According to data from market research firm Kantar, sales of DVDs, CDs and video games fell by 19% in the three months to the end of June.
DVD sales were most affected, with sales down 28%, compared to a 14% fall for video games and 11% for CDs.
The share of sales taken by supermarkets and specialist retailers declined as that of online retailers and marketplaces grew: Amazon now claims 25% (up from 22% for the same period last year) while eBay is on 5.8% (up from 4%).
“Amazon and eBay are increasingly popular with shoppers wanting to get the latest release without leaving their homes, particularly if a traditional retailer has disappeared from their local high street,” said Claire McClelland, consumer specialist at Kantar, in remarks reported by the Guardian.
“There’s a lot of competition out there for DVD retailers, particularly in the form of online streaming services,” she added.
“No longer just for young people, older generations are becoming increasingly tech-savvy and more confident at using these platforms and they are buying DVDs less often as a result.”
A report from media regulator Ofcom last week showed that a record 47% of British homes now subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Now TV or Disney Life – a full 13.3 million homes.
And new ONS data indicates how older consumers’ shopping habits are changing: in 2019, 82% of UK adults had bought goods or services online in the last 12 months, as had 54% of over 65s – the first time that over half of this age group could be defined as online shoppers.
Sourced from Guardian, ONS; additional content by WARC staff