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This holiday season the HMV Group hopes to benefit from the X Factor effect that should inspire a strong demand for music among Christmas shoppers. The store is currently waging against the declined sales of video games and the drastic discounts being given at Borders, according to the Guardian.

The top selling albums for the season thus far are that of former television reality contestants, such as the debut from Susan Boyle, HMV Group chief executive Simon Fox tells the paper.
“We had a record Christmas last year and in terms of absolute sales, because we clearly have more stores, we will beat our sales numbers all being well for the weeks ahead,” Fox said. “We think the lineup of products looks strong.”

The second half is when the retail group makes all of its profit, and this season sees the company setting up “pop-up” locations in areas where they have no permanent stores. In this way HMV hopes to make the most out of the market opportunity that opened when rival stores Woolworths and Zavvi closed. According to Fox, these locations are performing better than expected. The company recently revealed its pre-tax losses as £24.9 million, which can be compared with last year’s £27.5 million.

Fox said of the company’s new endeavors in live music and film: “We want our customers’ full entertainment spend, whether they are at home watching the DVD or whether they are going out to a gig or a film.”
HMV can’t lay an entire claim on the book market, however, as the closing sales of Borders UK will be difficult to compete with this season. Waterstones, owned by the HMV Group, already shows a 5.1 per cent fall during first-half like-for-like sales.