Shoppers research big TVs online, but prefer to buy offline
Electronics buyers, especially shoppers for bigger ticket items such as flat screen TVs, use the web to research their options, but still prefer to make the final purchase in a store, says a new study from The NPD Group Inc.
In the study, NPD Group estimates that online sales of televisions reached $1.8 billion in 2006, up 38.5% from estimated sales of $1.3 billion in 2005. But NPD Group also estimates that the web accounted for only about 10% of total 2006 television sales of $18.2 billion.
“While we saw good growth in online TV purchases, the e-commerce channel is just too small to have a material impact on the market right now, but that is likely to change,” says NPD Group vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker. “As large screen TV prices become more affordable, we expect to see online TV sales grow.” NPD Group estimates that about 2 million TVs were purchased directly from an e-commerce site in 2006.
Overall, U.S. consumer technology sales increased 3.6% to $111 billion in 2006, says NPD Group. But more consumers shopped in the stores than online in 2006, with bricks-and-mortar revenue increasing by 4.6% to $85.8 billion, while e-commerce only grew by 0.5% to $25.2 billion. “E-commerce is growing, but slower than retail,” says Baker. “As some of these structural changes evolve, we expect to see online sales increase; however, for now, consumers continue to prefer the retail experience when they purchase technology.”
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