Expand successful comeback online
“People are switching from downloads to streaming music, so digital is eating digital but physical music sales are recovering,” said CEO Paul McGowan. To take full advantage of that recovery, the British music icon will open a web shop for CD’s, DVD’s and games in “a matter of weeks”.
HMV soft launched a limited web shop in Ireland last year, but its website in Great Britain was a mere music blog up until now, merely active to keep the tie with the consumer alive. “We are careful that we don’t want to overcook it but there is a large potential for the UK website to lift the business””, McGowan said.
The web shop should become the highlight, for now, of its highly successful comeback. The company was more than 200 million euro in debt merely 2 years ago, which meant that its 223 record stores would have to close. More than 4,000 people would have lost their jobs, but merely a few months later, the music icon managed to survive with 140 stores thanks to Hilco’s support. Nowadays, HMV is not only profitable, it even regained its position as “largest British music seller” from Amazon.
