The five-week retail fiscal month of June saw heavy and frequent discounting across the broader retail landscape as chain and discount stores pulled out all the stops to lure customers in to liquidate Spring/Summer merchandise inventories that have built up through a year.
Strength throughout the broader retail market drove aggregate same‐store sales up 6.9 percent for the five-week fiscal month of June, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, but retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint presents a less encouraging picture for the outdoor product market – at least outside of specialty.
Outdoor product retail sales growth was a bit more moderate than the overall retail market as weaker gains in the discount/mass and sporting goods trade channels — as well as a sharp decline in the mall retailer segment — partially offset mid- to high‐single‐digit growth in the outdoor specialty channels and double‐digit growth in the Internet channel for the month.
Overall outdoor product sales increased just 2.7 percent to $1.23 billion in the trade channels tracked by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint in the fiscal month of June. Sales of outdoor products in the Independent Outdoor Specialty channel grew 5.1 percent to $210.2 million in June and the Outdoor Chain Specialty channel posted 7.3 percent growth to $113.9 million. The Internet channel saw sales jump 11.3 percent to $88.0 million. Sales in the Sporting Goods, Department Stores and Discount/Mass channels were each up less than one percent for the fiscal month that ended July 2, 2011.
The Outdoor footwear business outpaced the rest of the outdoor products market by a wide margin in the fiscal month of June, increasing 11.1 percent to $263.6 million in the channels tracked by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint.
Outdoor footwear sales growth was weakest in the Independent Outdoor Specialty channel for the month, due in large part to tougher comparisons against the strong growth seen in the channel in the year-ago period. Triple-digit growth in the barefoot/natural/minimalist categories again this year appear to be having a more cannibalistic effect on other product categories on the wall.
Outdoor apparel was again the most challenged business in the outdoor products market June as overall sales in the trade channels tracked by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint declined 6.5 percent to $189.7 million for the period. As the month progressed both the weather and sales trend improved.
The independent outdoor specialty channel was still stuck in early spring mode, with ASPs jumping more than 16 percent in June versus the prior‐year comparable month. The channel experienced very strong double‐digit growth in outdoor outerwear categories which were offset by strong double‐digit declines in the outdoor sportswear categories. The last week of the month, however, was a bright spot in the channel as sales surged 30 percent in the week leading up to the July 4th holiday.
The tepid overall growth rate for outdoor hardgoods for the fiscal month of June belies the underlying strength of the business in the non-discount/mass channels. The overall outdoor hardgoods business grew just 2.5 percent to $776.6 million in fiscal June, due in large part to a flat trend in the discount/mass, sporting goods and Internet trade channels. These three channels represented more than 75 percent of total outdoor hardgoods sales in June in the channels tracked by SportScanInfo for OIA VantagePoint.
While just a small portion of the months sales, specialty retailers were still selling ski and snowboard-related products in June, three months after the traditional end-of-season as a number of western resorts stayed open into the July 4th holiday weekend. Several key categories like paddlesports and fly fishing were still challenged in some regions of the country due to continued high water and flooding, but the overall specialty business in paddlesports came roaring back in June after a tough start to the season versus a very good start in spring last year. The weather turned drier in many other parts of the U.S. which helped relieve some of the pressure on outdoor hardgoods inventories as consumers were finally able to make their way to their favorite put‐in point or fishing spot.
It seems like all we talk about in this industry is weather, but it is still the single biggest influencer of consumer purchases for outdoor products, said James Hartford, chief market analyst for The SportsOneSource Group, which manages the SportScanInfo and OIA VatntagePoint data reporting platforms. The economy is also a major factor, but weather trumps everything else.
