NPD: Apple the #5 electronics retailer in the U.S. in 2009

U.S. consumer technology revenue fell almost 5 percent in 2009 to $106 billion dollars, according to leading market research company The NPD Group’s Consumer Tracking Service which tracks consumer electronics trends.

MacDailyNews Note: NPD’s consumertechnology sales include IT, imaging, audio, video, and consumables, and exclude video game hardware and software, PC software, and mobile phones.

While overall revenue may have been down, that should not be taken as a sign that consumers were not buying, according to NPD. Total units sold increased marginally, with the industry selling over one billion devices, gadgets, and accessory products (excluding consumables). The slight increase in units wasn’t enough to offset the decline in average prices, however, leading to the decrease in overall revenue. Average prices dropped about 6 percent from 2008 to 2009 to an average of $92 for each piece of electronics purchased.

Sales results improved as the year progressed culminating in just a 1.5 percent decline in the fourth quarter, a huge improvement from 2008, when fourth quarter sales fell 7 percent. Sales in the fourth quarter represented almost 32 percent of the year’s revenue. Fourth quarter 2009 revenue growth represented the best quarterly results since the second quarter of 2008.

For the fourth year in a row brick and mortar retailers increased their share of consumer technology sales. The sales strength was propelled by computers and TVs, both of which saw retailers’ share of total sales increase more than two points.

NPD’s Consumer Tracking Service’s top 5 brick and mortar U.S. electronics retailers for 2009:
1. Best Buy
2. Walmart
3. Staples
4. Target
5. Apple

NPD’s Consumer Tracking Service’s top 5 online U.S. electronics retailers for 2009:
1. Dell
2. Amazon
3. Best Buy
4. HP
5. Apple

According to NPD, consumers did cut back their spending, but not everyone did it equally. It was the broader middle class who cut back the most. Spending among consumers with incomes between $30,000 and $100,000 declined almost 8 percent from 2008. Lower-income consumers decreased their spending by 3 percent, and consumers with incomes over $100,000 only decreased their spending by a little more than 1 percent.

“The industry lost ground this year but in light of the overall economic conditions it was a performance that could have been much worse,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis, in the press release. “By retailers and manufacturers being aggressive on consumer electronics pricing that kept the consumer engaged and shopping, an important success story to remember in such a dismal year. Categories like computers and flat-panel TVs, despite very high selling prices, were able to see significant increases in unit volume through this tactic. The up-tick in fourth quarter results, while partly the result of a weak year-over-year comparison was also due to strong results from these categories, results that point to increased momentum as we head into 2010.”

Source: The NPD Group, Inc.