Even though e-commerce giants like Amazon or Flipkart are trying their best to woo customers by offering huge discounts on various products this festive season, there are many who still love to browse through a wide range of products by visiting their nearest electronics showroom.
With Durga Puja round the corner, several leading electronic showrooms in Cuttack have come up with unique offers to cater for such customers who still are away from online shopping.
Prominent showrooms and dealers in the Millennium City eagerly wait for Durga Puja and Diwali as it is the time to double their sales and turnover. The reason, a lot of people usually buy a wide range of products including electronic items during the festive season as they consider buying new products auspicious.
At the same time, it provides an opportunity to the showroom owners to capitalise on the situation.
A lot of stores in the city are now offering discounts upto 40% to 50 % on select items. Apart from this, they are also offering gifts ranging from sound bar to gold coins on various products.
“Durga Puja and Diwali are good business opportunities for us as our sales and turnover register a sharp rise,” said Choudhry, an official of a leading store in Cuttack.
According to Choudhry, the store does a business of around Rs2 crore in just 20 days from Durga Puja to Diwali.
Siba, an official of another store, said despite the rise in online sales due to offers by e-commerce giants, there is still a lot of scope for traditional showrooms to do business even though it’s challenging these days.
According to Siba, there is absolutely no competition with Amazon or Flipkart as customers are always smart.
“We always tell customers that they can see and feel the product offline while they can only see the features and select products online. There are specific products/models which are only manufactured for online while the parts are available round the clock for the offline products,” said Siba.
Many store owners in Cuttack claim that customers usually get better services if they encounter any issues with the products. The entire process to register and get the grievances redressed can sometimes be lengthy while the customers can directly contact the sales person at their nearest store. “We are also offering cash back to customers on credit card transactions,” Siba added.
Here’s what customers say:
Vikram, a young customer from Cuttack, said “It is now almost 4 to 6 years that I have completely switched to online shopping for basic needs. However, whenever I have to purchase in bulk for marriage or any other event, I opt for offline shopping.”
According to Vikram, online shopping has no doubt made our lives much easier, still the demand for local stores will always remain.