The TWICE Top 100 CE Retailers Report ranks the leading domestic CE dealers by sales of consumer electronics.
Sales figures are based on information supplied by retailers responding to inquiries by its research partner Senex, a global industry research firm. Absent retailers’ input, estimates are developed using economic models related to household demand for consumer electronics on a local market level.
Once sales of consumer electronics by market are established, those sales are distributed to retailer stores based on a number of sources of information for retailer store presence, market share, propensity of consumers to spend and their channel purchasing patterns.
Separately, an estimate of retail sales of consumer electronics is derived at the national level from industry and government sources. This national sales figure is then compared to the aggregation of local market estimates to ensure an accurate portrayal of both national and local market sales. Further refinement comes from public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), industry analyses, government reports, retail analysts’ financial reports, published data and other external sources.
See: 2018 Top 100 CE Retailers: The Top 10
Businesses must meet the following criteria to be considered consumer electronics retailers and to qualify for inclusion in the Top 100 report:
• sells new products directly to consumers;
• has physical retail store locations or has a significant online presence;
• sells consumer electronic products as one of its principal lines of business;
• does not offer consumer electronics products primarily to sell its transmission services, i.e., wireless carriers, cable operators, satellite radio/TV providers; and• sells merchandise that is considered consumer technology as defined by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
Sales are considered to be the revenue received for the products sold primarily to consumers, including CE hardware and accessories; personal computers, peripherals and software; home networking equipment; and video game platforms and software.
See: TWICE 2018 Top 100 CE Retailers Report: Call It A Comeback
Sales of digital streaming music and video content are excluded from the report.
Retailers are instructed to exclude revenues received for installation services, repair services, rentals, extended-service contracts and vendor marketing support, as well as sales to the business, government and education channels.
Senex, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is an industry research and analysis firm providing greater clarity into markets and opportunities for entities involved in product development, mergers and acquisitions, retailing and product design. Founded in 2016, principals at Senex have been creating the TWICE retail rankings since 2006.
Based on the proprietary methodology of the TWICE Top 100 CE Retailers Report, a refined baseline was developed for this annual project effective with the 2005 rankings, covering the years 2003 to 2004. Therefore, comparisons with Top 100 reports issued prior to 2005 would be imprecise.
See: 2018 Top 100: The Bigger They Are, The Harder The Rest Fall
What Is A CE Product?
As defined by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), here is a breakdown of what constitutes a consumer tech product and what was included in the Top 100’s sales totals.
Accessories: batteries, cables, headphones, screen cleaners, wearables
Audio products: wired and wireless speakers and soundbars, smart speakers, receivers, CD players (home and portable), home theater-in-a-box, turntables, boomboxes, digital music players, docking stations, distributed audio products, headphones, blank recordable audio media
Car electronics: Speakers, in-dash radio/audio/video receivers, amps, satellite radios, radar detectors, alarms, GPS, mobile TVs, video monitors, backup/night vision camera kits, DVD/Blu-ray Disc players, CB radios
Communications products: corded and cordless phones, answering machines, fax machines, cellular phones, cases, screen protectors, SIM cards
Video products: Blu-ray Disc and DVD players (home and portable), cameras, camcorders, imaging accessories (cases, bags, lenses, tripods), DVD recorders, hard-disk recorders, satellite TV dishes and systems, TVs and TV/ DVD/Blu-ray combos, blank recordable video media, video game consoles, video game software, streaming media devices, virtual reality systems, antennas
Information technology: Desktop/ notebook/tablet PCs, e-readers, external drives, flash media, monitors, optical drives, printers, ink/toner, software, tablets, accessory hardware (cards, hard drives, keyboards, mice, memory, desktop speakers), home networking equipment
Misc.: Drones, home security
See all Top 100 multimedia coverage in the TWICE Research Center.
