Tech Unit Sales Fell 4% in First 9 Weeks of Q4; ASPs Rose: NPD
Consumer tech unit sales in the first nine weeks of Q4 were down 4% year on year, indicating slowing demand, emailed NPD analyst Stephen Baker Wednesday. Black Friday week had a 15% year-over-year revenue bump, while Cyber Week grew 3%…
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on the strength of online shopping, he said. “Record-high selling prices for TVs resulted in record-breaking revenues during Cyber Week.” Industrywide, the average selling price of CE products is up, fueled by “demand for quality and performance, component and shipping costs, lower promotional levels, and industry-wide choices to focus production resources on higher price point goods.” The tech surprise of the holiday sales season was VR, Baker said, as VR and AR combined during Cyber Week for 84% year-on-year growth, with unit volume more than doubling. Headphones were up 7% in the quarter. A Wednesday Pitney Bowes survey, meanwhile, said the holiday season could last “well into early 2022,” as 51% of 2,000 survey respondents interviewed over the past month said they're considering waiting until January or February to make purchases. Almost half (45%) of respondents say they didn’t see the deals they expected early in the holiday season, and 43% said they were postponing purchases to see the best deals. Nearly 70% are expecting supply chain issues to continue into early next year, 62% throughout 2022. The most popular product category is electronics, with 30% of all consumers delaying electronics purchases, “likely due to current inventory shortages, compounded by chip shortages and the promise of discounts on high-value products after the holidays,” it said.