The Metro Group-controlled Media Markt cancels entry in the Norwegian market, shelving 3 years of plans according to Norwegian business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

Back in March 2011 Media Markt announced it was going to open a total of 20 retail outlets in Norway, with one giant shop rivalling leading Nordic competitor, Elkjøp, in size. Stores were to open by Q3 2012, and Media Marked had even signed a number of land-related contracts.

But now, according to the Dagens Næringsliv, Metro will i Continue reading...

Karlstad-based game publisher and distributor Nordic Games acquires the Norwegian and Swedish GAME operations, saving the retail chain within the nordic region.

The deal covers 44 Swedish and 11 Norwegian GAME retail outlets, together with the associated online stores in both countries. Combined the stores employ 270 people and service around 600000 customers.

The new owner also has a license for the use of GAME branding.

Nordic Games founder and majority shareholder Lars Wingefors acts as Managing Continue reading...

The Best Buy board forces founder Richard Schultze to resign from chairman, following his failure to report the "improper relationship" between former CEO Brian Dunn and a 29-year old female employee.

The board investigation says the Dunn's relationship "negatively impacted the work environment." However, since it didn't involve "misuse" of company resources, Dunn still receives a golden parachute worth $6.6 million.

Dunn suddenly resigned from the Best Buy board on April 10 2012, following the Continue reading...

Dixons fears Greece will exit the Eurozone-- speaking to the Financial Times, Dixons CEO Seb James says the retailer has plans on which outlets to close and how to protect others against civil unrest following such a decision.

“We have to be ready,” James says. “One day to the next, sometimes it feels like they are about to leave, sometimes it feels like it’s going to be fine... What would happen day one, day two, day three?"

The contingency plans reflect nervousness (if not fears) among companies Continue reading...

Sure, the customer is King but that's about to change. Now the customer will become a real Dictator.

Retailers, already facing massive disruption to their business model from the Internet, will now be forced to confront further shifts of power into consumer hands.

Imagine if consumers knew exactly WHEN to purchase a consumer electronics product to minimize their spend? How many consumers would follow pricing cycles to buy cheaper-- and how much would that impact retailer margin?

Oren Etzioni's latest startup, Decide.com applies to consumer electronics and appliances the same science behind Farecast (Etzioni started this travel-fare prediction company and then sold it to Microsoft for Bing.)

Decide analyzes web sources (thousands of sources on the history of prices, the models in the range, even to rumors of new models) to answer the consumer's most important question: WHEN to buy or wait on their consumer electronics purchases.

According to The Telegraph, Kesa might be saying "addio" to the Italian market-- at least if it follows advice from financial services provider UBS.

“Sadly Kesa has been in the eye of the European storm,” UBS says. “The tough macro conditions in Spain are well documented and the austerity measures to be undertaken in both Spain and Italy are likely to constrain consumer demand over the next few years.”

Kesa has 24 stores in Italy-- and has already shut down "some" stores, The Telegraph says. Analysts Continue reading...

Russian electronics retailer M.Video posts strong results for Q1 2012-- with unaudited net sales growing by 18.8% Y-o-Y (or 30.6% Q-o-Q) to total €1 billion euro.

The results follow an equally strong 2011 for the retailer, when total net sales grew by 29.3% Y-o-Y to reach €3.4 billion.

During Q1 2012 M.Video also opened 7 stores, together with one closure in St Petersburg. It now has 267 retail outlets (with overall sales space of 492000 square metres) and plans to open 25-35 new stores in 201 Continue reading...

Canalys predicts "many more" CE retailers will follow the likes of Surcouf, Best Buy Europe, CompUSA and Circuit City to die from the high streets due to failure to survive in the current market.

According to the analyst, the city centres of 2020 will be a different sight from those today, with "many famous retailers" disappearing.

It reminds one of the dodo and its failure to survive after that most dangerous of hunters (man) invaded its Mauritius island home...

In our case, driving retailers out of business is the "perfect storm" of internet retail and supermarkets, as the competition undercuts on prices while offering a superior consumer experience.