LAS VEGAS: Among consumer-electronics retailers, Amazon will probably have the most foot soldiers at CES this year.
People attend the CES media event Sunday ahead of the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Amazon sent 405 representatives to CES last year and will probably have more attendees at the show this year than any other retailer.
People attend the CES media event Sunday ahead of the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Amazon sent 405 representatives to CES last year and will probably have more attendees at the show this year than any other retailer.
Trying to dazzle gadget fans on the Consumer Electronics Show floor isn’t the main reason almost every hardware company makes the pilgrimage to Las Vegas each year.
Many companies go to CES to impress buyers from the biggest retailers and compete for prime real estate on store shelves.
This year, the store that will probably have the most foot soldiers doesn’t own any physical locations. Amazon, the third-biggest consumer-electronics retailer in the U.S., sent 405 representatives to CES 2014. Apple, the fourth-biggest, sent four, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, which puts on the conference.
The two companies have risen quickly over the past few years by gadget sales, but their presences at CES, the world’s largest annual trade show, have gone in opposite directions.
Back in 2009, when Amazon was only eighth among U.S. electronics retailers, it sent 69 reps to the annual nerd festival. Apple, then the third-largest electronics retailer, also sent 69 that year.
Apple hasn’t introduced a product at the dog-and-pony show in more than a decade — after debuting a series of flops there in the 1990s, including a video-game console and the Newton — but it steadily increased its number of reps at CES from 2009 to 2011 as the company’s retail operations grew. While Apple Stores mostly sell the company’s brand-name products, they do carry accessories from other hardware makers.
U.S. electronics sales at Apple Stores last year rose to more than $11 billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. But for some reason, Apple in 2012 cut its badge count to four, where it’s remained ever since. Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Amazon, which also didn’t respond to a request for comment, sent more employees last year than Best Buy and Wal-Mart Stores, the top two gadget retailers. Amazon sells its own products, too, but it’s a retailer first and foremost.
If CES’ influence is waning, nobody told Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
