The holiday season was predictably disastrous for the consumer electronics industry, as brick-and-mortar sales dropped 8.1 percent during the five-week season. That’s according to figures released Tuesday by the NPD Group.
While online sales of CE actually increased 7.1 percent in the Nov. 23-Dec. 27 period, overall sales of electronics still fell 5.7 percent.
In brick-and-mortar, LCD TVs were tops among categories, followed by notebook PCs, MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile navigation.
“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,” vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker said as part of the announcement.
“This year we saw a greater emphasis by retailers and pure play driving consumers to their websites, but it just wasn’t enough to increase the total market where sales were off by $500 million."
