Incredible Connection, the retail arm of the listed technology company, Connection Group Holdings Ltd., has announced that on-line sales over the festive season were 1 100% up on the previous year.
Launched in September 1999, www.Incredible.co.za has been described as an "incredible success" by group managing director, Tony Fourie.
Fourie said while on-line sales in the retail computer sector were generally sluggish", Incredible.co.za`s success highlighted the fact that shoppers want the security of a branded company. "Shoppers want the security of the bricks that support the clicks," he quipped.
He said shoppers are inclined to search for brands, as opposed to products. "We find that a lot of shoppers coming to our site are searching for `connection` or `incredible`. We believe it is largely due to our established branding in the marketplace that our on-line venture has taken off so fast," he said.
Most on-line sales came from regions where Incredible Connection does not have a physical store. This included areas such as Nelspruit, Pietersburg and Upington.
Video games, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and digital cameras were high on the cyber shopping lists.
Commenting further, Fourie said that while on-line sales had "vastly exceeded expectations", brick-and-mortar revenue generated by the company`s 22 stores was "well above industry average".
"We grew at twice the rate of our increased space - and registered revenues that bettered the market average of around 12%. We also outstripped the average market growth in every category, including hardware and software."
Industry software sales, according to Fourie, declined by 27% during the festive season. But Incredible Connection registered an increase in software sales of just under 10%. In addition, while overall hardware sales appear to have hit rocky times - registering a calendar year decline of 0.8% for 1999 - Incredible Connection`s hardware sales during the festive season, alone, witnessed an increase in "the high teens".
"We are bucking the market trends. This proves that our restructuring, and our new focus, is working."
The last 18 months have seen the company return to health after significant restructuring that saw the closure or relocation of a number of under-performing or badly positioned retail outlets, as well as the opening of new outlets.
With a current store count of 22, Fourie said the company is planning the relocation of one store and the opening of another "new generation store". The new store is expected to open during March.
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