Introduction

The onset of recession and a weak technology pipeline has seen electricals sales plummet over the last two years. At the same time, competition for market share is intensifying, as the likes of the grocers, online players, John Lewis and Best Buy expand. Consequently, retailers are having to formulate strategies to protect margins which are under unprecedented pressure.

Scope

*Market size, sales and growth rates to 2010 for the electricals market overall and for seven subcategories.

*Comprehensive profiles of all significant UK electricals retailers including Argos, Asda, Comet, DSGi, Game Group, Jessops, John Lewis and Tesco.

*2004-2009 market share data for all major sector participants.

*Space allocation data for all key retailers for 28 product categories.

Highlights

Electricals is set to be the second worst performing retail category in both 2009 (declining by 7.0%) and 2010 (declining by 3.5%), only outperforming furniture & floorcoverings. Moreover, with non-specialists and online players continuing to grow, the outlook for specialists is even tougher.

The video games market has now entered a massive decline, due to this life-cycle of consoles reaching maturity. Consequently brown goods have fallen to 51.8% of electricals spending in 2009, down from 52.7% in 2008, with white goods making a small recovery, due to a stabilisation of the housing market.

Retailers are developing their own brand lines, in an attempt to give them a point of difference. Another noticeable shift has seen specialists fostering closer links between their electricals and entertainment offers. PC World, Apple and HMV have been conspicuous proponents of this and it is likely to be a key component of Best Buy's strategy.

Reasons to Purchase

*Benchmark your performance against your competitors and compare future development plans.

*Establish how the market will perform over the next year, identifying the opportunities offered by individual product categories.

*Gain competitive advantage by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of all significant players in the UK electricals market.