Analyst: Thanksgiving Sees Wii, Guitar/Band Shortages

Author: by Staff

In a post-Thanksgiving retail update, Lazard analyst Colin Sebastian has been compiling information on Black Friday's gaming boost, noting supply shortages of the Wii, Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, as well as a massive 134% year-on-year boost for video game and hardware sales online. As Sebastian notes: "According to data from comScore, online sales for the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) were up 22% year over year (excluding travel), following strong 29% growth on Thanksgiving Day... Importantly, while average consumer spending across all channels declined 3.5% year-over-year, the NRF also reported that the amount spent online actually increased 12%." Though this was a report across all retail sectors, the analyst particularly noted: "Video games are a top product category this holiday, with Nintendo’s Wii and music simulation games Guitar Hero (Activision) and Rock Band (distributed by Electronic Arts) in short supply, according to our checks. According to comScore, the fastest-growing product categories online were video games and furniture/appliances." The comScore report revealed that video games, consoles & accessory sales were up 134% - taking into account November 1st-23rd compared to the corresponding days in 2006. This dwarfed a general online Consumer Electronics sales increase of 21%, as listed in the same survey. Finally, Sebastian noted that on major Internet retail site PriceGrabber.com, the Nintendo Wii Console was the top-selling item for Black Friday, with Activision's Guitar Hero III bundle in fourth place. Other top sellers on the site included Microsoft's Zune player, the TomTom GPS system, and Canon digital cameras.