Amazon topples HMV to become UK's biggest entertainment retailer

The etail giant grew its share across music, video and games from 19.4% to 22.4% in the 12 weeks to December 25, according to figures from Kantar Worldpanel.

HMV has conceded the top spot as its share dropped from 19.6% to 17.5% “as the retailer lost ground in both the video and music markets”.

The report found that the majority of HMV’s decline came through reduced sales in its high street stores, with the online arm of the business only “falling slightly” in terms of share.

Amazon’s strong market share growth is expected to continue into 2012, the report found.

Game saw its share grow from 7.5% to 7.7%.

Supermarkets, which have been encroaching on the entertainment specialists’ territory for some time  - put in a mixed performance, with Asda and Morrisons losing share.  However, the top four supermarkets all feature in top 10 biggest players in terms of share.

Kantar Worldpanel consumer insight director Fiona Keenan said: “Amazon’s strong performance is down to a number of factors: it is typically really competitive on price, has a wide range of products with no restriction on display space, and is known for its very good customer service.”

The value of the entertainment market fell by just under 4% compared with the same period last year, although this decline was lower than the 8% drop experienced in the run up to Christmas in 2010.

Keenan said:  “Despite Christmas being a popular time for shoppers to buy DVDs, games and music, spending was down on the same period last year.  We saw a lot of retailers, particularly supermarkets, promoting savings on big releases like ‘Harry Potter’ when shoppers spent money elsewhere in store and this will have taken some value out of the market.  The number of people buying items in the home entertainment market also declined this year.”