The average selling price for HDTVs jumped by more than 10% in February, according to data from the Retrevo CE Index, a publicly-available index from Retrevo that maps daily trends in the consumer electronics (CE) industry across 40 categories and more than 4,000 products by price and demand.
TV prices had been falling since May 2008 — ultimately dropping approximately 35% at the nadir in January 2009. The downward trend reversed sharply in February, with average selling prices surging by more than 10% during the month.
Vipin Jain, CEO of Retrevo, said, “As the economy and consumer spending weakened, manufacturers and retailers were offering steep discounts during the holidays and leading up to the Super Bowl — both important seasons for HDTV sales. This meant great deals for consumers, but hurt the bottom lines of TV makers. The bankruptcy and liquidation of Circuit City may have also played a factor in keeping prices down. Now that deep discounts from the all-important holiday and Super Bowl seasons are over, excess inventory is clearing out of the channel and merchants are returning to running their business at more sustainable price levels. We’ll see if this trend is sustainable. Nevertheless, there are still great deals to be had if you know where to find them.”
Meanwhile, demand for TVs in February followed the typical seasonal trend, spiking during the holidays and again in January, and then softening heading into February and March.
Hot consumer electronics product categories for February, based on rising demand (versus overall volume) included:
- Car accessories, including receivers, amplifiers and video players
- Headsets
- Multi-function printers
- Monitors
- GPS receivers
Contact Retrevo to learn more about these or other consumer electronics trends, or visit www.retrevo.com/pulse/ce-pulse to view price and demand graphs for specific product categories.
