Jacky’s Electronics plans to rebrand two of its five outlets as dedicated Samsung product shops selling such items as tablets and televisions.
The move highlights the rapidly expanding market share of the South Korean company driven by smartphone sales.
Samsung sold almost three times as many smartphones as its main rival Apple in the third quarter of last year, which was one of the reasons behind the move by Jacky’s to change its strategy.
The shops, including the outlet at Mall of the Emirates, will be operated by Jacky’s Retail.
“Things have changed so much in this industry we needed to make a change,” said Ashish Panjabi, the chief operating officer at Jacky’s. “We still have the multi-brand existence in certain locations but I think for us working with a brand like Samsung is unique.
“A lot of the new innovations are coming from them, other competitors are on a downward trend, Samsung is rocketing,” he said.
Last year Samsung held more than a third of the global smartphone market but the competition is fierce, and not just with Apple. The Korean tech giant recently lost the No 1 smartphone vendor spot in China to the local company Xioami. Samsung was also forced to cut profit forecasts as sales of the Galaxy S4 have fallen short of goals by tens of millions of units worldwide. However, analysts see the move by Jacky’s as a win-win for both companies.
“Samsung will be able to capitalise on Jacky’s retail expertise, which will allow them to expand their coverage and raise their brand exposure,” said Rand El Samman, a communications executive at the research firm Euromonitor.
”Samsung is one of the best-selling brands in Jacky’s stores and in the UAE in general, with a market share of 26 per cent in LCD TVs, 28 per cent in smartphones and tablets and thus it made sense for Jacky’s to take on the partnership. This is expected to push the brand share of Samsung even further over the forecast period.”
Jacky’s, under the Samsung brand, will open two new stores in Khalidiyah Mall in Abu Dhabi and the new Nasseriah mall in Sharjah. The retailer considers the tie-up with Samsung as a natural move towards the popular brand.
“As a multi-brand retailer Samsung was over 50 per cent of our smartphone sales and over 50 per cent of our television sales and they are the two big categories,” said Mr Panjabi. “We have invested a lot in this. For us to give up prime locations and convert them to Samsung, it has to be worth our while.
“There is a shared investment on this, but for us to go from a multibrand set up to a dedicated brand in Samsung and the particular locations is also us saying we see a confidence in the brand.”
ascott@thenational.ae