NPD finally collected all of its data together to gives us some perspective into how well retail did in the US, a market that all other economies currently look to and it said that brick and mortar retail sales for December fell by 8.1%. There was a corresponding 7.1% increase in online sales but that was nowhere near enough to offset the physical retailer falls, and the market was overall 5.7% down. NPD measured from November 23 to December 27 and said sales totaled $7.5 billion with the worst week actually being the Christmas week.
The top five categories were all our territory LCD TVs, Notebook PCs, MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile navigation devices and these accounted for 51% of retail sales. That total percentage was up over last year, and the total consumer electronics numbers were not perhaps as bad as has been expected, though they were bad.
LCD TVs grew 24% when measured by numbers and were up 12% when measured in dollars. Notebook PCs up 13% with revenue flat with last year while MP3 players, which have been declining all year, fell 3% by units and lost 12% of revenues. Digital cameras were down 9% in volume and 21% in cash terms. Finally Mobile navigation devices were up 5%, with revenue collapsing by 24%.
‘Given the economic conditions and the fact that there was no must-have product, the emphasis is more on how to make the most of what you have and not necessarily about the latest and greatest gadget,’ said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. ‘Another factor that played a part in the decline of retail sales is the increase in online sales. This year we saw a greater emphasis by retailers driving consumers to their websites, but it just wasn’t enough to increase the total market where sales were off by $500 million,’ said Baker.