Smartphone sales in the leading 50 cities in India dropped following demonetisation, a report by IDC has revealed. As per the report, smartphones sales in the country fell by 30.5 percent in the month of November over October. The firm attributed the trend not just to demonetisation, but also to the lean period following the festive season in October.
Upasana Joshi, Senior Analysts at IDC stated, “Demonetisation has impacted the smartphone market at almost all levels including the customer demand and stock movement in the distribution channels. The slowdown was seen across all city tiers, with a de growth of 31.7 percent in Tier 1 cities and 29.5 percent in Tier 2,3 & 4 cities in Nov 2016 over Oct 2016. There was a huge drop in inquiries and significantly reduced footfall at the retail. To counter this, mobile phone retailers together with micro finance companies started offering zero down payment options to stir sales.” Joshi adds that there was some growth in the premium segment in the weeks following demonetisation as consumers rushed to buy higher priced smartphones using demonetised currency.
The report also notes that India-based vendors were the hit the most due to demonetisation with a drop of 37.2 percent across the top 50 cities in India in November. China-based vendors saw a 26.5 percent drop, while global vendors saw a 30.5 percent drop.