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US retail Sales Trends - US Broadline Retailers Continue to Grow Share of Technology SalesThis is the final article in the US Technology Retailers - Road to Recovery tracker series. To continue tracking the performance of these retailers, Tech Channel Index is offering US Technology Retail Interactive. This new service provides the sales, marketing and research professionals with analysis tools, article archives, relevant news and weekly index updates.
Since November 2008 US Broadline1 retailers have been posting the highest channel activity2 growth rates among the various retail segments selling consumer IT and electronics products.
Change in year over year channel activity for US Broadline retailers from November 29, 2008 through March 14, 2009.
As US Broadline retailers have grown their sales at such high rates, they have also steadily increased their share3 of technology sales since over the past several quarters.
This chart displays the share of monthly channel activity driven through each of the three sub-segments of US Retail: Electronics, Office Supply, and Broadline Retailers.
In the wake of Circuit City's closure4 Electronics retailers dropped 7 percent of their share and Office Supply5 dropped 1 percent while Broadline grabbed an additional 8 percent of share of channel activity2 compared to last year for the product categories covered by Tech Channel Index.
This table shows the change in share between the various retailers from Q4'08 to 2009 year to date.
Overall Channel Activity has Continued to RiseOverall year to date channel activity is up by 5.5 percent across the US Broadline, Electronics, Office Supply and Online retailers. The strong performance by Broadline finishing the week at 42 percent above the same week last year and the Electronics retailers moving into the positive for five straight weeks fueled this year to date growth.
This chart compares the seasonally adjusted change in channel activity for broadline, electronics, office supply and online retailer channels starting in the 2008 holiday shopping season as measured by the Tech Channel Index basket of consumer electronics, computer peripherals, and packaged software products.
Inventory Tells an Interesting StoryInventory levels have remained low since the beginning of 2009. As of March 14th these retailers were holding about 9.3 weeks of inventory6, down substantially from the same period last year. Retailers are either more efficient managing their cash flows or remaining cautious about future sales.
Weeks of inventory carried by US Technology Retailers 2009 YTD ending January 31 compared to the same period in 2007 and 2008.
A third possible scenario is that Q2 has typically been a comparatively slower time of year for the sale of these products. These retailers may have reduced their stocking levels to avoid the combined effects anticipate of a slower season and the current levels of economic uncertainty.
This chart displays the level seasonally drive variation in weekly channel activity relative to the annual average for the combined US Technology Retail segment7.
The Bottom LineSince Tech Channel Index started tracking US Technology Retailers in November 2008 (see US Electronics Retailers Navigated a Perfect Storm this Holiday Season)three significant events have occurred:
A New Service to Extend the Tracker SeriesTech Channel Index is now offering an extension of this tracker series - US Technology Retail Interactive. This is a new free service that provides a single location where sales and inventory performance of the US Technology Retail channels (Broadline, Electronics, Office Supply and Online) can be tracked on a weekly basis. Research, sales and marketing professionals concerned technology sales performance will find interactive applications for analyzing historical trends, up to date indices that provide the pulse of the channel, access to archived research articles centered on US Technology Retail and related news.About the Tech Channel IndexThe Tech Channel Index creates a single uniform view into high tech channel health with timely and detailed measurement of sales and inventory performance for major and emerging markets across the globe. As of August 2008, Index metrics are derived by aggregating and normalizing over 5 million transactions collected from over 1500 distributors and retailers each week. Participating Index companies represent over $30 billion in annual channel sales in multiple high tech product categories. The basket of 35,000 products chosen for the Index have been tested and benchmarked against established economic standards and have been found to accurately represent spending on Enterprise IT, Consumer IT and Software categories. Products included in the index are tracked across all geographies and partner segments worldwide. This approach to construction yields an Index data set that is uniquely uniform from channel-to-channel and country-to-country. www.techchannelindex.comRelated News
New hhgregg CEO Vows Continued Growth
Dealerscope.com, March 24, 2009
U.S. Economy: February Retail Sales Decline Less Than Forecast
Metro International, March 12, 2009 
Discussions so far:
I was surprised to see the online decline--Amazon says the 2008 holiday was their best ever.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081226/ap_on_hi_te/amazoncom_holiday_sales
I guess the low-cost retailers are winning business both online & in bricks & mortar. Annec on 2009-01-21 17:36:37 With consumers becoming more price-sensitive, I assume the shift to broadline retailers is due to their lower prices. Or is it because they stock more lower-end products? Does anyone have sense for this? Annec on 2009-01-21 13:45:31 Is the online decline due to heavier discounting by the broadline and electronics retailers? Craig on 2009-01-21 13:11:31 |
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