Business is booming for Taiwan’s home shopping sector, with revenue in the first six months of the year reaching a record NT$97 billion (US$3.07 billion), a 6.6 percent annual increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Statistics said in a report yesterday.
Revenue from Internet platforms, television, radio and telephone advertising, and mail catalogs is expected to surpass NT$200 billion by the end of the year, another record, the report said.
The sector last year reported revenue of NT$189.4 billion, a 12.4 percent increase from a year earlier, the report said.
The industry’s average annual growth has been 8.1 percent over the past eight years, far ahead of the average annual growth of 1.1 percent for the domestic retail sector, it said.
The home shopping sector contributed 5.2 percent of overall retail sales in the first half, up from 3.2 percent eight years ago, the department said.
Home appliances and consumer electronics are by far the most popular retail categories, data compiled by the department showed.
In 2017, home appliances accounted for 28.8 percent and consumer electronics 22.6 percent of the sector’s total sales, up from 18.2 percent and 16.5 percent respectively in 2013, the data showed.
With the sector’s steady growth, competition is intensifying as companies wage price wars, leading to low gross margins, the department said, citing a survey it conducted among companies in the sector.
Rapidly changing consumer demand is also an important factor fueling competition, it said.
In addition, new applications that use technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to improve understanding of purchase behaviors would be a growth driver, it said.
Meanwhile, the share of stationery and education products fell to 7.9 percent from 24.2 percent, the department said, attributing the decline to a decreased birthrate in the nation, as well as diversification of information and communication channels.
Credit cards remained the most used payment method at 66 percent of overall transactions completed in 2017, while cash made up 29.3 percent, the data showed.
Mobile payments or other forms accounted for 1.3 percent of transactions, the company’s data showed.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS