Sky-high energy prices and apocalyptic weather patterns couldn’t keep consumers away from CE stores last year, where shoppers flocked for iPods, affordable flat-panel TVs and home-theater installations.
The CE feeding frenzy — and a flood of new storefronts — resulted in a 7.9-percent increase in cumulative sales for the 100 largest electronics dealers in the land, as ranked by the latest TWICE Top 100 CE Retailers report. These biggest and best dealers, ranging from No. 1-ranked Best Buy to 100th-place Bjorn’s, together generated $96.7 billion in revenue last year, which accounted for fully 78 percent of all CE retail revenue in the United States.
Among the overachievers: The Home Depot, which grew its CE business by nearly 51 percent as it began adding flat-panel LCDs to its largely accessory-based mix, while adding new stores at a neck-snapping pace. Props also go out to Sony (retailers might use other terms) for selling $500 million worth of CE through its 26 Sony Style stores and eponymous Web site in 2004, placing it just ahead of H.H. Gregg at No. 26.
Aiding TWICE in its market-tracking efforts this year is The Stevenson Company, whose proprietary methodology helped further refine the tallies while adding new features like merchandise mix breakouts by dealer.
Our report begins on p. 17.
