festive season it will peak in this month as well.

Satish Padmanabhan
Sales Head, Sony India 

In this auspicious season, we are ready to enhance the festivities of our customers with incredible consumer promotion offers. The assured gifts on the purchase of every Xperia XZ Premium will not only delight our customers, but will also add more excitement to their festive shopping. We are ready to delight our customers and enhance their festivities in this auspicious season with incredible consumer promotion offers. 

Tejas Sheth
Director at Apical on offers on Thecus solutions 

At Apical, we aim to provide solutions that offer more value to our customers. Adding greater joy on Diwali, this year Apical brings in assured gifts offer on selected Thecus products. Through these offers, we want to ensure that our customer’s joy last long and this is a small endeavor on our part to add sparkle to this festive season.

Rajshekhar Metgud 
Business Head – Bihar & Jharkhand, Vodafone India  

With the festive season around the corner, we are confident that the complimentary offerings from Vodafone will make the experience more seamless at affordable rates to our valued customers in the region. Also, the collaboration with itel  will enable our existing and prospective customers to make the most out of their new device purchase. We also take this opportunity to wish all our customers Happy Diwali and Chhath Puja; and will continue to delight them with such differentiated offerings in the days to come.

Kenny Zheng
CMO, Vivo India

We are delighted to host the first ever Diwali carnival during this festive season. It is that time of the year when festivities bring an unparalleled joy to people and it is essential for us to engage with our customers during these moments. India is a key market for Vivo and we are humbled to receive much love for the brand and our products. We are confident that our exciting offers on various flagship devices will be a great shopping experience.

Vishal Parekh
Marketing director, Kingston Technology, HyperX

One of the trends we noticed this season is ‘Value based Perfection’. Yes, we do understand that Gifting purchase revolves around emotions but now we see the consumers going the extra mile to gift the right gifts for their loved ones. A clear performance pressure and extra effort is seen, where exchanging gifts is no longer just a custom.

Vikas Agarwal
General Manager, India, OnePlus

We are excited to announce our first wave of offers on the onset of this festive season, giving more reasons to the OnePlus fans to celebrate. Diwali is the most auspicious time of the year and we hope to be the go-to choice for those looking to gift and own premium smartphone experience with best-in-class design and performance.

Amit Sinha
Chief Operating Officer – Paytm Mall 

This Diwali, we want to cater to the festive shopping needs of the widest set of customers. Our platform will host a vast range of festive offers in partnership with thousands of retailers across India. This will allow us to serve more customers and ensure that our partner retailers are able to drive massive order volume ahead of Diwali.

Sanjeev Bhatia
CEO, ZOPO Mobile India 

We are pleased to partner with GrabOn to offer our fans a perfect Diwali gift. The best part of it will be the involvement of the people in this activity. Our partnership with GrabOn will definitely help the fans and followers of both the sides.