Retail Discounts Abound, Online Momentum Wanes, in Season’s Final Days
Shoppers waiting for post-Christmas CE deals had bundles of options to choose from -- and longer store hours awaiting them -- we found in a scan of websites Thursday.
Consumers barely had time to charge their new CE gifts before retailers were hawking more deals in an attempt to clear inventories. As new deals were posting, comScore released sales data showing that e-commerce spending from desktop PCs for the first 52 days of the November-December holiday season had increased 10 percent to $42.8 billion versus the comparable 2012 period, but expected spending for the final week of the holiday season didn’t materialize. “The final online shopping week saw considerably softer sales than anticipated, including zero billion dollar spending days,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni.
Strong momentum coming out of Thanksgiving, in addition to heavy weekend buying, suggested e-commerce sites would meet or exceed expectations through the final week before Christmas. But with sales coming in weaker for the final week, the growth rate for the season will come in “a few percentage points shy of what we had anticipated,” Fulgoni said. “I think we'll look back at this online holiday season as one where absolute dollar sales gains in consumer spending were held back by heavy retailer price discounting that occurred in an attempt to stimulate consumer demand,” he said. Consumers “weren’t willing or able to boost spending to compensate for the six fewer days of shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he said.
Retailer h.h. gregg announced an “After-Christmas” sale, good through midday on New Year’s Eve with free shipping on all “UPS-shippable” items $25 and up. TVs prices were cut up to 30 percent in h.h. gregg’s sale, with an extra 5 percent discount on models $497 and above paid for with the hhgregg credit card. TV deals included a Sharp 60-inch LC-60LE650U for $999 ($500 off) and a Seiki SE-60GY05 60-inch clearance priced at $699. Store hours were extended to 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday. And h.h. gregg sweetened the deal on a mattress or furniture set with a free 39-inch TV, or $300 in-store credit with a $1,999 or higher purchase. The website showed a 39-inch ProScan for $299.
Big-screen Sharp TVs were the headline electronics on sale at Abt Electronics Thursday. Three 60-inch Sharp TVs came in under $1,000: the LC-60LE650U at $997 (from $1,499), the LC-60LE550U at $899 (from $1,299) and the LC-60LE452U at $897 (from $1,099). Three Sharp 70-inch TVs were cut from $2,499 to $1,749; from $3,499 to $2,169; and from $2,299 to $1,699, we found.
Amazon’s Deal of the Day Thursday was “Up to 60 percent Off” on a selection of CE accessories, including a host of Bluetooth speakers. The Philips SoundShooter Bluetooth speaker, available in several colors, was halved to $25, and Philips’ Shoqbox Bluetooth speaker with a built-in microphone exceeded the 60 percent discount, falling to $66 from $199. The Cambridge SoundWorks Oontz XL speaker was halved to $99. Meanwhile, prices on Panasonic active-shutter 3D glasses for 2012 and 2013 TVs were slashed by half to $40 in the promotion.
Many of Amazon’s limited-time Lightning Deals Thursday included accessories such as smartphone cases and tablet covers, and electronics nuggets included a palette of Westone 4R quad-driver headphones at 40 percent off, which were all claimed well before the allotted time ran out, and a Denon DSD500BK Cocoon Airplay speaker discounted by 76 percent to $159. The Denon speaker was offered from World Wide Stereo through Amazon fulfillment, and 48 percent were claimed with 12 minutes to go.
Best Buy kicked off a “storewide end-of-season sale” Thursday, offering “discounts on thousands” of CE devices and appliances, it said in a news release. On-sale items include Bluetooth speakers, headphones and iPhones. Best Buy is also offering savings on clearance, open box and Geek Squad Certified Open Box products, it said. Open box products are usually priced 10 percent or more below their retail prices and Geek Squad Certified Open Box items are “thoroughly inspected to ensure condition and performance,” it said. Customers who spend $100 or more during a single store visit Thursday-Saturday will also get a free Best Buy gift card worth $15, it said. Customers who spend $100 or more online and select the in-store pick-up option will get a $15 savings code, it said. Best Buy also extended its store hours for the sale, saying it will be open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. through Monday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. New Year’s Eve, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. New Year’s Day.
P.C. Richard & Son is running an after-Christmas inventory clearance sale in which every TV and appliance is on sale, it said at its website. The heaviest TV discounts include the LG 55LA9700 55-inch 4K and 3D-ready LED-lit LCD TV at $3,999.91, $500 lower than what the retailer said it usually sells that model for; the LG 55LA9650 55-inch 4K and 3D-ready LED-lit LCD TV at $2,999.91 ($1,000 off its normal price); LG 65LA9650 65-inch 4K and 3D-ready LED-lit LCD TV at $4,499.91 ($1,500 off its normal price); and Toshiba 65L7300 65-inch 1080p LED-lit LCD TV at $1,698.98 ($701 off its normal price).
Tablets are also available at P.C. Richard’s sale starting at $49.99, it said. But the lowest-priced model we saw at its website Thursday was the DQV 7-inch Android tablet at $69.99, $60 less than the chain normally charges. P.C. Richard is also offering 15 percent off on videogames for all systems except the PS4 and Xbox One, up to 50 percent off select headphones, up to $200 off SLR cameras and computers, and 20 percent off all Bluetooth speakers except Bose and Turtle Beach headphones, it said. It’s also giving free $20-$70 P.C. Richard gift cards to customers who buy Sonos wireless speakers at $199.91-$699.91.
All GameStop U.S. stores are running a post-Christmas sale through Sunday including discounts on some of the most popular videogames, hardware systems and accessories, it said. The on-sale items including the PS4 and Xbox One versions of Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts and the Electronic Arts games FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, Need For Speed: Rivals, Madden NFL 25 and NBA Live 14, each at $10 off. The hardware discounts were limited to used systems, including $25 off the PS3 and Xbox 360 Slim model, and $129.99 for the PS Vita. GameStop usually charges $179.99 for a refurbished PS Vita, according to its website.
None of the three chains said how their sales performed through Christmas. GameStop will announce holiday sales results Jan. 14, said spokesman Joey Mooring. Best Buy typically reports its holiday selling season results in January as well, but didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. -- Rebecca Day, Jeff Berman
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The Amazon Prime membership program, which offers unlimited two-day free shipping along with free video streaming, added more than a million new members the third week of December, Amazon said Thursday. The last Prime one-day shipping order -- a mattress pad -- delivered in time for Christmas was placed on Dec. 23 at 10:22 p.m. PST and shipped to Carlsbad, Calif., Amazon said. The last local express delivery delivered in time for Christmas was a Plantronics headset ordered at 12:26 p.m. PST on Christmas Eve and delivered at 3:56 p.m. PST the same day in Everett, Wash., it said. Notable observations from Amazon included: During their peak sales times, the Xbox One and PS4 consoles were bought at a clip of more than 1,000 units per minute, and Amazon customers ordered more than five toys per second from a mobile device between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The e-tailer listed its holiday best sellers -- minus specific counts -- as the Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9-inch tablets; Samsung 32-inch, 40-inch and 22-inch LED-lit TVs; Samsung, Asus Transformer and Acer Chromebooks; and Canon EOS Rebel T3i, Canon PowerShot A2500 and Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 instant film cameras. An Amazon spokeswoman cited the retailer’s longstanding policy of not disclosing sales figures.