While warmer temperatures slowed sales of cold-weather gear over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, many outdoor specialty retailers said that did not keep them from crushing their November sales goals.
Retailers contacted in Charlotte, NC; New Orleans and in the Lake Tahoe region all said cold weather earlier in the month helped them reach their November sales goals well ahead of the holiday weekend.
“We could have closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday and made our months goal, even without Amazon,” said Mike Massey, owner of Massey’s Outfitters, which operates five stores in the New Orleans metro area as well as masseysoutfitters.com. “Weather has been a huge driver.”
Massey’s said sales grew 10 percent at his slowest growing store and 40 percent at his fastest and that maintained margins grew 200 basis points. He attributed the growth to the company’s decision to stop selling on Amazon.com at the ended of 2013 and refocus on buying for its bricks-and-mortar stores.
“Five years ago we were lured by lines you could sell at a discount and still do well with online,” said Massey. “Now we are lured more to carry brands that dont sell on Amazon at all. We are no longer competing on MAP holidays. We did not even send an email this week. We are focusing on servicing the local customer over the long haul.”
Among Massey’s best-performing brands in November were The North Face and Patagonia, both of which forbid sales via third-party websites. Smartwool and Icebreaker also sold well during the cold spells, while Yeti cooler, Luminox watches and Maui Jim sunglasses also performed well.
In Charlotte, NC, a stainless steel tumbler from Yeti was far and away the most successful gift item at Jesse Browns Outdoors, according to owner Bill Bartee. Patagonia and Mountain Khakis, which is based in Charlotte, have been top sellers throughout November thanks to cold snaps earlier in the month.
“We had quite an increase Friday and gave it all back on Saturday,” said owner Bill Bartee. “Sunday comps were even, so we saw a slight increase overall for the weekend.”
Bartee said he was happy with the results given that Jesse Brown’s November sales were already up double digits going into the holiday.
Jesse Brown’s sells from a single location across the street from the city’s most upscale regional mall. It does not sell online and limited its promotions to offering $10 off all fleece and $15 off on Mountain Khaki purchases of more than $75 and promoting Small Business Saturday on its social media channels. The store remained closed on Thanksgiving.
“There is blow back to Black Friday and the promotional weekend – at least in the thought process of affluent customers, who dont think of themselves as wanting to participate in Black Friday,” said Bartee. “That has enabled us to offer them something that is a more peaceful shopping experience.”
In Truckee, CA, Tahoe Mountain Sports was reporting double-digit increases across all three of its major channels as of 5 pm Sunday, said Co-owner David Polivy. Sales were up 38 percent at tahoemountainsports.com, 37 percent at Amazon.com and 26 percent at the company’s new store location. Polivy attributed the strong growth to the new location in a busier town and increased advertising, including live radio spots leading up to the holiday weekend.
“It didnt hurt that we had some precipitation all weekend even though it was mostly rain,” said Polivy. Storms dropped up to 3 inches of rain in Northern California over the weekend, which produced as much as a foot of snow at some resorts in the northern Sierras. Thanks largely to November storms, the region has now received as much precipitation since Oct. 1 as they had received from Oct 1 through February of last winter.
Tahoe Mountain Sports launched Black Friday” promotions on Nov. 22 with key brands and categories like Patagonia, Icebreaker and Smartwool. It sent emails every single day other than Thanksgiving in an effort to catch people at some point during the time period.
“We feel this worked well as we stayed in front of people and in their inboxes,” said Polivy.
Polivy said The North Face Thermoball line is moving extremely fast, Sorel and Ugg did very well and Women’s clothing and winter backpacks also appeared to be trending up.
Polivy noted that while Amazon remains his fastest growing channel, the cost of servicing its customers continues to increase. For instance, Amazon Prime customers routinely choose 2-day air shipping when ordering from them on Amazon, not realizing they are a non-Prime seller that handles its own fulfillment. When they learn they were charged $40 for two-day delivery, many Prime customers file a complaint with Amazon, claiming they were tricked. Straightening out the dispute and protecting the retailers reputation often requires numerous emails and communications.
Polivy said he was more disappointed with the growing number of promotions being offered by the outdoor brands during the week. Black Diamond is offering free shipping through Dec. 14, while Goal Zero offered free shipping and discounts of up to 29 percent on its products on Monday. Kelty, which is offering free shipping through the entire holiday season, marked down all its trail packs 25 percent on Monday. K2 Skis offered free shipping for orders made on its site Monday, while Sierra Designs offered free shipping and 25 percent off some apparel, sleeping bags and tents.
“I feel that if the brands had their ways, there would be no need for retailers and especially specialty retailers even though they all like to give us the lip service that we are important to them,” said Polivy.
Princeton Sports, a specialist in cycling, ski, snowboard, tennis, swim, and fitness with 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.
The accounts jibed with reports from the National Retail Federation, IBM and ShopperTrak, which all projected a decline in sales and traffic over the holiday weekend. NRF said a survey of 4,631 consumer conducted Nov. 28 and 29 indicated that from Thanksgiving Day through Sunday unique shopper visits dropped 5.2 percent to 133.7 million from a year ago, while the average person who shopped spend 6.4 percent less and total spending declined a whopping 11.3 percent to $50.9 billion.
NRFs President and CEO Matthew Shay attributed the projected declines in traffic and sales to fewer bargain hungry consumers, a highly competitive environment, earlier promotions and the ability to shop 24/7 online. Still, he said NRF is maintaining its holiday forecast, which calls for retail sales to increase 4.1 percent during the November-December period compared with a year ago. The increase would represent the industrys best performance in three years.
By Monday, the consensus seemed to be that Black Friday is losing its luster as retailers offer holiday door busters earlier and earlier both in their stores and online. ShopperTrak estimated sales jumped 27.3 percent Thanksgiving, but declined 5.6 percent on Black Friday and that sales for both days declined 0.5 percent.
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. The number who shopped on Black Friday fell to 86.9 million from 92 million in 2013. Half of those NRF polled (51.8 percent) said they shopped on Saturday and one-quarter (25.5 percent) planned to shop on Sunday.
I believe that Black Friday is becoming a bit more watered down and doesnt have the impact that it once had, said an executive with one large regional outdoor retailer who asked not to be identified. 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.
Still, the source said sales at his company’s bricks-and-mortar stores posted mid-single-digit increases on Black Friday compared with a year earlier.
Boots and outerwear are selling very well as are 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, out direct channel sales were exceeding projected budget as well as last years sales.”
Analysts speculated that the declines could reflect the fact that fewer consumers feel the need to line up for mid-night openings and battle throngs of shoppers to score deep discounts, especially when they know more great deals are coming.
NRFs Cyber Monday Expectations Survey 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 shoppers knowing online retailers are offering bargains much earlier in November than in the past.
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 NRF’s 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.
According to IBMs Digital Analytics Benchmark, online sales grew 14 percent on Thanksgiving Day and 9.5 percent on Black Friday. 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.
“We need to be cautious about looking at a single day or two in projecting the season’s total,” warned ShopperTrak Founder Bill Martin. “In 2013, the Black Friday weekend product a 1 percent gain, underperforming the 3.1 percent 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.”
