Mirrorless Camera Sales Dropped by 50% in March, According to BCN Data

Japanese firm BCN Retail released its camera sales report for March, and the numbers are undeniably grim. In Japan, mirrorless camera sales dropped by over 50% year-over-year in March, with little reason to believe they’ll rebound in the coming months.

BCN numbers should always come with asterisk, since the firm only reports on a sample of online and physical retailers in Japan, but there’s little reason to believe that this pandemic-induced sales slump would somehow be limited to Japanese retailers. As such, these numbers give us our first, raw data-based glimpse at the financial fallout camera makers are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread economic shutdown it has caused.

According to the BCN data, Sony sales volume dropped by 44.5%, Olympus by 54.9%, and Canon by 32.3%. Fujifilm, in fourth place, actually saw its sales volume increase year-over-year, but overall sales of mirrorless cameras still dropped by a whopping 50.5%, compared to a more standard 9.9% drop in January.

These BCN figures are almost certainly a harbinger of a brutal 2020 for camera makers, in Japan and beyond. When they are made available, Q1 and Q2 numbers from CIPA will be far more revealing, but likely just as grim.

(via DPReview)

Image credits: Header image by Luke Lung, CC0