Across key categories.

JB Hi-Fi CEO Richard Murray has revealed the top consumer electronics product categories sold through JB Hi-Fi over the Christmas period.

The list of top products was a consolidated result for the six months of trading from July to December 2017, including the crucial Christmas period.

“We are able to enjoy above market growth in key categories as customers see us as a destination for new products but also enjoyed solid gains in established categories,” Murray said this week during the results for the six month period.

Hardware and Services, which is defined by JB Hi-Fi as all sales excluding music, movies and games software categories, grew by 13.5 per cent over the period with comparable  (otherwise known as like for like) sales up 10.4 per cent.

The key drivers were communication, computers, audio, drones and games hardware and Richard Murray provided the following analysis of each category.

Communication category highlights:
“Telco continues to be strong as we grew our outright sales and the attachment of mobile post-paid services across all brands including Apple, Samsung, Google and Oppo.”

Computers category highlights:
“Computers grew across all products with significant growth across Apple. Connected Home sold well with strong results from Google Home and home security.”

Audio category highlights:
“Audio continued to be strong – headphones performed well particularly in the wireless category. Sound bars and portable speakers also sold well.”

Drone category highlights:
“The drone category continues to expand particularly in the higher ASP premium models.”

Games Hardware category highlights:
“Games hardware grew thanks to new consoles such as the Nintendo Switch and double digit growth in accessories.

The Software category, which includes all music, movies and games software was down 6.5 per cent and on a comparable basis was down 9.3 per cent as a result of an acceleration in the decline in the Movies category, but partially offset by growth in the games software category.

“In the software category, there were solid results in gaming software, while we continue to grow market share in DVDs, headline sales continue to be a challenge,” Murray said.

“We also continue to invest in online. Sales grew 40 per cent to 4.8 per cent sales, up from 3.8 per cent for the same period last year. We saw a positive increase in our primary online KPIs including online traffic, site speed and average transaction value, delivery time and customer service queries.

“While it is pleasing to see the absolute growth in our online business, our store network is critical to this growth and our competitive advantage supporting our ability to delight customers however they wish to engage and transact with us.

“The solutions business reported double digit sales growth and remains on track to deliver on our longer term aspirational sales target of approximately $500 million per annum.”