The booming sales in instalments are not obvious only on the low-end sector but also on the high-end segment, which comes with higher quality and higher prices. Since expensive cars are sold in leasing, why not sell plasma TVs or home cinema systems the same way, too?
"The instalment plans have made our products affordable to more people," says Cristian Moanta, sales and marketing manager of Sony Overseas, which represents Japanese producer Sony in Romania.
The same goes for Panasonic, a brand introduced in Romania over ten years ago.
"We've seen sales grow on every segment we operate in, high-end products, such as plasma TVs, included. However, we do not know exactly how much of this growth was due to hire purchase," says Catalin Savulescu, Panasonic Romania senior manager.
A plasma TV is most often paid for in full upon purchase, say players in this field, considering such a product costs 150 to 400 million ROL, which means all potential clients are people whose incomes are well above the average.
"We've had cases when a plasma TV was bought in instalments. The specifics of our crediting system make us the only company that can sell such products in instalments," says Mihail Laptoiu, general manager of the Domo network. Domo's crediting cap is 150 million ROL, compared to 100 million ROL for Flanco and 120 million for Altex. Sales of plasma TVs, however, remain low, somewhere in the neighbourhood of 100-200 units a year.
Among the main beneficiaries of the consumer finance surge were the home cinema system and the DVD player, which is about to take the crown away from the VCR. "The sales of home cinema systems, DVD-less or not, will continue to be the fastest-growing of all. These are the new technologies little known to the public until now. The people are more educated in this regard now and the development of the instalment system did nothing but push for the buying decision to be made sooner. In other words, a client that would have wanted and could have afforded to buy a DVD-equipped home cinema system in the next two years saw the instalment system as an opportunity to make that purchase now and use the two years for paying for the product," says Petronius Secareanu, general manager of Philips Romania's consumer electronics division.
Another reason for the rise of the home cinema systems and DVD players is the drop in prices. A home cinema system that includes a DVD player now starts from 20 million ROL, which is 15-20% less than one or two years ago.
This does not necessarily mean the VCR has vanished from the market. "We have seen a 60% increase in the sales of VCRs. The competitive edge of this product is its price. I think it will take at least two years for the DVD recorder to come close to the VCR in terms of price and kick the VCR out of the market," Panasonic Romania's Catalin Savulescu added. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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