Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/654213
Grapevine, Texas–based GameStop, a video-game, consumer-electronics and wireless-services retailer that generates about $7 billion in yearly sales and oper- ates nearly 7,000 stores across 14 coun- tries, is a dominant player in the retail gaming arena for such systems as Play- Station, Wii and Xbox. The company controls about 50 percent of the market for video-gaming software, and roughly 30 percent on the hardware side, accord- ing to Atlanta-based investment banking firm SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. HinkGeek iS AmonG THe lATeST online retailers to be testing out brick-and-mortar sales potential. This specialist in pop-culture-themed collectibles and gadgets opened its first U.S. store in September, at The Florida mall, in orlando. Such a venture is always a leap for any online retailer, of course. But ThinkGeek enjoys the benefit of some powerful backing, being a newly adopted member of the GameStop Corp. family. Game- Stop acquired Geeknet inc. — parent company of ThinkGeek and ThinkGeek Solutions — in June for roughly $140 million. GameStop's collectibles and techno- logy brands segment, which embraces the Simply mac and Spring mobile business lines, accounts for no more than 10 per- cent of companywide profits, but Game- Stop thinks that will increase to about 25 percent by 2019, according to SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. "We have been public in saying that we think the col- lectibles category could be a $500 million business for GameStop within the next three years, and we see ThinkGeek as a major way for us to get there," said eric oria, senior director of marketing and strategy. "ThinkGeek has an awesome mission, which is really to allow their cus- tomers to unleash their inner geek and express a passion for all the things they get excited about," said oria. This "inner geek" stuff involves such pop brands as Game of Thrones, marvel and Star Wars. T online to in-line online vendor ThinkGeek is TesTinG sTores To sell iTs collecTibles By Beth Mattson-Teig r e T a i l i n g T o d a y 20 S C T / A p r i l 2 0 1 6