Electronics like flat-panel TVs may have helped drive increases in sales for U.S. retailers this holiday season. But price cuts slowed the pace of the sales gain, according to a report released Tuesday by consumer and retail information company NPD Group.
Retail sales of consumer electronics like televisions, MP3 players and computers totaled $8.75 billion from the week of Thanksgiving through the week ended Dec. 23, according to the NPD Group.
While that marked a 6.5 percent increase from 2005, that was less than the 10 percent increase posted in the same period between 2005 and 2004.
NPD said price cuts on flat-panel TVs slowed the pace of growth, as did the the fact that Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year — eliminating that final day from the reporting period.
Electronics were among the most heavily advertised items this year, with retail industry leader Wal-Mart Stores Inc. promoting lower prices. But investors are now watching to see what the lower prices meant in terms profits for retailers. They hope to learn more when retailers report December sales this week.
Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Growth in electronics loses some juice
Posted by: Brad Dorfman
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3 comments so far
New TV’s don’t interest Me, there is nothing New on TV Anymore.
- Posted by TonyIf I were in the position to purchase a new flat panel television I wouldn’t because once one breaks it costs too much to repair. It seems like the more novel electronic products produced the consumer always pays at least 15% of purchase cost to maintaint it. Now if it was easier to maintain and find parts in your local “Radioshack” then hey give me two!
- Posted by Apollo“once one breaks it costs too much to repair”
According to Consumer reports, preliminary data is encouraging for the reliability of major brand HDTV’s including plasmas and lcds. They found that the rate of repair for lcds and plasmas in the first 2 years were no different than traditional tube tvs (2 or 3 % failure rate). They also found that the majority of the time the unit needed to be repaired, the cost of repair was about the same price as you would pay for the extended warranty ($200-250 i think).
I don’t know about you, but paying 10% the original cost of something to have it repaired sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
- Posted by Erik