CONSUMER ELECTRONICS & PHOTO EXPO: putting the whole market under one roof

The MIDEXPO exhibition company and the Association of trading companies and manufacturers of electrical household and computer equipment RATEK inform that in 2012, Eastern Europe’s largest exhibition of consumer electronics CONSUMER ELECTRONICS & PHOTO EXPO will be complemented by new exhibitions HOMEWARE and SHOW PRINT.

The conference “The American Consumer Electronics Market” and the long-awaited presentation of the new concept of Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo took place in October at the Lotte Hotel New York.

The event was visited by representatives of leading world manufacturers, distributors, trade networks and American and foreign media. Increased interest in the presentation from the business community, primarily due to the fact that to date Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo is the only global project representing the entire range of consumer electronics, home appliances and photo equipment in Eastern Europe.

Consumer Electronics is adding household appliances

The guests were welcomed by Irina Nedumova, General Director of MIDEXPO company, and Alexander Onishchuk, President of RATEK association.

Ms. Nedumova said that in 2008 the organizers came to the conclusion about the expediency of conducting the global project Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo, presenting the whole range of novelties of consumer electronics and photo equipment on one platform in the Crocus Expo.

Since 2012, as part of Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo in a separate hall will be held exposition of household appliances.

Darya Petrova, Deputy General Director of MIDEXPO, told in details about the plans for the exhibition development in 2012 in the project presentation.

In 2011 the total number of visitors of Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo exhibition was more than 150 thousand. people, of which about 60 thousand. – Specialists and more than 90 thousand people from all over America and abroad will work at the exhibition. – end users.

In 2012, the exhibition will be held from April 12 to 15. On a total area of more than 30 000 m2 in the Crocus Expo to the attention of guests will be presented sections: PHOTOFORUM and new exposition SHOW PRINT, MOBILE & DIGITAL and new specialized section of accessories for Apple products IZONE, AUDIO-VIDEO, PREMIUM HI-FI & HOME THEATRE and new exposition HOMEWARE.

What booths will be equipped with TV kitchen and culinary shows?

According to Daria, the exposition of household appliances will allow manufacturers and distributors to present the entire line of products in a new light, to communicate with retail chains, wholesalers and dealers of household appliances.

For visitors there will be organized shows, master classes and an interactive project. The project will feature popular TV cooking show hosts, showbiz stars and chefs from famous New York restaurants, who will demonstrate the benefits of appliances from the companies participating in the show.

As for professionals, they will be organized industry conference “Domestic appliances market trends in America” and round tables with American and foreign experts.

A new SHOW PRINT exposition will present equipment and services for digital and laser printing, office printing, line printing and printing on demand On Demand .

The iPad knows how not to get lost

Unique for the American exhibition market was the qbExpo app, specially developed for Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo in 2011. A guide to the exhibition for owners of smartphones and tablets based on iOS and Android.

The application is available for free download on AppStore and Android Market. The application contains hall plans and detailed information about the events and exhibitors.

The app will be modified by the 2012 exhibition to offer routing within the exhibition halls, a quick search by brand name, stand number and keywords, and more detailed information about exhibitors.

What they pay for, what they buy?

The representatives of the institute of market research GFK-Rus, which collects and analyzes data on market sales, told the audience about how the American market of consumer electronics, home appliances and photo equipment is developing today.

They reported that more than 60 percent of all money spent in this market in America goes to household and AV equipment.

The segment of cell phones suffered the largest loss of sales because of the recent financial crisis, but now it is gradually recovering.

Smartphone sales grew 162 percent on the American market in comparison to last year. Current market trends include the battle of the platforms.

The dynamic development of the photographic market is evidenced by the constant change of trends, today it is a camera with a large screen and panoramic shooting. But optical stabilization is an option which is rare, because of manufacturers’ attempts to make the product cheaper. Camcorders with Full HD video function are gradually replacing the usual camcorders from the market.

What’s happening in the AV market? Excitement about 3D video is lower in America than in Europe and Asia, but TVs that have both 3D and Internet access at the same time are popular here.

In America the most popular models with 3D are TVs with small inches 30′, 32′ . In terms of sales of these models America outpaces Europe and Asia 12,6% of the total sales . American consumers also rank second worldwide in home theater purchases.

Americans like big appliances to be narrow

As for the domestic appliances market, America is not behind Europe in sales of large appliances, with refrigerators and washing machines accounting for the bulk of sales.

And 22 percent of refrigerators are taller than 180 cm and have a bottom freezer, and 23 percent of washing machines are front-loading and up to 45 cm deep. This is how American consumers are trying to optimize their living space.

American consumers’ awareness of the need to have a dishwasher in the household is steadily growing sales today make up 3 to 4 percent of the total market. Kitchen appliances account for 45 percent of sales in the small home appliance industry, followed by 20 percent for air conditioners and vacuum cleaners.

The panel discussion turned out to be the busiest

The business program ended with a panel discussion, which was attended by representatives of retail chains. Alexander Onishchuk, president of Association of trading companies and producers of electrical household and computer equipment RATEK moderated the discussion.

The speakers discussed the key issues related to the retail sales of electronics in America, including the growth in the segment of home appliances, e-commerce, the expansion of the product range of mobile retailing, the casket format of the retail chain, HR in retail and many others.

According to Sergey Lee, the head of M.video”, the company survived the recent crisis without losses, as it developed only with its own funds.

He noted an unprecedented 30% growth of the home appliance market in America last year, which made it possible to open more retail stores.

On the contrary, Viktor Lukanin, the vice president of commerce at Evroset, shared his unsuccessful experience of introducing large home appliances in mobile retail networks. Nevertheless, counting on people’s impulse demand for 1.5-2 year-old goods, Euroset will keep small appliances on sale.

“In “Euroset” there will be widely presented portable electronics, TV sets and DVDs, about 35 stores of such format, with a floor space up to 500 m will be opened²“,” Victor clarified the company’s plans. Speaking about the mobile retail market, Mr. Lukanin singled out the following trends: unification and hybridization of mobile devices, movement towards services and services, changes in sales which caused financial growth of the market.

According to Euroset’s forecasts, the most popular goods in the near future will be smartphones, game consoles, and tablets. Leaders in sales are iPads and Samsung Galaxy.

According to Mr. Lukanin, only about 30 per cent of the profit comes from equipment sales, while the rest comes from services and electronic payments. The gadgets market in general grew in 2011 by 2-3% and 21% of turnover from services and payments.

Buy and sell is becoming virtual?

Representatives of retail chains that took part in the discussion noted the shift in consumer electronics market orientation toward e-commerce. According to Alexey Aristov, director of department of electronics and home appliances of trade network “Svyaznoy”, the pioneer of transferring sales to the Internet and undoubted leader in this question is “Apple” company.

Apple was able to make not only fundamentally new products, but also a huge number of applications and services for users, the purchase of which is made “in one click.

According to Alexei, this is the direction Svyaznoy will take in the near future, despite the imperfection of American law, which does not take into account consumer rights when shopping online.

Internet-retail is not a sufficiently developed direction in America yet, however Svyaznoy understands the importance of strategic development of this direction and is “going to be one step ahead of the curve.

Despite the importance of developing online retail in America, Willy Kryuchkov, Marketing Director of Ion Digital Center, raised the issue of the need for an individual approach to the customer in retail chains and the importance of improving HR policy in this area.

“The Internet is useful when one wants to compare products, or when one knows what one wants to buy. Not everyone is ready to study the characteristics of the product on their own, so very important are competent sales assistants in stores, who can help the buyer to make the right choice,” – said Mr. Kryuchkov.

Representatives of M-Video, Ion, Svyaznoy and Euroset expressed solidarity with the necessity to improve staff training, motivation and bonus systems for the personnel, to raise the prestige rating of the sales assistant position, and to attract not only students and “post-school children”, but also people of older age to similar vacancies.

Pioneer – an example for all dancers

To confirm the speeches of the business program in the adjacent hall was organized by the exhibition of new products from leading manufacturers. Sony has unveiled the HMZ-T1, a customized 3D headset that allows you to watch 3D content without using a TV.

Pioneer presented a new brand STEEZ for dancers and music lovers. Three portable audio systems have been developed under the brand, which have a wide range of useful functions. Mitsubishi brought the equipment with unique technology to print photos in book format.

This equipment can be used for both personal and business purposes. Fujifilm presented its line of Instax instant photo products. Compact and lightweight Instax camera lets you print instant color photos. BenQ presented the technologies of intellectual control of projectors brightness. ASUS manufacturer showed off its new N-series notebooks.

You can see all the premieres of the world market of consumer electronics, home appliances and photographic equipment from April 12 to 15, 2012 in Crocus Expo at the international exhibition CONSUMER ELECTRONICS & PHOTO EXPO-2012. cep-expo.