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CE sales from Black Friday through December 23, 2006, jumped 6.5 percent over 2005's tally, to $8.75 billion, according to analyst NPD Group. Concurrently, the Consumer Electronics Association is projecting that factory-to-dealer CE sales will surpass the $155 billion mark this year, a 7 percent gain over 2006.
In order to claim their piece of the ever-growing CE pie, the 101 merchants listed in this year's Dealerscope registry are buying new companies, testing new store formats, and entering or exiting markets. In the process, their revenues are growing: Registry retailers rang up $196.93 billion in sales during 2006, a 7.52 percent increase over 2005's $183.16 billion. But polarization of the retail market continues. In 2006, the Top 10 CE retailers snagged sales of $137.65 billion, commanding roughly 70 percent of the entire registry.
Finding new markets, and pulling out of unprofitable ones, seems to be a key strategy. Best Buy, for example, in 2006 opened its first store in Shanghai. Bose, finding the profitability in its dozen Indian stores, hopes to double its store count...