Winter storms blanketing much of the U.S. combined with tempting late-season promotions to lessen seasonal inventories and boost sales across the broad U.S. retail market in the retail month of January.
“Some of the marketplace apprehension seems to be lifting as we enter 2011, with consumers spending more optimistically and mother nature making quality outdoor products a wise and timely investment,” said LaRae Marsik, vice president of Business Intelligence at the Outdoor Industry Association, “Solid growth in the outdoor specialty business bodes well during this traditionally slower retail timeframe, as consumers wanted to pick their products off the shelf and use them immediately, resulting in a surprising dip in Internet sales this month to beneath January 2010 levels.”
Footwear
Apparel
With the 2010 fiscal year now complete, OIA will be hosting an in-depth discussion of 2010 Outdoor Apparel trends and sales insights next week to delve deeper into the whys and wherefores of the 2010 year in Outdoor Apparel. The online education session will be conducted by James Hartford, CEO and Chief Market Analyst for The SportsOneSource Group, on Thursday, Feb. 17 at 2:00 pm Mountain Time. To register for the webinar, please visit www.outdoorindustry.org/vpwebinars.
Hardgoods
Looking ahead, retailers are looking at a number of variables to forecast 2011 trends, with consumer credit use, an improving employment picture, fluctuating weather patterns, and increasingly inventive product lines all factoring in to retail success plans.
OIA members can access the OIA VantagePoint monthly trend report for January 2011 by logging in to www.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. In‐depth sales information is available online within five days of the prior week close a competitive advantage for businesses who can shift critical resources and react quickly to ever-changing consumer preferences.
About Outdoor Industry Association
Outdoor Industry Association® (OIA) is a national trade association whose mission is to ensure the growth and success of the outdoor industry. OIA provides trade services for over 4,000 manufacturers, distributors, suppliers, sales representatives and retailers in the outdoor industry. OIA provides industry defining resources and support in government/legislative affairs, market and social research, business‐to-business services and youth outreach initiatives. Ongoing education opportunities and strategic business workshops provided by OIA include the annual Rendezvous®, Outdoor University® sessions, and the Capitol Summit. Outdoor Industry Association is based in Boulder, Colorado, and is the title sponsor of the Outdoor Retailer tradeshows. For more information about OIA go to www.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 Performance Sports Retailer 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 www.SportsOneSource.com.