It is perceived that people would like to buy consumer electronics, or generally durable products, from brick and mortar stores since virtual environment cannot satiate the urge of a buyer to feel the tangibility, which is one of the prime motivations behind shopping offline.
But, the current retail trend is proving this perception wrong/incorrect. Especially, last year’s retail spending counts presented a telltale account of people counting on other important factors and not just physical presence while shelling out money on purchase of consumer electronics.
According to a latest NPD’s report, online sale of consumer technology hardware grew seven percent in 2011 and together with direct mail and TV shopping, it constituted a quarter of total sale.
Total retail spending on consumer electronics was recorded at $144 billion and 60 per cent of which was on personal computers, TVs, tablets/e-readers, mobile phones, and video game hardware, said a world’s leading retail market researcher.
Tablets/e-readers earned the retailers $15 billion last year, indicating a 100 per cent rise over the preceding year. Apple clinched the top position with its brands posting 36 per cent growth in top-line year over year.
It is noteworthy that revenue of other top brands including Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, and Dell dipped three per cent, six per cent, 21 per cent, and 17 per cent respectively, noted the report.
Despite increase in online and decrease in in-store sales, however, major sale of top category (e-readers/tablets and cellular phones) took place in physical retail outlets.
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