Sainsbury’s to stop selling DVDs and books through its website
SAINSBURY’S is to stop selling physical DVDs, CDs, books and games through its website, as consumers increasingly shift to downloading and streaming entertainment directly to their phones and computers.
The supermarket chain will stop accepting orders for physical products from the end of February, in another sign of waning demand for physical media.
“Due to the rise in demand for downloading and streaming films and music, from March 2014 Sainsbury’s Entertainment will become a completely entertainment on demand site,” its said in a statement on its website.
Over 1,000 Sainsbury’s stores will continue to sell books, CDs and DVDs, although space dedicated to media has shrunk as retailers prioritise more profitable products such as clothing.
The move will come as a boost to retailers such as HMV, though the entertainment retailer’s collapse last year highlighted how physical media is struggling to compete with the rise of downloading and streaming of content.
Digital video sales through services such as iTunes and Netflix grew by 40 per cent to £621.4m in 2013, the Entertainment Retailers Association said last week.