Home Media Magazine - January 5, 2009 - (Page 20) NEWS Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 www.homemediamagazine.com Holiday Sales Show Decline CES Organizers Look to Boost Attendance research. “Although there is another week in the fiscal month, December’s sales are unlikely to get much help from the post-Christmas shopping. ICSC expects December comparable-store sales will decline by at least 1% with only a few bright spots amid double-digit declines among a broad swath of the industry.” The dropoff came after the group found that weekly chainstore sales had increased by 2.6% for the week ended Dec. 20. Additionally the National Retail Federation estimated that gift-card sales may be as much as 5.3% lower than last year’s holiday season. “This was not a holiday season that will go down as a big success,” said Rob Enderle, independent analyst with Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif. “The industry will likely change a lot by the end of 2009 as marginal vendors are either acquired or shut their doors.” The news comes atop already tough times for retailers. Bankrupt Circuit City Stores recently said same-store sales (open at least 12 months) at locations not slated for closure had fallen 43% to 50% since it filed for bankruptcy Nov. 10. It remains to be seen how individual big-box retailers such as Target and Best Buy fared during the holiday season, as they will report their financial results from the period Jan. 8. Retailers offered deeply discounted consumer electronics entering the season, such as Best Buy’s sale of HBO boxed sets at half-price and Target’s offer of the Olevia BD-100 player for $149, among other deals on Black Friday and beyond. Online shopping a mixed bag Amazon.com bucked retail sales trends with what it called its “best ever” holiday season, with a reported 17% increase in orders Dec. 15, its busiest day in 2008. Amazon said its customers ordered more than 6.3 million items Dec. 15, compared to about 5.4 million on its busiest day last year. The online retailer reported it shipped more than 5.6 million products on its best day this season, up 44% from its busiest shipping day last year, when it shipped 3.9 million items. “We are extremely grateful to our customers,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. com, in a statement. “We wish everyone happy holidays and the very best for the coming year.” Best-sellers for Amazon included the Nintendo Wii video game console, Samsung’s 52-inch LCD HDTV and Apple’s iPod Touch. Its top-selling DVDs were Disney’s Wall-E as well as the DVD and Blu-ray Disc of Warner’s The Dark Knight. Indeed, Amazon and Netflix recently tied for top ranking in a Forsee Results consumer satisfaction poll of Web shoppers. Amazon’s score of 84 out of 100 was up 2 points from its 2007 score (Netflix’s was down two points from 2007); Apple.com, BN.com (Barnes & Noble’s site) and Walmart.com tied for No. 4 with a score of 78, while Target. com came in at No. 15 with a score of 75 (up from 72 in 2007), Best Buy scored a 73, SonyStyle.com a 70 and CircuitCity.com a 69. Some analysts were positive about online sales moving into the holiday season, such as Jack Flanagan, EVP of comScore Media Metrix. “The current economic situation has caused retailers to slash prices and offer highly attractive offers, such as free shipping, to appeal to cost-conscious Americans this holiday season,” Flanagan said in a statement Dec. 15. “With budgets a top concern for consumers, the ability to conveniently search the Web to find the best prices has become an increasingly important part of the holiday shopping buying process, for both online and offline purchases.” However, the Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 29 that online sales as a whole were down 2% for the holiday season (Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve), though rises in online shopping were reported for Apple and Wal-Mart. ComScore Dec. 30 reported e-commerce was down 3% yearover-year for the period from Nov. 1 to Dec. 23, totaling $25.5 billion in spending decline in tech confidence which is tied directly to overall consumer confidence.” Indeed, consumer spending on consumer electronics fell as much as 20% over the holiday shopping season, according to numerous research indexes. The CEA said steeper-than-expected price declines on a number of products on Black Friday, including Blu-ray Disc players, would contribute to a 0.1% sales growth in the fourth quarter, down from a previous 3.5% growth estimate. Tara Dunion, senior director of communications with CEA, said attendee pre-registration remained strong, although exhibitor rentals have dropped 10% to 2,700 from last year. Organizers expect show attendance to drop about 8% to 130,000 from more than 140,000 during last year’s show. “Some of that reflects changing dynamics of the industry with companies being bought or sold,” Dunion said. “Right now, our expectations are good.” To help persuade retailers to attend the show, organizers reportedly set aside $1 million to help defray hotel and travel costs. “CES should be interesting, if vastly smaller than ever before,” said independent analyst Rob Enderle. “It should remind us a lot of Comdex last year, which was great for those of us who needed to get around [the show] and not so good for the folks who paid for booth space.” An increasing number of companies and manufacturers attending CES are opting for less-expensive hotel suites, rather than booths, to showcase new products. That’s a perennial problem for show organizers, which Dunion indicated had become more acute this year. «[THE 10% EXHIBITOR RENTAL DROP] REFLECTS CHANGING DYNAMICS OF THE INDUSTRY WITH COMPANIES BEING BOUGHT OR SOLD. RIGHT NOW, OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE GOOD.» TARA DUNION CEA “Unfortunately, it does go against trade show policy and it is not something we support or encourage,” she said. Richard Doherty, research analyst with The Envisioneering Group in Long Island, N.Y., said he had heard that show heavyweights Cisco Systems and Motorola significantly reduced the size of their booths. “This is the bleakest CES in 30 years going in,” Doherty said. “[Some exhibitors] will be spending more of their time off the show floor. We may now be able to get between the Venetian and the convention in less than an hour.” Based on pre-show analyst briefings, Doherty said exhibitors would be displaying smaller product lines but with enhanced technology. Expect to see user-friendly HDTV models synched with Blu-ray players and digital audio, “so you don’t have to have a PC controlling them or home theater expert installing them,” he said. Doherty cited LG Electronics’ announcement of improved network connectivity with its Blu-ray player as an example of pending BD players that work seamlessly with the Internet. “They don’t just treat the Internet as a data port or upgrade, but rather now deliver YouTube videos in HD instead of grainy images,” he said. “The consumers have demanded it.” Enderle said CES would showcase solutions for more-efficient media delivery (video and audio) around the home. “Look for TVs that get highspeed Internet connections and units with built-in Internet connections,” he said. Enderle said many of the most attractive products previewed included iPhone-like devices and accessories (second-generation Android phones and Palm’s Nova platform), Microsoft’s Windows 7 coming-out party (“Getting nice early reviews,” he said), and an overall focus on more energy-efficient gadgets that are particularly frugal when they are not in use. “Backstory at CES will be the companies that won’t make it to 2010 and the massive ramp-up in low-cost PC-like Netbooks driven by economic trends,” Enderle said. “Main messages will be design, wireless connectivity, value, and energy efficiency.” LG Adds YouTube, CinemaNow Netflix Freebie Continued from page 1 The new networked BD players will be unveiled at the 2009 International CES confab Jan. 8 to 11 in Las Vegas. The Korean manufacturer earlier this year was the first to incorporate Netflix streaming via a Blu-ray player. Samsung Electronics included Netflix in its BD-2500 and BD-2550 units later this year. CinemaNow — recently acquired by Sonic Solutions — claims to offer more than 14,000 titles from major studios, broadcast and cable TV shows, in addition to 250 independent film titles and music videos from all major labels. The players also feature enhanced searching, thumbnail previews and multiple screen size viewing options, key to navigating YouTube’s mammoth library of user-generated and professional content. “LG is bridging the gap between packaged media and video-on-demand services to provide entertainment solutions for consumers’ demand for content,” said Tim Alessi, director of product development, LG Electronics USA. “With these new alliances, LG continues its innovation leadership by allowing consumers easy access to multiple entertainment options in one device.” Continued from page 1 The Los Gatos, Calif.-based online DVD rental pioneer, which has 55 shipping centers nationwide, including Alaska and Hawaii, initiated the policy after noting delayed subscriber deliveries when titles were not available locally. “This was especially inconvenient for our members on one-disc plans,” Netflix said in an e-mail to subscribers. “We want you to receive DVDs as quickly as possible, so we’re taking this extra step to ensure you have another movie to enjoy as a complimentary extra DVD rental if your first choice will be delayed.” HOME MEDIA MAGAZINE (ISSN 1934-9882) is published weekly 52 times per year by Questex Media Group, Inc., 306 West Michigan Street, Suite 200, Duluth, MN 55802. Subscription rates: $49.99 for one year in the United States and Possessions; $79.99 for one year in Canada and Mexico; all other countries $99.99 for one year (by surface mail). Add $75 annually for air-expedited service. Single copies (prepaid only): $6.99 in the United States, $8.99 in Canada and Mexico, $13.99 all other countries. Back issues, if available: $9.99 in the U.S.; $15.99 in Ca http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.Apple.com http://www.BN.com http://www.Walmart.com http://www.SonyStyle.com http://www.CircuitCity.com http://www.Amazon.com
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