Customers ‘recognise pre-owned’s value’, says GAME

While the UK’s leading games specialist retailer GAME today confirmed sales were down over Christmas, the chain has said its preowned offer continues to grow.

Across all territories the firm operates in, it said second-hand sales presented year-on-year growth over Christmas.

A year ago, the firm started reporting specific figures for its pre-owned sales separately for the first time, revealing second-hand was 18 per cent of its sales in FY08, rising to 25 per cent in the first half of FY09.

So the firm could be in track to report a further rise in pre-owned sales when it announces its full-year results in April.

In its trading statement this morning the firm, which operates GAME and GameStation, singled out pre-owned games as a key part of its offer and part of the reason why sales were resilient at the chain despite a 24 per cent drop in the total market for the UK – while GAME’s sales in the country were down just 15 per cent.

The trading update said: "Preowned, in particular, has continued to perform well for us in every territory, showing year on year growth over the Christmas period with more customers recognising the value for money that it provides.

"The increased participation of preowned in the sales mix has, as anticipated, increased our gross margin year on year.

"However, this has been partially offset by the console bundle deals we introduced to drive revenues through December in a very competitive market."