April Showers TV Sales on Dealers

By Alan Wolf, YSN

BrandSource members who carry consumer electronics in general and TVs in particular had reason to be cheerful last month.

According to market research firm The NPD Group, CE retail sales during the week of April 18 soared 23 percent year over year and 29 percent week over week, to nearly $1.8 billion. And, unlike the 21 percent sales spike recorded four weeks prior, when work-from-home categories led the drive, April showered all manner of consumer tech sales on merchants.

NPD’s Stephen Baker, a Vice President and Industry Advisor for the tech and mobile sector, said TV was the big winner that week, with unit sales up 86 percent to 1.1 million displays, representing the largest non-holiday haul ever. Every screen size from 32 inches and up enjoyed at least double-digit growth, although the crown went 65-inch and larger sets, whose volume skyrocketed 139 percent.

Not surprisingly, other categories showing strength included a heaping helping of home networking, home office and home entertainment devices, the operative word being home. Leading the pack:

  • Wi-Fi range extenders, up 173 percent;
  • PC microphones, up 147 percent;
  • DIY components, up 111 percent;
  • Networking, up 70 percent;
  • Soundbars, up 69 percent in units;
  • Printers, up 61 percent;
  • Streaming players, up 42 percent;
  • Headphones, up 29 percent; and
  • Blu-ray players, ahead 27 percent in units.

With employees and students working and studying at home, and everybody competing for Wi-Fi bandwidth and digital diversions, tech hardware has become a household essential in its own right. And for those who left the TV category for greener pastures, the time may never be riper to jump back in.

Related: Make Staying Home More Tolerable with an 8K TV

BrandSource is a unit of YSN publisher AVB Inc.

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