Far EasTone Telecommunications Co Ltd (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-largest telecom operator, yesterday formally launched its first outlet store near Taipei’s “cram-school street” — Nanyang Street (南陽街) — targeting young customers with higher price sensitivity.
“This is the first physical outlet store specializing in 3C [computer, communication and consumer electronics] products in Taiwan,” Far EasTone chief sales and marketing officer Maxwell Cheng (鄭智衡) told a press conference.
Located on Gongyuan Road (公園路), the store is also close to Taipei Main Station, providing smartphone and tablet products with a discount of between 30 percent and 60 percent, Far EasTone said.
Cheng said younger consumers are not only highly sensitive to pricing, but they also replace their old mobile phones as often and as soon as telecom operators expect.
Citing data from a survey by InsightXplorer Ltd (創市際), Cheng said nearly half of cellphone users in Taiwan replace their old phones while the cellphones are still functional.
Another survey made by an online shopping Web site showed that 40 percent of mobile phone users under 18 years old replaced their phones every year.
Cheng refused to specify the company’s internal sales target for the outlet, but said that sales of the store’s soft opening over the past two weeks were positive.
Far EasTone posted consolidated sales of NT$66.31 billion (US$2.25 billion) in the first nine months this year, up 3.15 percent from a year earlier.
The company’s shares fell 4.93 percent to close on NT$61.7 yesterday, compared with the benchmark TAIEX’s 0.26 percent drop.
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