LAS VEGAS
– Best Buy, which is mounting a major presence at
CES 2010, also increased its profile with consumers in December.
According to a December Retail Ratings Report from market
research firm BIGresearch, one-third of adults age 18 and over said they shop
the No. 1 CE chain most often for electronics.
Best Buy’s share of consumer preference grew 3.3 percent in
December year over year, bested in growth only by Walmart, whose preference
share in CE edged up 3.7 to 20.6 percent, BIGresearch said.
Rounding out the Top 5 retailers were Amazon.com, with a consumer
preference share of 3.6 percent, up 1.4 percent in December; Target, with a 2.8
percent share, up 0.6 percent; and Sears, with a 2.0 percent share, up 0.4
percent.
The BIGresearch report is based on the firm’s monthly Consumer
Intentions & Actions (CIA) survey of over 8,000 online interviews.
Broken out by income, Best Buy is the leading destination
(29.5 percent) for CE purchases among shoppers who report a household income of
less than $50,000. Walmart trailed
closely, with 28.4 percent reporting they shop there most) for CE.
But Best Buy pulled ahead among shoppers who report an
income of greater than $50,000. Some 41.4 percent of well-heeled consumers said
they shopped there, while only 13.5 percent of that group chose second-place
Walmart.
Although its overall share is small (5.3 percent), Amazon’s
appeal among the higher-income group grew 96 percent year-over-year in
December, BIGresearch said.
