The Guitar Center posts Q3 web sales of $49.8 million
E-commerce sales for The Guitar Center Inc. reached $49.8 million in the third quarter, an increase of 24.8% from $38.8 million for the same period in 2004.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, The Guitar Center, No. 47 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, reported web sales of $148.5 million, up 24.6% from $119.2 million for the first nine months of 2004.
For the third quarter, the web represented 12% of Guitar Center’s total sales of $421.1 million, compared to the third quarter of 2004 when e-commerce made up 11% of total sales of $354.9 million. E-commerce totaled 12% of total sales of $1.2 billion for the first nine months of 2005 vs. the same period in 2004 when the web accounted for 12% of total sales of $1 billion.
Guitar Center, which operates MusiciansFriend.com and Giardinelli.com, says its e-commerce sales are growing. But increased competition in the online musical instruments space is also forcing the company to spend substantially more on search engine marketing, though the company didn’t break out specific numbers in its Q3 earnings report. “We are experiencing a continuing shift of business to the Internet and are spending much more on Internet search engine advertising than we have in the past,” Guitar Center says.
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