Consumer Electronics Traffic is Up, Sales Volume Down

I compared three months of statistical data from May-July 2007 and May-July 2008 for consumer electronics manufacturers Samsung, Sharp Electronics, Panasonic and Philips. Overall traffic to these manufacturer product pages was up 5% on average. Orders were up 28% and units sold were up 59%. However, actual sales dollars were down 23% as the average product price dropped from $471 to $229.

Reflective of economic conditions, this supports my thought that more people are buying online but they are being frugal in their purchases. More people are going to manufacturer Web sites and are buying more products. But the overall dollars they are spending on these products is less.

To help put it in perspective, gas prices in the May-July 2007 timeframe averaged $3.07, about $1.00 less per gallon than now.