Premium Smartphone Sales Might Decline Due To Delhi Lockdown

To tackle the Covid-19 crisis, the Delhi Government has come up with new norms and regulations, including the shutdown of malls, gyms, spas, restaurants, and curfew on weekends. However, the shutdown of malls is likely to affect the sales of premium smartphone brands, especially Samsung, Apple, and OnePlus.

"We will fall short of 50 percent of our targets for April, and this is worrisome at a time when Apple products are immensely in demand," Apple manager was quoted by ET. He said, "Even in a non-festive month like April, we were selling 4-5 iPhones on weekdays and around 10-11 on weekends on average."

The report said Apple, Croma, and Reliance Digital have stores in all Delhi malls. The report added that Delhi is contributing 10 percent of the sales. While Mumbai contributes only nine percent, which means Delhi is contributing more to the overall sales. Also, research firm Counterpoint believes that smartphone shipments might decline by five million in Q1 FY22.

IDC And Counterpoint Views On Lockdown And Weekend Curfew In Delhi

"The closure of malls will primarily impact sales of high-end phones besides weekend curfew lowering overall footfall in the offline market. But, i am sure in major cities, both brands and long-format chains are strengthening their offline-to-online model to mitigate the risks of any future lockdowns," Upasana Joshi, associate research manager-client devices at IDC India.

Meanwhile, Tarun Pathak, research director at Counterpoint Research firm believes that the offline market in Delhi will be affected. He states that online might play an important role and offline retails have to take steps to sell their inventories.

Croma Views On Delhi Lockdown

On the other hand, Croma said that it is not worried about the loss as it will recover soon. Furthermore, the report highlighted that half of the sales of Croma and Reliance Digital come from malls. However, Reliance Digital did not issue any statement on the same. It is worth noting that Apple has 20 exclusive stores in Delhi malls and all retailers in Noida, Ghaziabad, and Gurugram are also worried that lockdown will be extended to their places due to increasing Covid-19 cases in the country.