PLUG INS announces results of its second UAE-wide CE survey

Survey throws up interesting consumer trends 

Dubai, April 21, 2014: PLUG INS has announced the results of its second nation-wide CE survey that has revealed some interesting consumer trends. 

The survey which was conducted online gathered responses from 1,986 respondents across 52 nationalities over a period of 25 days (February 26 to March 22). The survey looked at four key CE categories including Smartphones, TV’s, Laptops and Tablets and Cameras.

“At PLUG INS we believe consumer insights are fundamental to the way we retail today and in the future. With the help of the survey we hope to record the pulse of the customer and their purchasing habits and make this data available to the industry,” said Sean Connor, General Manager of PLUG INS. 

Key findings from the survey are summarized below: 

•    Dates: February 26 to March 22
•    Nationalities: 52 
•    Number of respondents: 1,986
•    Channels: Online
•    Product categories covered: Smartphones, TV’s, Laptops and Tablets and Cameras

General CE trends
1.    Of the total 1,986 people who participated in the survey, 93.7% respondents made a major electronics purchase over the last 12 months with Smartphones (66.3%) topping their shopping list followed by TV’s (39.2%), Tablets (38.4%) and Laptops (37.8%). 
2.    53% of pre-purchase research is done online (e.g. company website, social media etc.) 
3.    The average annual UAE household spend on electronics is approximately AED 4,875 per year vs. AED 3,000 in September 2013 survey 
4.    49.8% of the respondents spend 1-3 hours inside retail stores prior to purchase

Smartphones 
1.    74.2% of the survey participants said they plan to purchase a smartphone in the next 6 months 
2.    While buying smartphone consumers continue to be influenced by brand and price. But in the recent survey Camera resolution has moved up in the ranking vs. 2013 survey 
3.    Samsung (55.2%), Apple (39.15) and Blackberry (25.9%) continue to be the top smartphones in the UAE. Samsung has improved its share from 37.1% in the 2013 survey to 55.2% in the February/March edition while Apple grew from 24.5% in 2013 to 39.1%. The surprise gainer is Nokia which increased its share from 9.6% in 2013 to 17.2% 

Television
1.     30”-39” panel size leads in terms of current size of TV’s owned with 51% of the respondents followed by 35.7% with 40”-42”
2.    43.2% of the survey respondents said their next panel size would be 40”-42” and a further 33.4% said they would buy the 46”-50” panel size 
3.    The primary motivator for purchasing a new TV is upgrading technology (38.5%)
4.    While buying TV energy efficiency is a new factor while making the purchasing decision

Tablets and Laptops 
1.    Decreasing trends in laptop purchase while Tablets sales have plateaued  – Will phabelts become the next big thing? 
2.    When buying a tablet or laptop brand continues to be the biggest influencer followed by device compatibility and screen size
3.    The primary use for tablet or laptop was browsing (43.2% in 2014 vs. 39.8% in 2013) but there was a noticeable increase in people using their device for work (27% in 2014 vs. 23.85 in 2013) 

Cameras
1.    More people are purchasing DSLR cameras (73.7% in 2014 vs. 72.6% in 2013) and there is a decline in people buying point-and-shoot (10.5% in 2014 vs. 12.2% in 2013). Surprisingly camcorder/Handycam’s maintained it position (15.8% in 2014 vs. 15.2%) 
2.    When it comes to cameras, brand was the biggest influencer followed by price and features 

An Al-Futtaim group company, PLUG INS represents over 400 leading brands through an established network of eight stores located in popular shopping destinations: Dubai Festival City, The Dubai Mall, Al-Ghurair City, Mall of the Emirates, Deira City Centre, two stores in Abu Dhabi Marina Mall and Al Wahda Mall.