March Outdoor Sales Showing Positive Signs

Ted Manning, GMM, VP of merchandising at EMS, described February as “awful,” but March showed a clear rebound with revenues running ahead of its budget by about 10%. In March, EMS particularly saw strong sales in equipment in paddle sports, cycling and camping although all categories were ahead of plan.

Manning felt the slowdown seen in February reflected the more cautious consumer. “The consumer just quit spending money on winter goods and took a hiatus of spring goods. Even their response to clearance goods was weak,” he said. “Consumers are clearly deferring expenditures from a year ago and that might mean the family vacation or a new car won't happen this year, but they still need to be outside and still need to relax. Being outdoors is a great way to deal with all that stress and anxiety of the world today.”

As of the end of March, the REI business is “a bit above our plan,” according to Libby Hutchinson, director of corporate communications at REI. “Our results were likely supported by our annual Member Rewards sale in March, which followed the dividend we returned to our members at the end of February,” said Hutchinson. “While we tend not to get into specifics, our strongest categories have been camping, climbing and cycling – urban, comfort and youth.”

Jennifer Mull, CEO of Backwoods noticed a similar trend to the start of the retail fiscal year. She said sales over February and March were “down a little bit but not as down as they could be.” March was stronger than February.

According to retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO, outdoor specialty footwear sales showed a 1.6% decline in March with stronger sales through online retailers than specialty brick & mortar or big box retail outlets. Perhaps due to tougher comps against last year’s earlier spring, warmer weather footwear, like sandals and flip flops, did not fare as well as the some of the more technical hiking and trail running products.

Strong performances from key items in the Approach/Multisport, Light Hiking and Outdoor Casual categories offset declines in Hybrid/Watershoes category.

Sales of performance trail running products increased in all channels except big box retail and department stores. This category is even showing strong sales in many mall-based retailers and through the athletic and urban specialty retailers that report sales to SportScanINFO.  Strong sales in technical trail products was able to offset declines in the less technical and lower price-point fashion trail running products, which showed mid-single digit declines in all channels. Sales of outdoor socks were down in the double-digits for the month, according to the SportScanINFO data.
In March, SSI reported that outdoor apparel sales increased 10%, with gains through every retail channel except discount/mass retailers. There was a considerable disconnect between men’s and women’s apparel sales in the outdoor category.

Outdoor outerwear continued to show good results at retail in March, with light weight rainwear showing the strongest gains. At the same time, more technical jackets were also showing stronger sales, primarily in the $99-$299 range as liquidation of the seasonal goods continues deeper in spring.

One area of weakness has been technical clothing, according to Lon McRae, co-owner and head hard goods buyer of the Mountain Goat Outfitters stores in Spokane, WA, and operator of the acmeclimbing.com website. Instead of buying $350 to $500 shells and technical outerwear, consumers are buying those in the $150 to $300 range.

Sales of outdoor equipment were down overall, according to the SSI data, but this was primarily driven by steep declines in lower price-point, entry-level merchandise. For example, sales of technical packs under the $99 price point were down in the double-digits, but sales of technical packs over $99 increased over 15%, pushing average selling prices up more than 10% for the month.  The same dynamic is taking place with sleeping bags. Overall, synthetic mummy bag sales were relatively flat, but sales with price points over $79 were up over 20% while sales under that price point were down in the mid-singles.

McRae also said the store is also continuing to see strength in its core climbing category, and is doing a “pretty good business” in backpacking.
SSI saw sales of backpacking tents increased considerably year-over-year, again, with higher price points out-performing less expensive options. This is likely due to the confluence of two trends – new, innovative designs are capturing the core backpacker’s attention, while at the same time the economic crisis has former backpackers returning to the sport in search of inexpensive, close-to-home recreation and vacation options.

Jennifer Mull said equipment is “holding its own” at Backwoods and categories such as tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, stoves and water bottles are showing some nice increases at some of its stores as part of the overall strength in camping. Like EMS, she is also seeing less price resistance in equipment.

Bear Paulsen, project manager at Midwest Mountaineering, described the hardgoods market, “Customers are cautious and price conscious. However, we have had a lot of tire kicking on higher ticket items, especially boats. We hold our largest sale of the year in two weeks and anticipate that a lot of those tire kickers will become buyers.”

Paddle Sports sales were relatively flat overall but the data from SportScanINFO shows that this was driven by declines in lower price point, entry-level recreational products. In kayaks, more technical whitewater and touring boats showed solid increases, while recreational, sit-on-top, and sportsman boat sales declined. Canoe sales showed a similar trend, with more technical touring and expedition style boats outperforming family and recreational models.