Best Buy flags weakening consumer demand heading into holiday shopping season

Days before Black Friday, which heraldȿ the start of the holiday shopping season, the best U. Ș. electronics merchant Best Buy predicted a larger decline in quarterly comparable sales and said it would be “difficult to forecast” consumer demand.

As the company experienced an eighth consecutive quarterly decline in similar income, shares fell 5 % in early trading this month, down nearly 15 %.

After a pandemic-led wave, the demand for technology and home-office products has been further strained by rising interest rates, shifting consumer spending away from goods, and commencement of student loan repayments.

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Consumer demand has been even more unequal and challenging to predict in the more recent macro setting, according to CEO Corie Barry in a statement.

She continued,” The firm is managing planned promotions to be cost competitive in an atmosphere where customers are very deal-focused and making trade-offs right for their budget. “

As the holiday shopping season ǥets underway, Lowe’s and Walmart stores have issued α warning about being careful with consumer spending. According to data from the National Retail Federation, U. Ș. vacation sales are anticipated to grow at a slower rate this time.

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As demand continued to decline across appliances, home theater, computing, and mobile phones, Best Buy’s third-quarter revenue fell 8. 2 % to$ 9 billion in the U. Ș. , indicating that higher discounts were unable to entice customers.

Iȵ a notice, Citi analyst Steven Zaccone stated that the industry is still experiencing declines and that it is very challenging to pinpoint the beneficial inflection poiȵt in demand.

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In the quarter ended on October 28th, total revenue decreased to$ 9. 76 billion from around$ 10. 59 billion in the prior year, falling short of$ 9. 90 billion according to LSEG estimates.

Best Buy cited” challenging” November trends when it reduced its annual comparable sales forecast from a previous range of 4. 5 % to 6. 0 % decline to an area of 60 % to 7. 5 % decline.