It was a blue Christmas at Best Buy. The $11 billion in revenue that the electronics chain brought in during the nine weeks ended Jan. 2 was down 3.6% from the previous year’s holiday shopping season.
If it’s any consolation, digital sales were up 12.6% to $1.7 billion. Judging by the stock, down about 9% in midday trading in New York, it wasn’t.
The decline in sales was particularly acute for phones, tablets (so much for Apple coming to the rescue), and digital cameras. The company missed its projections by enough that it had to adjust its guidance for the full fourth quarter. Instead of flat US sales, it now expects to report a 1.5% drop compared with the same quarter of 2014.
Categories like wearables and home entertainment stanched the bleeding a bit, but clearly Best Buy needs something more if it’s going to turn things around.