Shift in Shopping Share
.
Going some places we found that Nintendo has sold more than 30 million Wii game consoles since they were introduced two years ago. Best Buy promoted the Wii in its efforts to get holiday shoppers into buying instead of big-screen high-definition TVs. Similarly the games of the Microsoft Xbox 360 are outselling the more expensive Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3 combined by almost 2 to 1. The Flip camcorder is also simple, and two to three times cheaper than camcorders made by Sony or JVC. Pure Digital Technologies says it has sold more than 1.5 million Flips since it unveiled the product line in 2007.
This visible shift in consumer preference to the cheaper electronic devices could well be a reaction to the recession. It is not just the economics of a shopping-fatigued nation at work here. Consumers found the simple devices, which don’t need instruction manuals to set up and use, more appealing.
This shift in shoppers preferences could be mirrored anywhere. Remember, competition and the effects of price hick force sales down.
The one defense that seemed to work during the year was to offer a new product at the same price as the old one — but with more features. The laptops got better graphics, the hard drives spun faster, the cameras picked up more detail, the memory cards held more.
Current economic recession still going on, only time will tell how shoppers are going to fare in coming year.
