Opinion: Xmas brings cheers and tears for retailers

For the 28 days ended 21 December, Harvey Norman sales rose slightly by 8.7 percent when compared to the same period last year.

The report was part of Gerry Harvey’s promise to maintain like for like written sales for the previous 28 days, to give an indication of consumer confidence in spending.

Despite Harvey Norman slight rise in sales, online retailers were feeling a nice warm glow and it wasn’t just from the nice hot summer weather hitting Sydney.

Online retailer, Amazon claimed this year was the best year in holiday sales, since its start 14 years ago.

According to Amazon the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, 15 December, which was a “record-breaking 72.9 items per second”.

Amazon claimed its top sellers in consumer electronics included Samsung's 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Colour, the Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) and the Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, XP Home, 6 cell battery), sapphire blue.

While Nintendo Wii dominated the top sellers in video games and hardware including the Wii console, the Wii remote controller and the Wii nunchuk controller.

In software, the top sellers included Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Norton Antivirus 2009 and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition.

However the news wasn’t so good for all online retailers.

Ferrier Hodgson partner David Kidman was appointed joint receiver and manager of
EzyDVD, an Australian-owned online DVD and entertainment retailer.

The Adelaide-based store has 58 outlets across Australia, comprising 26 company-owned
stores and 32 franchised outlets and the group’s annual turnover is approximately $95m.

Only company-owned stores are affected by the receivership.

Kidman, said all EzyDVD stores would operate normally while an urgent assessment of the
company’s trading position was undertaken and the business was offered for sale.

EzyDVD employs approximately 70 full-time staff in its Torrensville, SA, warehouse and
distribution facility and in management roles in company-owned stores spanning all states.

In addition there are approximately 150 casual employees nationally.

He said EzyDVD’s financial difficulties appeared to stem from its significant debt
burden, substantial operating losses incurred in 2007 and 2008 and a trading slowdown in recent months.

With the Christmas period over and the New Year just around the corner it will be interesting to see which stores shine brightly with the weather and those that fold.

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