Best Buy reports holiday revenue: store sales flat, online sales up 10% to $1.1b

Consumer electronics retail giant Best Buy today announced its holiday revenue results for the nine weeks ended January 5, 2013.

In all, the company booked $12.8 billion in revenue, slightly down from the $12.9 billion it reported for the nine weeks ended December 31, 2011.

Best Buy says store sales were essentially flat. The company did record positive comparable store sales growth in mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and appliances, but they were offset by declines in sales of entertainment, televisions and other computing devices.

Traffic to its online channels, however, increased significantly, leading to a 10 percent increase in revenue from its Domestic segment online channel compared to the prior-year period. In all, the online channel contributed $1.1 billion in sales during the end-of-year holiday period.

Best Buy president and CEO Hubert Joly commented:

“One of the first priorities of our Renew Blue strategy is to stabilize and then begin improving our comparable store sales.
…
While it will be a journey with ups and downs, we are focused on becoming an increasingly effective multi-channel retailer and engaging with the tens of millions of consumers who shop us online and in-store.”

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