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San Antonio — The Progressive Retailers Organization was at the Westin La Cantera Hill Coun
Minneapolis – Best Buy reported flat comp sales and a 1.2 percent dip in revenue domestically for the holiday selling season.
The company generated $9.9 billion in revenue for the period, which encompassed the nine weeks ended Jan. 5.
Online sales rose 10 percent to $1.1 billion in the U.S., buoyed by increased site traffic. Indeed, Best Buy said its e-commerce site was among the top-three most visited on Thanksgiving and Black Friday according to ComScore, and ranked third in visits on Cyber Monday according to Experian.
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Grapevine, Texas — Robust growth in its online business couldn’t offset declines in holiday traffic and hardware sales at GameStop.
The world’s largest specialty video game retailer said net sales fell 4.6 percent to $2.9 billion for the nine weeks, ended Dec. 29, 2012, while total comp-store sales decreased 4.4 percent and U.S. comps decline 3.5 percent.
Digital receipts increased more than 40 percent, mobile sales were $76.5 million, and global e-commerce sales increased 20.5 percent during the holiday period.
LAS VEGAS – ProSource, the BrandSource buying group’s specialty A/V and custom install division, held its annual CES eve reception here at Bally’s Monday night.
The umbrella group for independent CE dealers is comprised of the Progressive Retailers Organization (PRO Group) and Home Entertainment Source (HES).
In brief remarks, PRO and ProSource president/COO Dave Workman said the group was happy to put 2012 behind it, and eBay VP Michael Jones reminded members of the online opportunities his company offers through its cyber storefronts.
LAS VEGAS — The participants in the annual TWICE Retail Roundtable looked past a tepid 2012 holiday season toward an uneven 2013, with one or two potential bright spots.
The roundtable, held Monday and moderated by TWICE senior editor Alan Wolf, had execs from the nation’s top retailers and distributors give their take on 2012 and what will lead the industry this year.
Minneapolis – Target has made its online holiday price-match policy permanent.
The program, which specifically targets Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Walmart.com and Toysrus.com, will provide price adjustments to in-store customers on identical items priced lower on those sites within one week of purchase.
The policy also extends to local competitors’ sales circulars and Target’s own e-commerce site.
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CALIF. – Low-price CE accessories e-tailer Monoprice.com has expanded its assortment of networking devices and mobile add-ons as it continues to build out its 4,000-SKU assortment.
“Finding the right IT gear is difficult enough, but finding the perfect tech accessory that won’t empty your wallet is a whole other thing,” said Monoprice marketing director Luke Grant. “That is the gap that Monoprice is working to fill for IT pros.”
NEW YORK – Holiday 2012 was a mixed bag for CE retailers, who battled storms, fiscal concerns and a national tragedy on top of their own industry challenges.
Despite a rosy report from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which found consumer expectations about technology spending at an all-time high in December, weakness in TV put a damper on dealer sales.
SEATTLE — Benjamin Hartman, Amazon.com’s CE VP, came to head the company’s consumer electronics business via a rather atypical route.
Before joining the e-tailer 10 years ago he was an investment banker and financial analyst tracking technology companies, and once at Amazon his first merchandising assignments were within its softlines and sports and outdoors categories.
Hoffman Estates, Ill. – Sears Holdings CEO Lou D’Ambrosio is leaving the company on Feb. 2 to tend to family health matters, the retail chain announced.
He will be succeeded by Sears chairman and majority shareholder Edward Lampert.
D’Ambrosio, a former Avaya chief executive and Sears consultant, joined the struggling chain almost two years ago. He will remain on Sears’ board until May.
LAS VEGAS – In a major expansion of it disc-to-digital movie program, Walmart will soon enable customers to convert their previously purchased DVDs and Blu-ray discs to Cloud-based digital versions at home.
Previously, customers of the chain’s disc-to-digital program were required to bring their physical movies to a Walmart store for authentication before they could access digital copies within the UltraViolet virtual content locker system.
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