The sales of laptops are surging across various electronic stores in Qatar with more people studying and working from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
With schools implementing online classes and more companies enforcing remote work as part of the precautionary measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, more students and office workers have been purchasing laptops which are now increasingly becoming harder to find.
A number of electronic stores who spoke to The Peninsula said that several laptop brands and models are now out-of-stock, and even suppliers are also running low on their stocks.
“This is the first time in the history of Jarir in Qatar that we had such a huge sale in laptops. People are still coming to buy from the store, and there has been a significant increase in the number of customers purchasing laptops. We actually exceeded our target for laptop sales three times over. Just for today, I had one customer who bought 10 units of laptops worth around QR5,000 each for their school. Customers now have limited options because there are only few stocks remaining,” a salesman from a branch of Jarir Bookstore in Qatar said.
He added that mid-range laptops worth between QR2,500 and QR5,000 are most in demand. “Majority of what’s left are the high-end range worth over QR7,000. Most of the buyers are students, school staffs, and company employees. Some office workers even buy their laptops from their own pockets because they don’t have a choice but to work from home. We’re planning to replenish our stocks, but this usually takes about a month,” he said.
As part of the company’s precautionary measures to protect the health of its customers and staffs, Jarir has recently started the home delivery of its products to customers who would order via watsapp.
A supervisor from the electronics section at a Lulu Hypermarket branch in Doha said that most laptop brands such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo are now out-of-stock at the store.
“For the past 10 days we have been selling a minimum of 100 laptop units per day. Previously, before the COVID-19 pandemic, we were selling an average of 20 to 30 laptop units per day. Most of our customers are company employees purchasing mid-range units which cost between QR3,000 and QR4,000. Students usually prefer the low-end range units which cost QR1,000 to QR2,000. We’re now waiting for the arrival of new stocks, but even the suppliers themselves also have limited stocks,” he added.
Globally, laptop sales are surging, with many governments issuing ‘stay at home’ orders to residents. Several physical stores and online shops are also struggling to meet the demand with many reporting limited stocks if not out-of-stock units.
Renowned finance analyst Ming Chi Kuo in a report said the global demand for Microsoft Windows laptops has grown significantly in early 2020 and will surge further all through March and later in 2020.
Shipments of key components of the Windows laptops are expected to grow in the Q2 of 2020, and will rise by about 20 to 30 percent.
