by Lino Garbellini |
An international trade fair in the post lockdown period? It could only happen in Germany, particularly in Berlin, a capital city fortunately spared by the pandemic. We're talking about the 2020 edition of Ifa, called for the occasion Special Edition. With no audience, reserved for journalists and industry insiders, it was a three-day event (3,4 and 5 September) of presentations in two huge halls with exhibitors. Buoyed by the sales of a sector that has continued to function with some growing indicators, with pride and obstinacy (very German), the organisers wanted to give a signal: "we have to start somewhere", or to put it in their own words, "tech is back" .
Consumer electronics in our lives
In an attempt to answer the question "How has this market changed?" it was the data collected by Gfk that took centre stage in the traditional opening keynote. Acceleration, the disruption effect and data overload are the key words with which to understand current trends and interpret future ones. Companies need to quickly understand the new consumer behaviour caused by the market shock and, above all, make reliable sales forecasts, finding meaningful benchmarks in the huge amount of data that any brand now has. "The pandemic has brought greater market differentiation in different countries, at the same time as tech products have really become part of our lives," explained Kai Hillebrandt, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Gfu on stage at Ifa. After a month of April for consumers to adjust to what had happened, sales resumed in May 2020, reaching a 25% increase at the beginning of July.
IT and household appliances
The IT sector dedicated to the business world stood out positively, with the Smart Working trend leading to peaks of +27% in May and June. Demand for webcams rose by 297% in response to the new attitude to videoconferencing from all over the world, monitors by 120%, and to a lesser extent, around 60%, laptops, printers and keyboards. Necessary for those who are more likely to have lunch and dinner at home rather than near the workplace, household appliances have also seen a big surge, particularly microwave ovens and dishwashers, in the UK by 180%, in Italy by around 60% between May and June. In Germany, more than 50% of respondents decided to anticipate tech purchases because of Covid, while only 15% postponed. "The data reveals how resilient our industry has provedto be," says Hillebrandt with satisfaction. According to Gfk, the most popular product for the upcoming Black Friday and Christmas shopping season will be laptops.
More and more online purchases
More generally, 83% of consumers changed their shopping habits during the lockdown period, accelerating market trends expected over the next three to four years and resulting in a 64% increase in online purchases and a 10% decrease in traditional purchases. Of total purchases, online in May and June accounted for 36%, with 76% of respondents specifying that they made this choice to save time, 72% because of the needs imposed by Smart Working, and 60% to avoid physical retail spaces for security reasons. Advertising on social media increased its impact by 19%, online advertising more generally by 17%, 55% of users say they use the "Buy" button on new networks.
