NEWS26 January 2015

Online accounts for 39% of entertainment retail

UK — Amazon took one in every four pounds spent on physical music, games and video in Britain in the run up to Christmas this year, with online shopping now making up 39% of all transactions in the sector according to Kantar Worldpanel.

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HMV claimed 13.9% of entertainment sales in the final quarter of 2014, up from 13.4% a year before, making it Britain’s third largest retailer behind Amazon and Tesco.

Supermarkets generally found Christmas difficult this year although Tesco was the exception. It took 14.7% of sales and maintained its position as the second largest retailer of physical entertainment products. Tesco was particularly successful with the big titles, taking 28% of Frozen sales and 21% of FIFA 15 – the two top gifts in video and games respectively.

However the growth of online shopping is having an impact on consumer behaviour.

Fiona Keenan, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “While consumers’ average online spend increased by 6% this Christmas, they still spent less than they did when shopping in physical stores as retailers struggled to get them to shop impulsively online. A third of in-store purchases were bought purely on impulse, creating an additional £119 million for the industry, but when shopping online this proportion halved.”