LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ SJ Communications) - Against the backdrop of a challenging U.S. marketplace Virgin Megastores achieved one of the most successful years the U.S. chain of stores have ever had.
"Virgin Megastores are being recognized as a lifestyle entertainment shopping destination, rather than solely a music retailer," explains Simon Wright, CEO, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America. "This is our second consecutive year that has produced sales that have exceeded our expectations. We attribute this success to a shift in our product offering, an increase in our marketing strategy and a new focus on e-commerce."
2007 has been a busy year for the North American chain of Virgin Megastores. The entire fiscal year of 2007 was a strong sales year for the Virgin Megastore chain, up 11.5% nationally since last year on a same store basis, and up more than 10% in the New York City market alone.
The chain's five largest stores have had double-digit growth over last year, with the Orlando Virgin Megastore up 24% and the west coast flagship in Hollywood up 21%. The Virgin Megastores are also making themselves more available online. The company has launched a new retail website (www.VirginMega.com), a Social Media Online Newsroom (www.VirginMegaMashup.com), a customer feedback online Bulletin Board (www.VirginMegaMashup.com/board) and a popular Blog that discusses the entertainment and fashion industry and dishes about upcoming artist events.
"We know that a large portion of our core customers spend a significant amount of time online. In order to reach out to them we created relevant sites full of product and information dedicated to what they need," states Dee Mc Laughlin, Vice President of Marketing, Virgin Entertainment Group, North America. "We re-launched our e-Commerce site, www.VirginMega.com, where we offer a much deeper catalog of music, fashion items, games, DVDs and electronics than ever before. We also launched a first-of-its-kind Social Media Mashup site, www.VirginMegaMashup.com, which brings relevant events, entertainment and a customer feedback forum to both press and to our customers. Having a strong online presence is part of our marketing strategy."
Mc Laughlin and her team were given the task to not only improve online traffic for the brand, but also increase customer traffic at the brick-and-mortar locations.
"For the first time in five years our store traffic is up over plan. We attribute this increase to hard work done by Virgin's marketing department and to our diversified product offering," explains Wright.
The brand's diversification strategy, which provides many different entertainment products to the consumer, is a contributing factor to the on-going success of the British-born entertainment retail store. These areas have seen significant sales increases in the fiscal 2007 year including: DVD sales up 13.9%, Fashion sales up 35.5%, Video Game sales up 93.9%, and Books up 19%.
"There's simply more to do in our stores these days. It's a fun place to shop - whether you're a gamer, a pop culture junkie, fashion maven or music fan," states Mc Laughlin.
ABOUT VIRGIN ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
Virgin Entertainment Group is the world's leading multi-channel music and entertainment retailer, providing customers with a range of superior entertainment experiences through a family of integrated Virgin-branded businesses. The "category killer" Virgin Megastores and Virgin Megastore Online at www.virginmega.com are integral parts of a strategy to provide entertainment customers with what they want, how they want it, and when they want it. For more information, or to check out the location of the nearest Virgin retail, go to www.virginmega.com or www.virginmegamashup.com.
