SAN DIEGO – Walmart significantly increased its soundbar presence in the second quarter compared with the year-ago period while other major retailers either maintained their selections or scaled them back slightly, according to a Gap Intelligence shelf-share analysis.
Gap surveyed the shelves of seven major retailers to determine their soundbar shelf share, which is based on the actual number of SKUs in the retailers’ stores. The retailers included in the analysis are Best Buy, Costco, hhgregg, Sam’s Club, Sears, Target and Walmart.
Gap Intelligence also found that soundbars from TV brands dominated the large retailers’ soundbar selections and that Samsung, LG, Vizio and Bose increased their soundbar shelf share among the seven retailers.
In its latest survey, Gap found that Walmart accounted for 18 percent of soundbar shelf share among the seven retailers, up from the year-ago 12 percent. But Best Buy remained the retailer with the largest soundbar selection with 27 percent share, followed by hhgregg (23 percent), Walmart (18 percent) and Sears, with 12 percent.
All retailers’ shares fell but those of Costco, which maintained its 4 percent shelf share, and Sam’s Club, which maintained its 8 percent share. All of the rest found their shelf shares dropping, with Best Buy’s shelf share falling to 27 percent from 30 percent, Target’s falling to 8 percent from 10 percent, and hhgregg’s share slipping to 23 percent from 24 percent. The share held by Sears slipped to 12 percent from 13 percent.
The survey also showed that TV brands lead in soundbar share among the retailers, all of which are major TV retailers. TV suppliers often bundle their soundbars in with the purchase of a TV.
Top soundbar shelf share was held by Samsung with 25 percent, followed by LG’s 14 percent, Vizio’s 13 percent, Sony’s 11 percent, and Bose’s 10 percent.
Other brands enjoyed shelf shares of less than 10 percent, with Philips and Polk Audio at 4 percent, Klipsch and iLive at 2 percent each, Nakamichi and Yamaha at 2 percent each, and other brands accounting for 12 percent of shelf share.
Among the brands, Samsung, LG, Vizio and Bose increased their shelf share, with Samsung’s share rising to 25 percent from 17 percent, LG’s share rising to 14 percent from 12 percent, Vizio’s share going to 13 percent from 10 percent, and Bose’s share rising to 10 percent from 6 percent.
Brands such as Polk, Philips, Klipsch and Yamaha posted slight drops in share.
The statistics are a national representation of the products available at many of a particular retailers’ locations, Gap said. “It does not take into account the assortment at any particular location of that retailer or the number of locations any one product is present at,” a spokesperson said.
