AC Firms To Experience High growth through e-commerce portal

Leading air-conditioner (AC) maker, Panasonic India has pinned high hopes from the AC segment and claimed that a majority of the sale would come from the e-commerce platform. Right now the online mode is contributing only about 2% of the total AC sale in India. But in coming years, the sale on e-commerce is expected to outgrow the sale numbers in all other categories.

Gaurav Sah, Business head, Air Conditioner Group, Panasonic India said, “In the next few years, e-commerce sale of ACs will outgrow all other modes of sale of AC. Though e-commerce currently contributes around 2% of the total sale, we believe that in coming years the growth in AC sale would be much more on e-commerce than any other conventional platform.”

He said that most of the growth in e-commerce sale comes from smaller towns of India as the rural population has little access to the showrooms and retailers. Sah said, “The rural population doesn’t have exposure to the showrooms, so he relies on e-commerce more. Much of the ACs growth will come from these Tier II & III towns in coming years.”

The company is expecting a massive growth in AC sale considering that the penetration is AC in India is very low- only in about 4% houses. The industry size is about 50 lakh units which is growing on an average of 10-15% every year. Panasonic India has about 6% market share in the AC industry. The company has recently launched its new range of inverter ACs in Lucknow.

Sah also commented on UP market. He said, “UP is the highest potential AC Market in India and there is a lot of room for upside. We have zero interest, zero down payment EMI schemes running at various Panasonic Brand shops across UP. Additionally, there are attractive discount offers on credit cards like HDFC and ICICI bank. With this range, Panasonic expects to offer high-quality Air Conditioners at affordable prices to consumers across UP.”