What’s happened?
High-street retailers closed the gap with Amazon in CD, DVD and videogames sales over the past three months, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel. HMV, GAME and Argos all increased their market share compared with last year, while the online retail giant’s strong grip on the industry slipped by 1.2 percentage points to 20.4 per cent.
Isn’t the high street in decline?
Indeed, which makes these figures all the more surprising. Woolworths, Blockbuster and Virgin Megastores are just a few famous names that have fallen by the wayside as music, film and videogame lovers began to embrace online shopping.
So how did Kantar explain the turnaround?
It picked out the videogames market as the standout performer, with high-street spending up by 7 per cent from last year. FIFA 16, the latest in the hugely popular football franchise, was the third quarter’s best-selling title despite only going on sale at the end of September.
Will the recovery continue?
Not likely. Kantar predicts the online retailers will claw back this lost share in the run-up to Black Friday at the end of the month.
