Tesco was the only big four supermarket to increase its share of the UK entertainment market in the run-up to Christmas.
With the exception of Tesco, Christmas had been a tough period for the supermarkets, according to retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel, which today (26 January) unveiled retail entertainment sales data for the 12 weeks ending 21 December 2014.
Fifa 15 and Disney’s Frozen – the top game and movie titles of the year - performed particularly well for Tesco, and contributed to a 0.1% year on year increase in share from 14.6% to 14.7%. Tesco accounted for 28% of total sales of Frozen and 21% of Fifa 15 sales.
In contrast, Asda failed to replicate the success it had enjoyed in 2013 – which had been driven by strong sales of Grand Theft Auto V – with its share slumping from 12.9% to 9.5% year on year in the last quarter of 2014. Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, slipped down 0.6 percentage points to 6%, and Morrisons 0.4 points to 2.1%.
Amazon – the UK’s largest retailer of entertainment products – took more than a quarter of the UK market for the first time with a 0.8 point increase in share. Its performance was aided by the growing popularity of online retail, which rose to 39% - its highest ever level – in the run-up to Christmas, said Kantar Worlpanel strategic insight director Fiona Keenan.
“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,” she added. “Retailers need to identify ways to encourage impulse purchasing in an online environment, particularly as so much of our spend goes through this channel.”
HMV claimed 13.9% of entertainment sales, up from 13.4% a year before, and Kantar Worlpanel said the upcoming relaunch of the HMV transactional websites could help improve its position further.
Argos increased its market share to 4.4%, performing particularly well in the sales of new PS4 and Xbox One games.
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