Barnes & Noble today reported its holiday sales results from the nine-week period that ended on December 28th. While most major companies saw record breaking sales throughout the holiday season, B&N wasn’t able to replicate their success. In fact, its Nook business lost quite a bit of ground that it had gained around the same period in 2012. Total revenue from Nook, which includes accessories and devices sales as well as digital content, totalled just $125 million, slumping 65.5 percent as opposed to the same time in 2012.
Nook devices and accessories didn’t see much interest from consumers throughout the holiday season, sales fell 66.7 percent year-over-year. Barnes & Noble says that lower average selling prices and slow sales are to blame for the decline. It pulled in $36.5 million during the holiday season through digital content sales, registering a 27.3 percent year-over-year decline. Retail sales at its brick-and-mortar stores also registered a decline, albeit a small one, at 6.6 percent. B&N released these figures after announcing the immediate appointment of Michael Huseby as CEO yesterday. Huseby will be focusing on the Nook business and believes that the decline is largely due to the company’s decision not to release any new devices in 2013. On the other hand, its rival Amazon reported a record breaking holiday season, naming Kindle Fire tablets and e-readers as some of the most sold devices in the run up to Cyber Monday.
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