Gear4music in harmony with consumers using COVID-19 to explore new hobbies

Following today’s release of Gear4music FY figures for 2019/20, Thomas Brereton, Retail Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, comments:

“It would be difficult to find more nurturing environment for an online-only musical instrument retailer than what is the new normal for many consumers around the world. With shoppers on lockdown and finding themselves with more time on their hands, many are using this to start new or develop old hobbies, with playing, creating and recording music one of the preferences. For example, UK consumer data (asked at the start of June) shows that 7.1% of the country are playing or learning a musical instrument as a result of increased time at home; for a market that is somewhat niche (only 13.2% of people regularly played an instrument pre-COVID-19), this is a very significant uplift.

“And few are better placed to make gains from budding musicians than Gear4music. From the perspective of shoppers, its mature and user-friendly online platform offers a wide choice of products and brands, with entry price points much lower than many competitors and well-suited to an amateur wanting to experiment. And from an operational standpoint, its lack of physical showrooms (which other brands and independents rely heavily on) in combination with supply efficiencies (brought about as a year focused on profit margin improvement in 2019) have allowed day-to-day business to run as uninterrupted as feasibly possible in these conditions.

“The focus for Gear4music must now be on its one to three year strategy. The virus is almost certain to be followed by a severe recession in many countries, and as consumers trim non-essential spending, investment in replacing or upgrading music-related products will fall far down the list of spend priorities. In order to combat dependence on product sales, Gear4music should become more involved in livestreaming and music-sharing platforms – either through sponsorship of existing players or hosting new events – which will enable to generate new revenue streams outside of traditional retail while also building brand awareness.”

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