Back-to-school sales

There were a few bright spots for the U.S. consumer technology and school and office supply industries in the back-to-school cycle, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company.

Consumer technology revenue for the 7 week back-to-school period (July 26 – September 12) declined 12.5% versus 2008, to $7.6 billion, according to NPD’s weekly tracking service. Revenue for school and office supplies at the office super stores declined 3%during this time period to $677.2 million.

“Back-to-school at the office super stores was not bad, considering the economy and what we experienced during the first half of the year,” Perry James, president of NPD’s office supplies business, said in a statement. “All-in-all, being down three percent for this time of year after being down almost 10 percent for the first half of 2009 is positive news for retailers.”

OTHER NPD NOTES
• Sales at the office super stores got a boost from flu fears as hand wipes, hand sanitizer, hand soap, and tissues saw the biggest year-over-year revenue boosts with triple and quadruple digit increases.

• Heavily promoted must-haves, such as office paper, presentation products, folders, notebooks, appointment and planner books, and calendars all saw dollar increases as well.

• Notebook PCs were the largest dollar category in consumer technology and made up 21% of all revenue.

• Revenue was flat with 2008 as the average selling price of a notebook PC went from $804 in 2008 to $624 for the 2009 back-to-school season.

• Netbooks were a big draw this year accounting for 14% of all notebook units sold for back-to-school, up from just less than 2% of sales last year.

• Major declines in average prices kept nearly all consumer technology categories from making any revenue gains, as prices ranged from flat for multi-function ink jet printers to down 30% for flat-panel TVs.