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Although Wal-Mart Stores, Inc's (WMT) has been trying to catch up with Best Buy Co., Inc.'s (BBY) hold on the consumer electronics market for over a few years now, perhaps the world's largest discount chain is finally getting serious.
In 2008, Wal-Mart re-invented the way it displayed flat-panel televisions to try and merchandise them in a manner consistent with the pure consumer electronics players -- like Best Buy and the now-defunct Circuit City. That was a good start -- but other gadgets -- to this day -- still are not merchandised as well as consumer electronics chains.
If Wal-Mart can get the "store inside a store" concept and have actual, functional electronics that consumers can touch, hold and use (as opposed to a locked-down, mockup laptop PC), it may have a chance. And, a boost to its bottom line will follow
Perhaps, Wal-Mart will get this new attitude on consumer electronics to help it grow sales even faster than it did in 2009 when consumers flocked from their usual shopping haunts to the discount-laden aisles of Wal-Mart. WMT shares have not budged above $60 for over five years, even though WMT peaked near that in the summer of 2008. The consumer electronics sector has been one of the very few categories to be quite recession-resistant, so one would have thought that re-vamping the entire display and presentation of those products would have been a priority in 2009.
Of the four local Wal-Mart's I've visited in the last few weeks, the consumer electronics presentation was no match for the touchy-feely feel of a Best Buy aisle. Still, Wal-Mart's consumer electronics sales in 2009 totaled $33 billion -- or 13% of sales. Where would WMT be if 20% of sales were from consumer electronics?
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