CEA Releases Retailer/Manufacturer Relationships Study
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 7/8/2002
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Todd Thibodeaux, VP and senior economist for CEA's Market Research Department released a benchmark study on consumer electronics retailer/manufacturer relationships during the sixth annual CEA CEO Summit, held here last month.
For the second study of its type, CEA Market Research polled both manufacturer and retail executives on such issues as product returns, online presence, satisfaction with their manufacturer/retailer relationships, the impact of product shortages and how salespeople influence consumer purchases.
The retailer-manufacturer survey was conducted via an online web form among CE executives, with over 300 individual retailers and over 300 individual manufacturers being contacted. Close to 1,000 consumers responded to a separate online survey. Both surveys were performed from the beginning until the middle of June.
The charts on this page outline concerns about a major industry problem, product returns. In the next issue of TWICE, July 22, By The Numbers will feature another topic from this survey.
| Impact on industry sales of allowing online purchases to be returned to stores: | |||
| Manufacturer | Retailer | ||
| Increase sales | 51% | 52% | |
| No impact | 29% | 32% | |
| Decrease sales | 20% | 16% | |
| Impact on return volume of allowing online purchases to be returned to stores: | |||
| Manufacturer | Retailer | ||
| Increase sales | 71% | 88% | |
| No impact | 23% | 4% | |
| Decrease sales | 6% | 8% | |
| Importance to consumers of online store return policies when deciding where to shop: | |||
| 2001 | 2002 | ||
| Very important | 74% | 69% | |
| Somewhat important | 21% | 22% | |
| Neutral or not important | 5% | 9% | |
| Perception of changes in restrictions for return policies in the last 12 months: | |||
| Manufacturer | Retailer | Consumer | |
| Increased | 28% | 36% | 51% |
| No change | 50% | 48% | 41% |
| Decreased | 22% | 16% | 8% |
| Source: Consumer Electronics Association, Arlington, Va. ©TWICE 2002 |
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