Online Sales Dominate High Capacity Memory Cards UK Market

British consumers have a thirst for memory, driven by the need to store ever greater quantities of information in digital form. As a result of this, it will come as no surprise that the Memory Card market has seen good growth this year, up 31% in May 2008 compared with the same period last year according to GfK Retail and Technology.

In May 2008, sales in the UK reached nearly one million cards. Standard Memory Cards used in a camera are still seeing positive growth, despite the increase from the Micro card sector (predominately used within a mobile phone). However, the little value growth there is in the market is coming from these smaller card types.

The average price of a card is now just £16 (US$30), half that of two years ago, despite the increase in the average capacity per card sold. The 1GB and 2GB cards now account for just over 80% of the market with the higher capacities gradually taking share.

With this in mind, it is worth looking at the online market, where the prices are considerably lower than those of the high street, leading consumers to upgrade at least a capacity by purchasing online. In January as many as one in four cards were sold online. Currently, 22% of the 2GB market is sold online with this increasing to 42% for the 4GB sector. Not really surprising when a 4GB card sold online is half the price of the high street.

We can therefore conclude that price does remain an issue for many high street retailers although it is still important to note that there are other features, such as speed, which need to be taken into account when purchasing a card (especially for a higher specification camera) and the personal service from high street retailers may assist in selling consumers these higher spec cards.

Posted to the site on 7th July 2008