Our latest update to our Digital Go-To-Market Review series for brands looks at the consumer electronics sector. Electronics store sales peaked in 2007, and since then, an ever-growing proportion of consumer electronics sales has moved online.* In 2020, 64% of US online adults said that they made a consumer electronics purchase online on a computer, smartphone, or tablet.**

However, selling consumer electronics online can have its perils. For example, online marketplaces can promise access to vast swaths of new customers — but potentially also arm’s-length relationships with those customers. Other considerations include less control around placement, plus potential proximity to gray-market sellers for brand goods.

So what’s a brand manufacturer to do? Take control.

To help them do that, Forrester’s Digital Go-To-Market Review series evaluates a set of brands in a specific category to see how well they are positioned to thrive independently. In this review, we evaluated 23 consumer electronics brands on five elements, covering 20 subelements. Specifically, for each brand, we reviewed its:

  • Direct-to-consumer strength.
  • Brand visibility online.
  • Distribution and e-control.
  • Organic consumer enthusiasm.
  • Product innovation.

From this review, we rated seven brands as best-in-class: Apple, Bose, Canon, HP, iRobot, Logitech, and Microsoft. To learn more about what makes these brands stand apart and best practices for this sector overall, please see the newly published summary report, “Digital Go-To-Market Review: Consumer Electronics Brands, 2021.”

To learn more about our brand manufacturer research and the Digital Go-To-Market Review — and what your company should do based on these findings — please email Madeline Cyr (mcyr@forrester.com), me (skodali@forrester.com), or your Forrester account manager.

 

Sources:

* U.S. Census Bureau’s Monthly Retail Trade Report

** Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics® Retail Consumer Buyer Journey Survey, 2020 (base: 5,322 online adults who have purchased consumer electronics in the past six months)