OK, so we see a report in TODAY newspaper dated 16th June reporting on the PC Show that was held at Suntec from 12-15 June 2008.
"...the cash registers had chalked up some $51.7 million in sales, nearly double..."
"...welcomed more than 1.1 million visitors this year..."
Is it all that impressive? Let us do the math:
Sales = $51.7 million
Number of visitors (we aren't even going to use the term "customers"; that is explained below): 1.1 million
Average amount spent by each visitor = $47
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Question: What IT product can $47 buy? A laptop? A digital camera?
Neither. $47 can only perhaps buy you some small-item computer accessories like a cheap keyboard/mouse, a webcam or some DVD media.
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But wait! This report says that "laptops remain the perennial favourite of shoppers..."
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Question: What does this mean?
This means that it took 43 customers each spending the average of $47 to make a... may I say, meagre sale of $2000 (43 x 47 = $2021).
If we assume (Note: assume) that each laptop sold was at the price of $2000, this means that for every 1 customer who buys the laptop, there are approximately 41~42 people (minus away the real spender) who visit the show, but does not spend any money at all.
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This is by far, quite a reasonable and conservative estimate, I would say. However, the numbers show us that most of the visitors to PC Show 2008 did not spend any money (or simply very little) at all.
To have 1 real customer for every 40+ visitors, is simply too absurd.
Promising sales? Or simply pathetic?
Don't forget those who bought the $400 eeepc.
ReplyDeletePublic Educator: Yeap. It's just a rough estimate that I put up there.
ReplyDeleteSo on average, for every single person who buys the $400 EEEPC, there are 6~7 other people who did not spend a single dollar.
I hope you get my point that this rant is all about the throngs of people that were present at the PC show who spend very little (but mostly spend nothing as you and I know), and were mostly there to choke up the alleys and aisles.
Why is it absurd to have 1 real customer for every 40 visitors? Is it necessarily a bad thing for people to attend the PC show and not buy anything?
ReplyDeleteCertainly not for the vendors, since they still got the opportunity to create buzz and showcase and market their products and to as many people as possible. Folks may not buy your stuff during the show, but it doesn't mean they won't buy stuff after the show once they saw how great it is during the show.
It's also not a bad thing for Suntec, since it means more potential dollars flowing into all the F&B and shopping establishments at Suntec City.
It's not necessarily a bad thing for the attendees either, since it's 2 or 3 hours of quality time spent shopping and hanging out with friends or colleagues and enjoying the buzz of the crowd while getting to discover the latest and greatest.
And it's definitely not a bad thing for EDB, who loves to brag about trade shows held in Singapore and how we are getting more and more visitors every year for every show.
What I wonder about is how they actually got the figure of 1.1 million visitors. I was there and I was a ghost - didn't sign anything, buy anything, speak to anyone. I'm pretty sure many people like me were not accounted in their 1.1 million if they only went by say, lucky draw registrations.
Or perhaps, more likely - the number was simply made up and exaggerated. :)
Not sure if you have been attending the past computer fair shows that are held quarterly, but the crowd is getting from bad to worse each time.
ReplyDeleteThere is no space to walk comfortably without the need to squeeze past people constantly.
We may soon come to a stage where there is a need to exercise crowd control by identifying real-customers versus visitors.
probably just boils down to the fact that s'poreans have nothing better to do.
ReplyDeleteNice math btw. =p