Rebecca Day

Best Buy is Intel’s retail partner for the Intel Experience pop-up stores launching in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles this week, Intel Channel Development General Manager Sean Ludick told Consumer Electronics Daily on a walkthrough of the first store to open in New York’s Nolita neighborhood. Consumers can’t buy directly from the store and take products home, but they can buy products through a dedicated Best Buy landing page and have products shipped from there. The goal of the store is not to generate retail sales but to give consumers a chance to interact with the latest Intel-based devices, Ludick said.

Barnes & Noble is actively pursuing opportunities to “rationalize our Nook business,” CEO Michael Huseby said on an earnings call Tuesday. Nook content sales fell 21 percent in fiscal Q2 due to lower average selling prices and fewer device sales than the year ago quarter, Huseby said. To beef up content sales, Barnes & Noble is looking to grow sales within its active user base and by selling e-readers that are “closely aligned with selling content,” Huseby said. As an example, he cited the recent release of the latest Nook GlowLight with a lighter weight 6.2-ounce design, sharper text, advanced display “paper-like readability” and a redesigned interface that makes it easier to discover content and shop from the device.

As the volume of Black Friday deals snowballs, the number of consumers actually shopping in stores on Black Friday could drop this year as more people turn to their mobile devices and computers to make holiday purchases. ShopperTrak projects a 2.4 percent increase in holiday sales over 2013 but forecasts a decline in foot traffic due to “consumers having a lot of access to virtual window shopping,” founder Bill Martin told Consumer Electronics Daily.

Walmart hadn’t yet launched its “pre-Black Friday” event in stores and online Friday morning when it unleashed its Cyber Monday deals that will follow hot on the heels of Thanksgiving Day price cuts and Black Friday promotions. It’s all in keeping with the retailer’s plan to be aggressive this season amid “industry softness” that led the company to lower earnings projections for Q4 in its latest earnings call (CED Nov 15 p5).

Pandora had a 2.6 percent falloff in active listeners from September to October after the launch of iTunes Radio on Sept. 18, said Pandora CEO Brian McAndrews on the company’s earnings call late Thursday. McAndrews attributed the slippage to “casual” listeners experimenting with other streaming music services, “most likely iTunes Radio.” McAndrews said declines occurred during the first few weeks following the iTunes Radio launch and since then Pandora has seen active listeners “stabilize and begin to return to growth at the end of October.” Pandora’s share of total U.S. radio listening in October was 8.1, up from 6.6 percent a year ago and from 7.8 percent in September, McAndrews said. Total listener hours at Pandora grew to 4.18 billion for Q3, a 17 percent increase over the year-ago quarter and grew from 1.36 billion to 1.47 billion from September to October, he said. Year-over-year, the number of active listeners was up 20 percent to 70.9 million, he said, while advertising revenue grew to $144.3 million, up from $106.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Subscription revenue was also up, jumping to $36 million from $13.8 million in Q3 2012, the company said. Wedbush Securities maintained a “neutral” rating on Pandora, citing better-than-expected subscription and other revenue after Pandora removed its mobile listening limit, which analyst Michael Pachter said reflected “stickiness” with consumers. Wedbush had expected a subscription decline from Q2 with users reverting to Pandora’s free offering after the mobile listening limit was removed. Pandora’s $144 million Q3 ad revenue represented a slowdown in growth to 12 percent from 22 percent in Q2, said Pachter, who had expected growth of 20 percent from Q2 to Q3 due to Pandora’s efforts to build out its sales force in recent quarters. In the Q-and-A, McAndrews expressed concern about the “subscription balance” since licensing agreements favor the ad-supported, non-subscription model. While not speaking directly to a possible subscription price increase, McAndrews said subscribers “are obviously among our most loyal listeners, and it would be our job to make sure that we have the optimal pricing over time.” Pandora’s model is driven by free, ad-supported listening, he said, and “that’s where the biggest opportunity is.” Chief Financial Officer Mike Herring said, “It’s not that we discourage people to be subscribers,” but licensing agreements “disincentivize” the subscription model on a cost-per-hour basis versus the advertising model. An increase in the number Pandora’s ads per hour for the quarter did not negatively affect listener hours, Herring said.

Target has “guarded expectations for sales” in the 2013 holiday season that will be “highly promotional” when it officially launches next week, CEO Gregg Steinhafel said on the company’s Q3 earnings call Thursday. Target had higher average tickets for Q3 on lower store traffic due to an economic environment where customers are “shopping cautiously” to stay within “very tight household budgets,” Steinhafel said. For the holiday shopping season that officially kicks off next week, “We will be much more overt in our price messaging,” Steinhafel said, pushing “everyday low prices, deep discounts on promotions,” price-matching policies and financial incentives for REDcard holders.

'Tis the week of the “pre-Black Friday” sale, which Walmart codified Tuesday with the announcement of deals designed to eclipse actual Black Friday deals from competitors. Abt Electronics responded Tuesday with its own pre-Black Friday email blast to customers, touting TVs including a 32-inch Toshiba LED-lit LCD TV for 29 percent off to $249 and a Sony 60-inch LED model cart-priced below the minimum advertised price at $1,299 from $1,999 list, the same price at Amazon.

Walmart -- already aggressive with 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day doorbusters and 8 a.m. Black Friday deals -- ratcheted up the pressure on competitors Tuesday with a “pre-Black Friday savings event” that begins Friday at 8 a.m. in stores and online. In its announcement that “shoppers don’t have to wait until Black Friday” to begin shopping for deals, Walmart said its “pre-Black Friday” event will lower prices on toys and electronics to match Black Friday deals from Target, Toys R Us and Best Buy “one week early.”

Smartphones and tablets are joining TVs this holiday season as advertised doorbusters for Black Friday sales. Not typically one to jump in prominently in the seasonal fray, Apple is touted in several Black Friday events with the older generation iPad Mini listed as one of the guaranteed products in a one-hour Walmart event Thanksgiving night ($299 for a 16 GB iPad mini with a $100 Walmart gift card). And Apple is the sole CE product in the spotlight in Walmart’s Friday morning doorbuster, where stores will sell an iPhone 5C for $45 and an iPhone 5S for $189. The prices aren’t new -- Walmart dropped the prices on both phones in October to come in under the competition (Best Buy sells its for $50), but the gift cards are. The iPhones will come with a $75 Walmart gift card on Black Friday with the purchase of a phone and two-year activation.

Intel is opening pop-up stores for the holiday season in New York (Nov. 23), Chicago (Nov. 25) and Los Angeles (Nov. 26), where consumers can get hands-on experience with Intel-based PCs and tablets and then make a purchase online, a company spokeswoman told us. Intel chose this year to hold the events because of the “new generation of devices” that might not be familiar to consumers, she said. Stores will be staffed by Intel employees who can explain the technology and steer shoppers toward purchases that are right for them, she said. The stores will not carry inventory, she said, but consumers can order products online at the pop-up stores. She said there are plans for deals and promotions inside the stores and “maybe simultaneously with other retailers,” but she wouldn’t expand. Intel will partner with local recyclers and make a donation in cash or electronics to local schools for products, including small electronics, PCs and printers, that consumers bring in for recycling, she said. The pop-up stores will morph throughout the day to showcase a range of products and use cases, starting in the mornings as a “community hub” where visitors can have coffee, she said. The stores will expand in the afternoon to become a “tech showcase” and then evolve into an “entertainment hot spot” at night. Activities will include Friday night movies, game nights, holiday activities for kids, evening concerts and a speaker series, she said. Programming at the spaces will change daily, giving consumers “a reason to come back and see something different,” she said. Intel isn’t disclosing partner companies or SKUs prior to store opening, nor would the company comment on whether the pop-up stores are a test run for permanent Intel stores. Pop-up stores, ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet, will be open 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Saturday, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sunday, through Jan. 25.