Best Buy Warns Sales of Some Items Won't Continue at Holiday Pace

Shares of Best Buy were falling in Thursday trading after the retailer said sales at U.S. stores open at least a year rose 2.6% during the holiday period but online growth slowed and sales of some items will likely not continue at the same pace. For online, comparable sales rose 13.4% on higher conversion rates and increased traffic, but the growth was slower than the 23.5% increase reported in the year-ago period. Best Buy cited pressure related to last year's initial roll-out of ship-from-store, an industry-wide drop in tablet sales and the absence of any big product launches. Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer Sharon McCollam said in a statement that U.S. sales of mobile phones, home theater items and other consumer electronics goods probably won't continue at holiday levels.