Revenue for the consumer electronics industry in the U.S. fell 5 percent in 2009. However, overall unit sales rose, and the drop in revenue was attributed to lower prices. That's according to numbers released Wednesday by the NPD Group’s Consumer Tracking Service.
“The industry lost ground this year but in light of the overall economic conditions it was a performance that could have been much worse,” NPD's vice president of industry analysis, Stephen Baker, said as part of the announcement. “By retailers and manufacturers being aggressive on consumer electronics pricing that kept the consumer engaged and shopping, an important success story to remember in such a dismal year.”
Average prices of CE dropped six percent between 2008 and 2009, with the average gadget price coming in at $92.
NPD also found that Best Buy sold the most CE products of any brick-and-mortar retailer, followed by Walmart, Staples, Target, and Apple. Dell, Amazon, Best Buy, HP, and Apple were the top five online CE retailers.
“Categories like computers and flat-panel TVs, despite very high selling prices, were able to see significant increases in unit volume through [dropping of prices],” Baker said. “The up-tick in fourth quarter results, while partly the result of a weak year-over-year comparison was also due to strong results from these categories, results that point to increased momentum as we head into 2010.”
