Irvine’s Vizio Inc. and Aliso Viejo’s Buy.com Inc. said they saw a strong kickoff to the holiday shopping season, even as sales around Black Friday proved disappointing for most.
Vizio, which designs, markets and sells flat TVs through Costco, Wal-Mart and other stores, said its sales doubled on Black Friday and the following Monday, dubbed Cyber Monday for a rush of online shopping.
“I was at a Wal-Mart on Black Friday and I saw a lot of activity in the electronics department,” said Laynie Newsome, Vizio cofounder and vice president of marketing communications. “Our sales are extremely strong across the board.”
Vizio has sold about 6 million TVs so far this year, up from 3.6 million in 2008. The company has yearly sales of about $2 billion.
Buy.com, which runs an online store that competes with Amazon.com Inc., called Cyber Monday the best day in the company’s 12-year history.
“We expect to see this trend continue for the remainder of the holidays,” Chief Executive Neel Grover said.
The bullish talk contrasts with what turned out to be a disappointing Black Friday for most U.S. retailers.
Retailers’ November sales—heavily back loaded by Black Friday—fell 0.3% from a year earlier, according to the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers.
Industry watchers were looking for a gain of 5% to 8%.
Electronics buying and online sales appear to have held up better.
Online shopping rose 35% from Black Friday in 2008, according to San Mateo Web marketing company Coremetrics.
Sales of consumer gadgets were up 6% from a year earlier, according to the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Electronics Association.
“We are revising our official forecast for the year because sales are looking better than they were six months ago,” said Shawn DuBravac, chief economist and director of research at the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group for consumer electronics companies.
Flat-panel TVs, Blu-ray DVD players, smartphones and netbooks—the smaller cousins of laptops—have proven to be bright spots, according to the association.
Sales of Blu-ray players are expected to be up 112% in 2009 from 2008, according to association data.
Digital TVs are expected to be up 11%, while smartphone sales are seen growing 7%.
Vizio’s formula of selling TVs made in Asia for less than those of big-name rivals seems a good fit with the times.
The company’s TVs can sell for $500 less than sets from Samsung Group, Royal Philips Electronics NV, Sony Corp., LG Group and others.
Vizio also is seeing small but growing sales of new products that go hand-in-hand with digital TVs, the company’s Newsome said.
They include home theater speakers, Blu-ray players and cables.
“We saw some very big numbers there,” she said. “It was all incremental sales since it’s a new category we hadn’t participated in before.”
Vizio, like others, did some discounting to boost sales.
At Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., a Vizio soundbar and wireless subwoofer went for $200, about $40 off.
At Wal-Mart, one Vizio TV was discounted by $100. A 55-inch high-definition set at Costco went for $2,000, or about $300 less than usual.
“While shoppers are looking for the lowest prices and the best return on their dollar, they also are feeling more confident than last year,” Buy.com’s Grover said.
On Cyber Monday, Buy.com counted its most visitors and orders in an hour, he said.
“We’re continuing to see very strong sales in all categories, led by sales in consumer electronics and technology products,” Grover said.
Black Friday also was a record breaker for Buy.com, with sales up 120% from a year earlier, according to Grover.
Privately held Buy.com doesn’t disclose actual sales figures. The Business Journal estimates the company at about $500 million in yearly sales.
