On 19th November, Best Buy (BBY) delivered the latest news on retailing sales figure this year. Its stock has fallen down by nearly 6%. This news has disappointed investors and struggled companies particularly in the electronic market. It is expected that the coming holiday (shopping) seasons at Christmas and New Year will not boost retailing sales revenue in electronic market much – it may even reducing. Worse still, some other big box stores like Walmart (WMT), Nordstrom (JWN) and Macy’s (M) are not very optimistic about the holiday shopping season as well. Another apparent change of shopping pattern is discovered, that customers start purchasing more big-ticket items, such as vehicles and furnitures, instead of small-ticket ones, such as tablets and phones.

At this point, we still cannot decide whether this change of shopping pattern is temporary. However, this is an alert to remind developers and retailers that the thriving electronic market nowadays may not be permanent. They should always take a very close look at the social, economic and environmental trend apart from “creating” the trends, in order to secure profit level. Otherwise, overly aggressive investment may result in similar situation with Best Buy – although sales of big-ticket items go up, the company is offset by the declined sales of small-ticket items, eventually creating a loss more than a gain.

Reference: http://money.cnn.com/2015/11/19/investing/retailers-hurt-before-black-friday/index.html?iid=SF_LN