Comparing the last quarter of 2015 to the same quarter the previous year, the strongest performing sector was that of the major domestic appliances, acording to GfK Temax. Here, strong price promotion led to significant volume increases, driving overall value. Elsewhere, the consumer electronics sector declined, however, comparing the performance to the third quarter of 2015, there was strong activity among the newer technology enhanced audio products.
Major domestic appliances
The growth in major domestic appliances is a result of all categories increasing in value from last year. This significant growth is due to price promotions across the majority of categories with only built in hobs, microwave ovens and built in cooking appliances raising their average selling price. Unlike the previous quarter, these widespread price promotions have not had a negative impact on sales value as the huge uplift in volume more than makes up for the decrease in price. Built in appliances continue to outperform the freestanding sector as the recovery of the housing market and growing trend towards integrated products have helped boost sales.
Small domestic appliances
Small domestic appliances have performed well in value and once again floor care, personal care and small kitchen products all show positive growth. The rise of floor care can be attributed to the success of cordless handsticks as well the resurgence of uprights. Liquidizers are no longer the fastest growing category but continue to perform well. Electric toothbrushes have been another stand out performer throughout 2015 and all these categories are linked to an increasingly convenient and health conscious lifestyle. Not all sectors improved on the year as the milder weather of late 2015 contributed to electric heating sales falling into decline.
Consumer electronics
As 2015 drew to a close, the consumer electronics sector benefited from the stimulus of a second successive increase in November to register an overall growth in the fourth quarter. The success of individual products mirrored their longer term performance, as ultra-high definition televisions headed to a volume approaching a million units in the year, a total comfortably exceeded by sound bars. At the same time newer audio products reigned supreme, be they multi-room or bluetooth audio systems or wireless speakers. Similar encouragement came from sales of headphones and from the still surprising resurgence of turntables.
Photography
In the last quarter of 2015, sales in the photography sector continued to decline. Except for compact system cameras, all the segments saw their prices eroding over 2015, and that could justify the drop in revenue. Also, compact cameras with less than 20x zoom are still a big part of the market and contributed to the negative results in quarter four. Compact system cameras, compact premium fixed-lens cameras and tough cameras witnessed positive development.
Information technology
The overall increase in the IT sector is partly because of increasing agile working which is driving growth in mobile computers, docking stations, monitors and networking. Additionally in the retail space, PC gaming has increased growth for gaming laptops, higher specification monitors, graphics cards and gaming peripherals. The largest volume growth in the gifting period was for visual cameras, media gateways and software. Visual camera growth is driven by dashboard cameras which can lower insurance premiums, media gateways by the increase in video on demand and finally software by the need for more cyber security in B2B environments.
Office equipment and consumables
Laser printers saw growth in volume but declined in value during the fourth quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter the previous year as the average price decreased substantially. The declines continue to be driven by the single function printers. Inkjet printers experienced steeper declines than laser printers in the same period. The average price of laser cartridges decreased whilst remaining flat for inkjet cartridges. Consequently laser cartridges saw a slightly higher rate of value decrease year on year than inkjet cartridges.
