Outdoor Industry Association released its November OIA VantagePoint Monthly Trend Report, which reveals that outdoor product sales grew 7.1 percent to $985.1 million in the four-week fiscal month of November. After a strong start for Outdoor Footwear and Outdoor Apparel, both categories slowed at month‐end against heavy shopping for electronics and non‐outdoor items during the Black Friday weekend.
Alongside expected strong performances in the Internet/Catalog and Mall Retailer channels, outdoor specialty channels fared well in the month of November, with a 14.3 percent gain in the Outdoor Chain Specialty channel and a 7.0 percent gain in the Independent Outdoor Specialty channel.
From a category perspective, Outdoor Apparel sales increased 9.2 percent to $475.7 million. Sales growth in the last week of the month, however, lagged the month as a whole, increasing just 6.0 percent during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Outdoor Outerwear once again outpaced sales growth in most other categories, increasing 14.9 percent for the month.
Outdoor Footwear sales grew 11.0 percent to $208.5 million in the trade channels tracked by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint. Though the overall Outdoor Footwear business was strong, the results were tempered by a tepid boots business and lower average selling prices in the Barefoot/Minimalist category.
Outdoor Hardgoods sales were up just 1.6 percent to $300.9 million. November is generally a middle‐of‐the‐road month, representing less than 6 percent of total sales for the year versus 10.5 percent for December. Paddlesports was a bright spot in Hardgoods, up nearly 19 percent in the Independent Outdoor Specialty and Outdoor Chain Specialty channels.
Looking ahead, retailers and vendors alike are concerned about the lack of a weather driver in most regions of the country, particularly in the Northeast. Also, the expected deep promotional period before and after the holidays may cut into margins and put pressure on inventory levels going into spring.
OIA members can access the OIA VantagePoint monthly trend report for November 2011 by logging in to outdoorindustry.org/vantagepoint.
OIA VantagePoint is the first and only full market point-of-sale data view built specifically for Outdoor Industry Association members. OIA VantagePoint provides comprehensive visibility into the outdoor marketplace by tracking weekly point‐of‐sale data from over 10,000 retail doors and websites carrying outdoor products, including over 350 outdoor specialty locations.
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About Outdoor Industry Association
Outdoor Industry Association® is the leading trade association for the outdoor industry and the title sponsor of Outdoor Retailer. OIA supports the growth and success of more than 4,000 manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, sales representatives and retailers of outdoor recreation apparel, footwear, equipment and services. For more information about OIA go to outdoorindustry.org or call 303.444.3353.
About The SportsOneSource Group
The SportsOneSource Group is a full service market research company delivering solutions through consumer insight research, retail insight research and retail point‐of‐sale trending and analysis. The company provides the most reliable, timely and comprehensive sports and outdoor industry information available in the market today. SportScanInfo is a SportsOneSource technology platform developed to compile, aggregate and disseminate aggregated retail point‐of‐sale information. SportsOneSource also publishes the Sports Executive Weekly and The B.O.S.S. Report executive newsletters, along with the SGB, SGD TEAM Business and SGB Performance print publications and their related online, e‐mail and digital products. For more information about The SportsOneSource Group call 704.987.3450 or go to SportsOneSource.com.
