Consumer Electronics

Technological advances in 2024 will continue to reshape consumer behaviour. This annual report explores the top five digital shopper trends that will redefine commerce the most in the year ahead. Some of the trends included in this report’s edition…

This report examines inflation levels and drivers globally and in key countries in Q4 2023 and 2024. Global inflation is moderating, although divergence remains among the key economies. Higher volatility in the energy markets and disruption of…

In the upcoming years, consumers and businesses face an array of challenges, with rising income inequality being among the key ones. Nevertheless, addressing the income inequality through catering to the Bottom of the Pyramid and the Middle Class…

The global economy is facing weaker growth and increasing fragmentation, as a result of rising geopolitical tensions, especially due to the war in Ukraine and the US-China strategic rivalry. Protectionism, industrial policy and a focus on resilience…

Wearable electronics have proven to be versatile in their various functions in the daily lives of many consumers, providing a configurable, simple, and affordable tracker for basic physical conditions through their easy connection to smartphones.…

Despite a crisis-driven year, portable players is expected to manage to achieve slightly positive growth in both volume and current value sales in 2023; this makes it one of the few product categories within consumer electronics to do so. An…

In 2023, various macroeconomic conditions have been affecting mobile phones, particularly rising prices. Persistent high inflation, as well as a scarcity of resources for manufacturing smartphones, and distribution difficulties, are expected to…

In-car entertainment in Germany is set to witness decline in 2023, with a notable decrease expected in current value terms, along with a nearly a double-digit decrease in retail volume sales. This was a continuation of the trend from previous years,…

In 2023, imaging devices is set to show a continuation of the previous pattern of declining volume sales. Within digital cameras, both compact cameras and DSLRs are expected to continue to decline, while mirrorless system cameras are projected to…

Home video is set to show negative developments in both volume and current value terms across almost all product categories in 2023. Sales of LCD TVs, which includes LED and QLED devices, are expected to experience volume and value declines in this…

Home audio and cinema had already experienced negative growth in recent years, especially due to constant improvements in televisions in terms of size, and quality of sound and picture. In 2023, decline is set to continue in retail volume terms, also…

In a year marked by economic uncertainties, consumer electronics has been negatively affected, especially in terms of volume sales. Consequently, only a few categories are expected to show positive development in both volume and value sales in 2023 –…

In 2023, mixed performances are expected in consumer electronics in terms of volume and value development. Despite the fact that volumes are expected to see a notable decline in 2023, current value sales are set to increase overall. This is primarily…

In 2023, declining retail volume sales are expected across every product category in computers and peripherals. An important factor in this is that due to the increase in demand during the pandemic, demand has now dropped. In addition, the high…

In the upcoming years, consumers and businesses face an array of challenges, with income inequality, mass migration and rising uncertainty about another crisis being among the major ones. Nevertheless, within this lie untapped opportunities. This…

Wearable electronics is seeing a small overall volume decline in 2023, although smart wearables is enjoying small positive growth. This dynamic is created by the shift away from activity wearables, towards smart wearable electronics. This is being…

Portable players is another category suffering from cannibalisation from smartphones, along with seeing competition from tablets and laptops (to a lesser extent). The main reason here is the fact that smartphones, tablets, and the like, offer…

Due to the ubiquitous nature of smartphones, one might expect that sales would be more robust, however, volume is in a marginal decline in 2023. This is attributed to the elongated product lifecycles, both due to models being of better quality, and…

In-car navigation is struggling to find sales, due to the rise of in-built systems and competition from smartphones. Indeed, there is a strong substitution trend with smartphone navigation apps, which reduce or even remove the need to purchase an…

Imaging devices is suffering from high prices in the face of ongoing cannibalisation from smartphones. Indeed, the substitution with smartphones means that many Norwegian consumers see the purchase of a separate camera as superfluous. Therefore,…

Home video is experiencing a more positive performance than many of its consumer electronics counterparts in 2023, with small volume sales. This growth, however, represents a stabilisation in volume levels following the sales spike during the height…

Home audio and cinema remains in a slump in 2023, following the pandemic era when consumers invested in their home entertainment setups during the times of lockdown. As such, following the reopening of society and a return to out-of-home lifestyles,…

Headphones is one of the few categories enjoying positive volume success in consumer electronics in 2023, thanks to the popularity of TWS earbuds. In line with the trend for wireless speakers, wireless variants of headphones (aka TWS earbuds) are…

Overall retail volumes remain in a decline in consumer electronics in Norway in 2023, with home video and headphones being the only categories seeing small volume growth overall, attributed directly to individual, well-performing subcategories (e.g.,…

In an over-arching trend, computers are peripherals is seeing overall negative volume growth in 2023. This suppressed performance is attributed to ongoing normalisation of consumer spending patterns following the atypical period of the COVID-19 era,…

There has been an increased focus on healthy tech that supports physical and mental health since the pandemic with many consumers keen to keep track of their fitness and health vitals. This continues to support demand for wearable electronics while…

Volume sales in wearable electronics are on the marginally-positive side of flat in 2023, which is slightly lower than the volume sales seen in 2022. The main trends in the category are connected to the shift from activity wearables to the greater…

Sales of portable players is recording growth in retail volume terms in 2023, but this being fuelled entirely by the growing demand for wireless speakers. E-readers continue to lose appeal while portable multimedia players have now largely…

Portable players would be an overall ailing category, was it not for the relative success of wireless speakers. In line with cross-category trends, consumers are rejecting sole-use devices for those which offer multifunctionality and convenience…

Sales of smartphones continue to decline in retail volume terms in 2023 with several factors weighing on demand. Firstly, this stagnation reflects the increasing maturity of the category with very few consumers still without a mobile phone, unless by…

Mobile phones remains in a volume decline in 2023, albeit less severe than seen in 2022. The slow sales are attributed to models’ longer lifecycles meaning elongated periods of time between replacements, in addition to the weak economic climate…

Sales of in-car entertainment continue to record a steep decline in 2023 with these products increasingly losing relevance in Sweden. New vehicles are introducing ever more advanced built-in entertainment, while for many consumers their smartphones…

In-car navigation systems continue to be cannibalised by the ubiquitous use of smartphones. Indeed, with the ongoing developments seen in smartphones and associated features and apps, there is a lessening need for consumers to purchase additional…

Sales of imaging devices are seeing a sharp decline in retail volume terms in 2023 as the category continues to lose its appeal. Consumers are increasingly satisfied with the growing sophistication of the imaging capabilities of smartphones and thus…

Imaging devices is another category which is suffering from cannibalisation from smartphones. Indeed, smartphone manufacturers are placing great emphasis on the camera and video quality in their product development, to the extent that smartphones can…

It has been a mixed few years for sales of televisions in Sweden. There was a huge spike in sales of LCD and OLED TVs in 2020 following the outbreak of COVID-19 as consumers went into self-enforced isolation. This home seclusion encouraged many…

Home video is one category in consumer electronics which is seeing positive volume growth in 2023, following the deep, negative double-digit slumps seen in sales over the past two years. This is attributed to a normalisation of sales patterns…

Sales of home audio and cinema are in long-term decline and they continue to fall in 2023, with further declines expected over the forecast period. Most home audio and cinema products have long been considered redundant by most consumers and are…

Home audio and video sales are in a negative double-digit volume slump in 2023, representing a continuation of the downward trend established in the previous review period. This shift is due to household preferences moving away from traditional home…

When it comes to headphones there continues to be a growing shift to wireless headbands and TWS earbuds with both categories continuing to enjoy healthy growth in retail volume terms in 2023. TWS earbuds remains the largest category with consumers…

Headphones is the other category in consumer electronics which is seeing positive volume growth in 2023 (albeit smaller than seen in home video, the other category performing above 1% growth). This performance in headphones is attributed to consumers…

Sales of consumer electronics continue to decline in retail volume terms in 2023 with high inflation and economic uncertainty continuing to negatively impact sales. With many households facing a drop in disposable income and with interest rate rises…

Overall volume sales continue to decrease in consumer electronics in Denmark in 2023, as purchases normalise after the positive sales seen during the COVID-19 pandemic era when consumers were spending more time at home and thus investing in their…

Sales of computers and peripherals saw a brief return to growth in 2020 as the pandemic forced a shift to homeworking; however, this positivity was short lived with sales declining in retail volume terms in 2021 and 2022 and continuing to decline in…

Computers and peripherals remain in a negative volume decline in 2023, following the spike in sales seen during the era of the pandemic, when consumers invested in their at-home office set-ups. Ultimately, this means replacement cycles have not yet…

Wearable electronics experienced a modest decline in retail volume terms in 2023. Demand continued to be impacted by the high cost of living, at least during the first half of the year, which led to more guarded discretionary spending. As in 2022,…

Portable players continued to see positive growth in retail volume terms in 2023. The category is dominated by wireless speakers, which are highly compatible with busy, “on-the-go” lifestyles, particularly since the removal of restrictions associated…

Retail sales of mobile phones in Portugal declined in volume terms in 2023, albeit at a slower rate than the previous year. Demand remained constrained by low levels of purchasing power, as home-owners continued to grapple with stagnating incomes and…

In-car entertainment continued to lose traction in 2023. With the vast majority of new vehicles sold in the country already equipped with embedded in-car infotainment systems, fewer local consumers turned to aftermarket products. Furthermore,…

Retail sales of imaging devices continued to decline in volume terms in 2023, due to cannibalisation from smartphones. While the quality of a smartphone camera is typically inferior to a dedicated digital camera or camcorder, for most local…