Apparently helped by a timely cold snap in many parts of the country that propped up sales of outerwear, fleece, boots and other winter categories, many sporting goods and outdoor chains appeared to have faired well or at least held their own amid a challenging Black Friday weekend.
The solid performance came despite indications that Black Friday weekend sales and traffic across retail fell modestly to sharply, despite many stores expanding their Thanksgiving evening shopping hours.
According to NRFs estimates:
Overall shopper traffic from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday, Nov. 30 dropped 5.2 percent to 133.7 million unique shopper visits versus the 2013 period;
Total shopping, including multiple trips by the same shopper, declined 6.2 percent to 233.3 million;
The average person who shopped spent $380.95 over the holiday weekend, down 6.4 percent from $407.02 last year.
Total spending was down 11.3 percent to $50.9 billion.
The projections were based on a poll of 4,631 consumers conducted on Nov. 28 and 29.
NRFs President and CEO Matthew Shay attributed the projected declines in traffic and sales to a strengthening economy that has lessoned many consumers reliance on deep discounts, a highly competitive environment, early promotions and the ability to shop 24/7 online. With sales now occurring well before Black Friday weekend and several major shopping days before Christmas, he said NRF is maintaining its holiday projection for the November-to-December period calling for a 4.1 percent gain. The increase would represent the industrys best performance in three years.
We are excited to be witnessing an evolutionary change in holiday shopping by both consumers and retailers, and expect this trend to continue in the years ahead, Shay added.
Beyond the cold weather benefit for many, sporting goods and outdoor chains appeared to not be as reliant on doorbuster deals around Black Friday that appeared to skew comparisons at many department stores, major discounters, and electronics chains. Some also received a boost from extended Thanksgiving openings.
At MC Sports, which operates more than 70 stores in the Midwest, Black Friday weekend exceeded expectations.
Traffic started out slow in the morning compared to a typical Black Friday for us, but it was amazingly strong and steady the rest of the day, Ed Rix, VP of marketing and advertising, told Sports Executive Weekly.
MC Sports sales were also helped by being open on Thanksgiving (6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) for the first time. Said Rix, We were very pleased with not only the business on that day, but that it didnt take away from the rest of our weekend.
He added, Based on our trend for November and now Black Friday weekend, we are very optimistic for the holiday season.
Schuylkill Valley Sports, a sporting goods retailer and team athletic dealer with 19 store locations serving Eastern and Central PA, also saw Black Friday weekend sales beat plan.
We had a number of stores connected to malls open at 6 p.m. on Thursday, said Greg Baldwin, VP of merchandising at Schuylkill Valley Sports. They opened at 8:00 p.m. last year. But between Thursday and Friday, sales were up slightly. The gains Thursday seemed to take a little bit from Fridays business.
Baldwin said the chains licensed business has been pretty good during the fourth quarter with the Philadelphia Eagles sitting atop the NFC East division and the Pittsburgh Steelers hanging in there as well.
He also said the cold weather snap helped boost seasonal sales.
The North Face has been very good, said Baldwin. Having that cold snap hit at the right time definitely was an advantage. It was just enough to get people thinking about jackets, gloves and heavier clothing.
Baldwin likewise remains optimistic about the holiday season. He adds, Were pleased we were up mid-single digits over the entire 4-day period from Thursday through Sunday. It was really good.
A regional sporting goods chain exec, who declined to be identified, however, found the NRF report fairly accurate on whats happening across the retail marketplace, especially the competitive pressures.
We were content with our performance, the exec stated. It wasnt a cratering disaster.
As usual, the weather helps or hurt a chains performance depending on the area. The exec added, Some places of the country got cold and had snow and it helped. Some got warmer and it hurt.
Overall, the exec said his chain remains close to plan while adding, Its not easy out there.
One large regional outdoor retailer insider who asked not to be identified told SEW that its brick and mortar stores posted a Black Friday mid single-digit increase over 2013 while lamenting that Black Friday doesnt drive the excitement like it used to.
I believe that Black Friday is becoming a bit more watered down and doesnt have the impact that it once had, the source said. More and more retailers are offering deep discounts much earlier than ever before which is undermining Black Friday sales and these same folks who would have potentially gone shopping with vigor on Black Friday have already done a fair amount of shopping.
Boots and outerwear are selling very well as is skis and snowshoes partly due to the early and unseasonably cold, wet and snowy weather, the source added. Regarding Cyber Monday, as of 12:00 noon, our direct channel sales were exceeding projected budget as well as last years sales.
On the more-bullish side, Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, ME saw high double-digit growth on Black Friday 2014 versus 2013 to set a store record.
The big driver for our store was clothing and footwear and whenever I see that trend I know that the economy is improving, said Kittery Trading Post SVP of Finance Dave Labbe. The weather helped in that we had snow on the ground, the roads were clear, gas prices are down and, because of power outages in the area, some people wanted to get out shopping in part to get warm.
We carry some top brands and those do well, added Labbe. SmartWool socks, Fox River mittens and, in mens outerwear, North Face and Kuhl are good sellers as is Under Armour in specialty clothing. In womens outerwear, North Face is a giant and in the footwear category, we sell a lot of Sorel, North Face and Kamik.
While Kittery holds a tent-day sale (even though they are closed Thanksgiving), Labbe believes that customers will always show up for Black Friday and the weekend.
It doesnt matter what kinds of deals are being offered, customers are still going to shop on Black Friday, Saturday and Sunday partly because they have it off and they also want to take advantage of other opportunities, said Labbe.
Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncans Outdoor Shop in Bay City, MI, which focuses on the shooting sports, experienced store traffic pretty much equal to what he experienced in 2013 but saw a decrease in the total gross sales.
Our customer count on Black Friday 2014 was almost identical to 2013 but they were spending less, said Duncan. We had a large gun show just a few miles down the road the same day. It was also a nice sunny day and people were enjoying being outside which didnt help us.
We did see an increase in our range traffic in the afternoon, said Duncan. Customers were not buying expensive items and the sale of muzzleloaders was slower than normal for this time of the year.
He added, The good news is that we saw a lot of new faces and that means more people are getting involved and that is good for us and the shooting sports industry, said Duncan.
This year we beat our 2012 Black Friday record and surpassed 2013 by 30 percent, said Oklahoma City, OK H & H Shooting Sports Founder and President Miles Hall. We had a few less customers than we had in 2013 but they bought more merchandise.
In terms of products, Hall said that firearm safes did very well as did moderately priced merchandise.
Hall is a staunch supporter of marketing and advertising.
We advertise on television, billboards, including electronic billboards and other media and offered a program that offered things good to buy and it did tremendous, says Hall. We reminded them that we are still here and it works.”
Fleet Feet Inc., the franchisor, benefited from Fitnatic Weekend, the first time the Fleet Feet Sports brand was supported by one unified national campaign.
This three-day event featured events and offers specific to each store, but all marketed under the same umbrella of Fitnatic Weekend, said Jeff Phillips, CEO and president. Our stores really got behind this effort, and we had tremendous support from our vendor partners. This will be the first of many national campaigns that our stores collectively execute locally.
For all stores, Fleet Feet Sports comps for the weekend were up 12.1 percent and traffic count was up 12.3 percent. System-wide sales, including new stores, were up 28.8 percent over the past week. Showing more balance than the previous year, Friday was still the largest retail day, accounting for 45 percent of total sales, followed by Saturday, 38 percent, and Sunday, 17 percent.
While most Fleet Feet stores werent officially open on Thursday, many held runs, pancakes breakfasts, and other events for the community on the holiday to set the tone for the rest of the weekend in terms of driving traffic and sales. But he said the Fitnatic Weekend event on Black Friday was a big win.
First and foremost, we saw the power of having one unified marketing campaign to drive awareness, traffic, and sales, said Phillips. Secondly, and this is just another instance of the power of stores that are locally owned-and-operated, having events that were community-driven, like pancakes breakfasts, turkey trot 5Ks, and ugly sweater runs, really generated a lot of traffic to stores and subsequently, helped boost total sales. Third, we focused on creating an entire “Fitnatic” in-store experience complete with all the materials we built to support the event (t-shirts, marketing collateral, social media assets, buttons, etc.), which in our estimation was a much better and more authentic approach than just offering deep discounts on product.
Looking ahead, Phillips said Fleet Feet remains optimistic about holiday selling. He added, This weekend really energized the group at the beginning of a very busy holiday season, and were looking to continue this momentum through the end of the year.
We had a solid weekend this year, said Matt Lucas, president of Lukes Locker, which operates 11 running stores in Texas. Friday through Sunday were flat with last year. We offered a discount on items we had recently marked on sale for this year’s promotion. It seemed to be moderately effective.
Looking ahead, Lucas added, I think we are going to see continued soft sales for the rest of the year. We are projecting a 3 to 5 percent increase over last year.
Princeton Sports, a specialist in cycling, ski, snowboard, tennis, swim, and fitness with two stores in Baltimore and Columbia, MD, saw a very good Black Friday weekend with steady traffic, according to Alan Davis, president. Helped by the chilly weather, winter categories, ski and apparel all sold particularly well. The chains customary $50.00 off any purchase of $300.00 or more Black Friday promotion continued to appeal to consumers.
Davis said he remains cautiously optimistic about holiday sales. He added, Cold weather keeps people in the holiday spirit.
Both Princeton Sports and Lukes Locker werent open on Thanksgiving but openings on the holiday continue to be a controversial topic.
Among the majors, Dicks Sporting Goods opened at 5:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving, down from 8:00 p.m. in 2013. The Sports Authority opened at 6:00 p.m. on the holiday, same as last year. Modell’s and Dunhams Sports opened at 6.00 p.m., down from 8:00 p.m. in 2013. Gander Mountain and Bass Pro both opened again in the morning at 8:00 a.m.
Among department stores, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Sears all opened at 6 p.m., back from 8 p.m. last year. J.C. Penney opened at 5 p.m., compared to 8:00 p.m. in 2013. For some, mall partners required stores to open while others reluctantly opened for competitive reasons. Said one sporting goods exec who declined to be quoted on the subject, Its a shame. Were all beating each other up for a couple extra hours.
Cabela’s and Academy Sports + Outdoors were among those foregoing Thanksgiving openings. Both opened at 5:00 a.m. on Black Friday.
“It has been a long-standing tradition at Cabela’s to respect the Thanksgiving holiday and ensure our employees can enjoy this time with their families,” said, Cabela’s CEO Tommy Millner in a statement. “Dick and Jim Cabela made that decision when they started the company 53 years ago, and it remains unchanged today.”
“As a family-oriented store, it is important for our associates to be able to spend the holiday with family,” said Rodney Faldyn, Academy Sports president and CEO. “Customers who want to shop our Black Friday Hot Deals early can do so on academy.com from the convenience of their home on Thanksgiving Day, or visit their local store when we open at 5 a.m. on Black Friday.”
REI and Big 5 were among other prominent chains resisting Thanksgiving openings.
According to NRF, the extra hours didnt provide a boost to holiday weekend sales unlike last year, and appeared to impact Black Friday results. Indeed, nearly one-third (32.2 percent) of respondents to the NRF poll said they shopped on Thanksgiving Day, flat with last years 31.8 percent. With fewer people shopping over the weekend, however, that resulted in a net decline of shoppers on Thanksgiving to 43.1 million from 45 million in 2013.
The Thanksgiving openings also continued to take away from Black Friday traffic, with NRF estimating 86.9 million shoppers were in stores and online on Black Friday, down from 92 million in 2013. Half (51.8 percent) said they shopped on Saturday and one-quarter (25.5 percent) planned to shop on Sunday.
On a conference call with the media Sunday, Shay admitted it was challenging to determine what factors carried the most weight in causing the overall weekend drop.
Clearly, early promotions, which were pervasive online but were also in many stores, pulled sales away from the holiday weekend, Shay said, referencing his conversations with retail execs and mentioning the terms, Black November and Black Week seen in articles. Retailers brought out promotions earlier partly to entice consumers in the competitive landscape but also because they lost two weeks in 2013 due to inclement weather and ran out of selling days, he said.
Shay noted that the economy is strengthening with better trends around job and consumer confidence with a boost also coming from lower gas prices, a healthy stock market, and rising home values. But he saw a bi-furcation of consumers working against the holiday weekend. With growth still not at the mid-single digit rate seen in pre-recession years, some households still dont feel great about the economy and are restraining their spending.
On the other hand, the households that feel better with the economys improvement are somewhat less reliant on Black Friday weekend deals than in past years. Said Shay, In the absence of a crisis mentality about the economy, people dont feel the same psychological need to get the great deal, especially since they know more great deals are coming.
They may also be willing to pay more for an item that comes with free shipping, or spend some extra dollars if it means they can avoid the weekend rush. Said Shay, Consumers are still seeking value, but in different ways.
Finally, Shay said consumers are more savvy and sophisticated than ever before. With budget-lessons learned in the recession, shoppers may be inclined to wait because they know – from experience – that there are more deals and discounts coming in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. Said Shay, They have a few more dollars in their wallets, but that doesnt mean they arent going to be smart about how and when they spend.
Relatedly, 24-hour online deals have changed the way shoppers view exclusive deals. They have an expectation that theyll be able to get anything they want any time. They just have to look.
Online, with particularly aggressive deals this year, also continues impact brick & mortar traffic. According to IBMs Digital Analytics Benchmark, online sales gained 14 percent on Thanksgiving Day and 9.5 percent on Black Friday, with both Walmart and Target reporting record-breaking days. But NRF estimated that the early promotions also led to average spending online over the weekend to decline 10.2 percent to $159.55 versus last year.
The NRFs Cyber Monday Expectations Survey also found 126.9 million, or 52.3 percent, of shoppers, planned to shop online on Cyber Monday, down slightly from the 131.6 million who planned to participate last year. Again, the dip was blamed on online bargains arriving much earlier in November.
For todays shopper, every day is ‘Cyber Monday, and consumers want and expect great deals, especially online, throughout the entire holiday season-and they know retailers will deliver, said Shay. Retailers will still offer unique deals exclusive to Cyber Monday, but consumers also know shopping on Cyber Monday wont be their last chance to find low prices and exclusive promotions.
Pam Goodfellow, principal at Prosper Insights & Analytics, cautioned that theres still many weeks left for retailers to hit their revenue targets while also noting that consumers are clearly hunting for bargains.
As competition for customer dollars heats up, consumers will be the ultimate winners in the end, said Goodfellow. Shoppers this year have made it clear that they no longer only value deep discounts on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, they want the entire package from beginning to end-free shipping, early promotions, convenient ways to use their mobile devices and, of course, hard-to-beat online deals.
Somewhat better projections came from ShopperTrak, which estimated combined sales of Thanksgiving and Black Friday were down 0.5 percent. A 27.3 percent jump on Thanksgiving with increased doorbuster deals almost made up for a 5.6 percent decline on Black Friday.
“We need to be cautious about looking at a single day or two in projecting the season’s total, said Bill Martin, ShopperTrak founder, in a statement. “In 2013, the Black Friday weekend produced a 1 percent gain, underperforming the 3.1 perfect gain for the entire season. There is a significant amount of energy left in the consumer with 7 of the top 10 sales days of the year yet to come.”
On the digital front, IBM found that Thanksgiving Day mobile traffic accounted for 52.1 percent of all online traffic, the first time mobile devices have outpaced their PC counterparts for online browsing.
Other findings from IBM:
Black Friday mobile traffic reached 49.6 percent of all online traffic, an increase of 25 percent over last year. Black Friday mobile sales accounted for 27.9 percent of total online sales, up 28.2 percent over 2013.
Smartphones drove 34.7 percent of all Black Friday online traffic, more than double that of tablets, which accounted for 14.6 percent of all traffic. Yet tablets drove 16 percent of online sales compared to 11.8 percent for smartphones. Tablet users also averaged $126.50 per order compared to $107.55 for smartphone users, a difference of 17.6 percent.
Facebook referrals drove an average of $109.94 per order compared to $100.24 for Pinterest, a difference of nearly 10 percent.
Retailers sent an average of 5.3 emails on Black Friday 2014, decreasing more than 11 percent over the same period in 2013, as retail marketers continue to send more targeted – and less frequent – messages to shoppers.
