Compact digital camera sales declining, digital SLR sales growing

Summer in the northern hemisphere is peak tourism season, and has traditionally been associated with vacations, road trips and other occasions that call for the purchase of new camera gear.

In recent years, however, an interloper has entered this equation - the smartphone. With nearly everyone now shooting digital images and smartphones over the last year or two now boasting cameras that produce prints better than film ever did, it's easy to imagine that dedicated camera sales might be feeling the pinch.

To test this hypothesis, we decided to take a look at camera sales on eBay over the past year, to see whether camera sales have begun to decline or whether the huge digital camera boom of the late '90s and 2000s continues into the present.

There are two basic categories of digital cameras these days - compact cameras designed for consumers that are light on tinkering and professional-grade features and also light in the hand, and digital "SLR" cameras that offer higher image quality and interchangeable lenses, and that appeal to photography enthusiasts, semi-pro and professional photographers.

We decided to compare the trajectories of these two groups of cameras to see what changes might be in store for the camera marketplace on eBay.

Comparing compact digital cameras vs. DSLRs

To run these numbers, we first searched for the keyword phrase "digital camera -DSLR" (the last term to exclude digital SLR cameras) across all eBay categories. A Terapeak category search shows that 100 percent of matching listings occur in camera-related categories, so we can be confident that the numbers capture only cameras and accessories.

The size of the holiday spike makes these charts deceptive. While there is an obvious downward trend in both cases, what the scale of the chart makes less obvious is the size of the drop, with a decline in dollar volume that is on the order of 25 percent since this time last year.

Given that annual volume for compact digital cameras and accessories is currently just above $200 million, this movement represents a large shift in the way that consumers are spending their dollars.

Click here to read the rest of the story on Terapeak.com, an eBay sales analytics service provider. Sellers new to Terapeak can try it at no cost for 7 days to fill their pricing, sourcing, competitive research and market intelligence needs.

Terapeak has partnered with eBay directly in order to provide near real-time sales data to its customers, organized in such a way as to make selling on eBay as easy and as profitable as possible. Terapeak's direct link to eBay's sales database provides for some of the fastest and most comprehensive eBay sales data available. Included analytics and sales successes mean that eBay sellers and product suppliers will be able to see what is hot at the moment and respond quickly to market changes.

See a comparison table of selected DSLR camera and DSLR camera accessory suppliers on GlobalSources.com