Sainsbury's grabs entertainment share from rivals

The grocer held 6.6% of the entertainment market in the 12 weeks to September 30, up from 4.6% in the 12 weeks to October 2, according to Kantar Worldpanel.

Tesco and Asda have recorded respective share declines of 2.5 and 1.2 percentage points to 12% and 9.9%.

Sainsbury’s launched a standalone entertainment website last year, began offering music downloads earlier this year and acquired a stake in eBook specialist Anobii in June.

Amazon remains the market leader with 20.3% of the market, up from 16.9% last year. HMV’s market share has declined to 16.1% from 16.7% although this is a slower rate of decline than in previous quarters.

Game, which collapsed into administration in March, now holds 5.5% of the market, down from 8.1% in 2011. iTunes now holds 9.1%, up from 6.3% last year, as shoppers continue to migrate to buying entertainment product online.

Play.com lost share, down to 3%, while Morrisons also lost ground slipping 0.9% to 2.9%.

Kantar Worldpanel consumer insight director Fiona Keenan said: “Sainsbury’s success in the entertainment market is partly down to consumers switching their spend from other retailers, in particular from HMV and Game. However, it has also managed to encourage existing shoppers to spend more – those customers who purchased entertainment products from Sainsbury’s in the third quarter of last year spent an extra £4m on videos, games and music in the same quarter this year.

“Sainsbury’s will also be benefitting from increased footfall with the number of times shoppers visit its stores growing by 2.6% year-on-year over the same 12 week period. As 51% of the retailer’s entertainment sales come from impulse purchases, having shoppers in its stores more often will naturally lead to growth in non-food categories too.”

Entertainment Market Share (Source: Kantar Worldpanel)