Best Buy Widens Q1 Entertainment Sales Decline
May 23, 2019
Christmas is officially over. The post-winter holiday blues hit Best Buy entertainment sales with a thud.
The nation’s largest consumer electronics retail chain May 23 reported a 12.7% drop in same-store entertainment sales to $424 million for the quarter ended May 4. The business unit includes DVD/Blu-ray Disc movies, video game hardware and software, books, music CDs and computer software.
Entertainment sales declined less than 1% to $504 million in the previous-year period.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
International entertainment sales dropped 14% to $33 million, compared to an 8.3% decline to $41.8 million in the previous-year period.
Overall, Best Buy upped domestic operating income 24.3% to $332 million from $267 million last year. Revenue upped less than 1% to $8.48 billion from $841 billion.
The largest comparable sales growth drivers were appliances, wearables and tablets.
Domestic ecommerce revenue of $1.31 billion increased 14.5% on a comparable basis primarily due to higher average order values and increased traffic. As a percentage of total domestic revenue, online revenue increased to 15.4% versus an increase to 13.6% last year.
On June 11, CEO Hubert Joly transitions to the newly created position of executive chairman. CFO and strategic transformation officer Corie Barry becomes Best Buy’s fifth CEO and first female chief executive.
Joly appears to relish the transition from day-to-day operations to cushy board oversight.
“I am very proud of the seamless transition we have decided to implement, as it reflects positively on our momentum as well as our focus on executive development and succession planning,” Joly said in a statement.