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% 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.

Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets remained virtually unchanged in December from November, according to preliminary Conference Board data in its last monthly report before Christmas. Analytics company Toluna canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes through Dec. 16, finding 10.6% plan to buy a new TV in the next six months, compared with 10.7% in November, 11.6% in October and 11% in December 2020. Consumer confidence improved in December after a modest gain in November, said the board: “Concerns about inflation declined after hitting a 13-year high last month as did concerns about COVID-19, despite reports of continued price increases and the emergence of the Omicron variant. Looking ahead to 2022, both confidence and consumer spending will continue to face headwinds from rising prices and an expected winter surge of the pandemic.”

Chinese vendors are feeling the brunt of the global component shortage among smart speaker makers, said Strategy Analytics Monday. Earlier forecasts showed strong growth returning in 2021 if component supply eased, but “this scenario is not playing out,” said SA analyst David Watkins. China typically accounts for 30%-40% of the global market each quarter, he said, “so challenges experienced by Alibaba, Baidu, and Xiaomi will be indicators for how well -- or not -- China is managing its supply chain issues.” Contract manufacturers partnered with the three companies -- along with dozens of other smart speaker and smart display brands -- are facing “a prolonged period of supply chain issues,” Watkins said. Citing component shortages, shipping and logistics challenges, and the delta and omicron COVID-19 variants, analyst Jack Narcotta said smart speaker market growth won’t return to pre-COVID-19 levels “until at least 2023.”

The global PC monitor market reached an “inflection point” in Q3 with the first year-over-year decline in shipments since COVID-19 lockdowns began in 2020's Q1, reported IDC on Friday. Vendors shipped just over 34.8 million monitors in Q3, a 7.2% decline from the 2020 quarter, it said. Many emerging economies continued to show robust momentum, but the more-developed markets of North America and Western Europe had “sizable contractions” from a “softening in consumer demand,” it said. Supply and logistical challenges persisted from previous quarters, further impeding a market “that was already facing rising prices due to cost pressures,” said IDC. Dell maintained its global leadership with 22% share in Q3 to Lenovo’s 12.2%, and China’s TPV and HP were the quarter’s biggest underperformers, with year-over-year shipments declining 30.1% and 21%, respectively.

Consumers’ average spending changed little in November from October, but they continued to reallocate purchases away from staple goods and toward transportation and other discretionary categories, said a Thursday report by Morning Consult. Spending on phone, internet and TV was stable in November, rising by less than $1 from the previous month. Boomers and Gen Xers, more likely to pay for cable TV services, spent more in November, while younger generations likely allocated TV spending toward less expensive streaming services, it said. Household income grew 2.7% year on year in November, “considerably lagging the pace of inflation,” 6.8% for the month. Continued employment growth and job switching are likely to continue to drive up wages to match the pace of price growth, it said. Spending tracks closely with income, leading to what it expects to be “robust demand” heading into 2022.

Over three-quarters of U.S. adults plan to make purchases Saturday, 86% in the next two weeks, said Innovating Commerce Serving Communities Thursday. A survey of 1,010 consumers fielded Dec. 10-12 said lingering supply-chain issues will affect what shoppers buy for the rest of the year, with 67% saying remaining purchases will largely depend on what they can find and take immediately. Six in 10 said they will buy gift cards if products they’re looking for aren’t available. Some 59% of adults plan to visit a mall or other shopping center Saturday to shop (61%), dine (44%) or see a movie (23%). Top reasons cited for shopping in the days before Christmas are to buy gifts (40%) and take advantage of promotions (35%).

Seasonally adjusted Census Bureau data showing a 0.3% rise in retail sales in November from October may “look modest,” said the National Retail Federation Wednesday, saying seasonal patterns have been “significantly disrupted by the pandemic.” NRF’s calculation of retail sales -- which excludes automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants -- showed November was unchanged from October. Unadjusted November retail sales data calculated by NRF were “the highest on record,” said the trade group, citing year-on-year growth of 14%. Electronics and appliance stores were down 4.6% month-over-month seasonally adjusted but up 17.7% unadjusted year-over-year, it said. “Consumers continued spending in November, building on momentum from strong early holiday shopping in October and setting the stage for a bright holiday season,” said NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. Consumers’ financial condition “remains healthy,” and they continued to spend despite inflation and COVID-19 being “top of mind,” he said. Strength in the labor market has helped propel “incredibly strong demand, and most shoppers have the income and savings to absorb higher prices driven by the pandemic and supply chain disruptions.” For the first 11 months of 2021, sales as calculated by NRF were up 14.2% over the 2020 period, consistent with its forecast that 2021 retail sales will grow 10.5-13.5% over 2020 to $4.44 trillion-$4.56 trillion. It believes holiday sales for Nov. 1-Dec. 31 could increase 11.5% year on year.

Higher average selling prices and a “waning” promotional environment combined to return this year’s Black Friday Week to growth, reported NPD Tuesday. ASPs during Black Friday Week ended Dec. 4 increased 10% year over year, with unit volume up 3% and revenue jumping 14%, it said. Cyber Week brought continued growth in “discretionary retail sales,” but was “well below” the performance of Black Friday Week, it said. “Consumers are embracing a different kind of value, as they look to invest in higher-end, better-quality products,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD chief retail industry adviser. This year’s Cyber Week followed pre-pandemic patterns, “demonstrating that the lack of a post-Black Friday lull in 2020 truly was an aberration,” said Cohen. “High-momentum categories are starting to show some vulnerability, which is understandable given the headwinds at play.” It’s possible those categories may still resonate “with late holiday shoppers looking to take advantage of last-minute deals during the full week of shopping after Super Saturday,” he said.

The 2021 holiday season “appears to be on track” to reach up to 11.5% year-on-year growth, said the National Retail Federation Tuesday. More than 148 million consumers plan to shop in-store and online on Super Saturday, the last before Christmas, said an NRF-Prosper Insights survey. Forty-one percent plan to take a hybrid in-store/online tack; 27% said they will shop exclusively in store, 32% online only. The trade group expects over 148 million consumers to shop in-store and online Saturday, though over half of holiday shoppers began spending before Thanksgiving. Consumers plan to spend $997.73 on holiday purchases; as of early December they had completed about 52% with 42% planning to buy their last gift before Dec. 18. About 48% of holiday shoppers plan to finish shopping online; 34% plan to go to department stores; 21% discount stores, 20% clothing and accessories stores and 16% local businesses. NRF forecast combined online and physical store sales of $843.4 billion-$859 billion Nov. 1-Dec. 31. Retailer efforts to mitigate the impact of supply chain challenges “appear to have paid off,” said NRF, with 71% of holiday shoppers saying they were able to find items most or all of the time. The most popular gifts purchased to date are clothing and accessories (44%), toys (30%), books and other media (26%), gift cards (25%) and electronics (20%). Just 23 percent of holiday shoppers plan to give a “gift of experience” this year. The survey of 7,453 adult consumers was conducted Nov. 24-Dec. 3 and has a margin of 1.2%.

About a fifth of U.S. broadband homes subscribed to a virtual MVPD by the end of Q3, about double the penetration of two years ago and up five points from 2020, reported Parks Associates Monday. “Many households who cut the traditional pay-TV cord or never subscribed in the first place are looking for a live and more linear video viewing experience via online options, which is driving vMVPD service uptake,” said analyst Paul Erickson. “These services also promise less costly investment and more content flexibility, which increases the appeal among today’s video viewers,” who are accustomed to benefits of over-the-top solutions, he said.