Buying electronics from David Jones may become a thing of the past as it focuses on better-performing fashion and beauty categories and ditches DVDs, music and games.
The department store chain will stop selling DVDs, music and games from July after continued sales declines.
A major review has also been launched to see if other poor-performing departments could be axed.
Chief executive Paul Zahra announced the changes on Thursday as he unveiled a drop in second quarterly sales, which included the crucial Christmas and New Year period.
A poor performance by David Jones’ home categories offset solid contributions from fashion and beauty in the three-month period.
Mr Zahra said the review of all departments would begin in March and that some may be ditched.
“Televisions will be under the microscope,” he said.
David Jones has been reducing the amount of space it uses to sell home products, which include DVDs, music, games, electronic and household goods.
In the past, 55 per cent of the store’s merchandise was made up of fashion and beauty products with 45 per cent for home categories.
However David Jones has increased fashion and beauty to 65 per cent while home has dropped to 35 per cent.
Home products were a major drag on second quarter sales, which dropped 1.4 per cent to $590.1 million in the three months to January 26 from the same period a year earlier.
The result, which followed a 0.3 per cent rise in the first quarter, dragged total sales for the first half down 0.7 per cent to $1.005 billion.
“The fashion and beauty business is doing very well and is actually in good shape and we are dragged down by the home categories, particular in electronics, which would include TV,” Mr Zahra said.
He said sales were particularly low during the usually lucrative month of November, which he blamed on more shoppers purchasing from international websites.
However while the National Australia Bank Online Retail Sales Index for November showed a rise in online shopping, website sales made up less than six per cent of traditional store sales.
Domestic internet sales also account for 73 per cent of all online purchases.
Mr Zahra said he believed consumer sentiment was still weak, and that the high Australian dollar and store discounting had made conditions challenging.
“It would be fair to say the federal election that’s planned for September adds to uncertainty and that can’t be good for consumers,” he said.
City Index chief analyst Peter Esho said while exiting the unprofitable DVDs, music and games categories was not a surprise, it was a couple of years too late.
He was also disappointed to hear Mr Zahra blame external factors on the poor result.
“There’s always going to be external factors that work against you particularly in retail,” he said.
“I think the market wants to see some vision.”
Shares in David Jones were down two cents at $2.66 at 1335 AEDT.
