While the MDA sector looked very promising in the last month of September with +20% growth in units and +27% growth in value, October looked poor with only + 4% growth in units and +9% in value.
Are these shortcomings due to various fears of rising energy prices or is the market saturated? Many brands in the MDA sector have started noticing shortages. Unit sales of refrigerators and washing machines did not grow in October, built-in hobs only grew by 5%, so MDA stalled after a really good September. As for the coming months, MDA is not a category for the holiday season, so the trend of low sales and volumes will most likely continue.
The SDA sector, like the MDA sector, did not really record high sales. Growth stalled after August and in October, sales units dropped to +13% and sales value to +24%. Overall, all SDA categories recorded slightly negative results, with the exception of vacuum cleaners (+34% in sales units and +55% in sales value) and toothbrushes (+10% in sales units and +12% in sales value).
This is the fourth month in a row that the market of TVs has shown a downward trend. While the last months were at least still positive, October has already dropped to -8%. Suppliers report that there is a significant shortage of stock for televisions with screen sizes up to 50″. The trend is clear and units will continue to shrink. However, the market should not complain about the sales value because even though the inventory is low, people still tend to spend more money.
The SMP sector has been struggling for some time. What changed in October? Quantitatively, not much seems to have changed, with units sold down -14% year-over-year. On the other hand, October should be the last month with such drastic numbers and the year will most likely end on a more stable note.
Although the back-to-school season started real positive for the IT sector, October seems to be anything but. Notebook sales were negative – down as much as -10% in units sold and -1% in sales value. Unfortunately, the shortage of inventory has brought the IT sector to an almost complete standstill, even though there is a lot of demand. The only two positive developments in the IT sector were monitors, which grew by +39% in value and +11% in units, and tablets, which grew by +17% in value and +11% in units.