The month of September started to show the first real signs of a rebound in the outdoor retail landscape. The combination of a decent back-to-school season and several favorably shifting trends helped boost outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment sales for the month. Not only are consumers looking for exciting close-to-home recreation opportunities, but also brown footwear is beginning to see a solid up-tick across all channels.
According to retail point-of-sale data compiled by SportScanINFO, sales of Outdoor Apparel, Outdoor Footwear and Outdoor Equipment increased in the high-single digits for the month of September. This increase was due to a combination of higher average selling prices (ASPs) and a low-single digit increase in the number of units sold.
Retailers are clearly operating with much lower inventories this year than they had on the shelves last year at the same time. This scarcity is clearly discouraging discounting and pushing the overall ASP higher. All three major categories showed increased sales; however, not all categories are experiencing the same trends.
Sales of Outdoor Specialty Equipment were up in the mid-single digits, largely due to a 5% increase in average selling prices.
Outdoor Apparel sales increased in the low-single digits for the month with higher unit sales partially offset by some significant price erosion.
Outdoor Specialty Footwear sales increased in the upper teens due to considerably higher unit sales and a 4% increase in average selling prices.
For additional details on fiscal month of September retail sales, look for this week's issue of The B.O.S.S. Report.
