The NPD Group was kind enough to provide us with additional market data on the car audio specialist.
Specialists account for 21 to 23 percent of car audio & electronics retail sales, and could see their share inch up to 24 percent as electronics superstores such as Best Buy see lower unit volumes in car audio.
The full car audio & electronics retail market shrunk this year (May 2011 through May 2012) by 6 percent. So specialists must increase their sales just to hold steady in market share.
NPD Group Director of Industry Analysis Ben Arnold, believes specialists will be a able to achieve a small increase in share if they push their advantages. “It all depends on their ability to keep people coming into the stores. We’ve seen a lot of these guys go away. It depends on their ability to remain relevant in the market. But what’s going on in the electronic superstores, I think, bodes well for the specialist. A lot of that business could trickle to them.”
Electronic superstores, mass merchants and e-commerce together account for the remaining 3/4s of the car audio retail aftermarket, said NPD.
Source: CEoutlook
Get the news before your competitors do. CEoutlook is the daily brief read by over 6,500 dealers, reps and manufacturers across the mobile electronics industry. Subscribe free.
Does NPD have a number for just on line 12 volt sales? Further more, can they break out by brand? It would be very interesting to see who supports the specialty retail channel and who does not.