US: outdoor sales for February up 4%
20/03/2012
The report shows sales in the month were up 4% over the same month in 2011. The US Commerce Department reported retail sales rose 6.3% for the same time period.
“While there is nothing we can do about Mother Nature’s effect on winter sales, an early thaw isn’t all bad news for outdoor retailers,” said Elisabeth Stahura, a Leisure Trends analyst. “Consumers appeared to have a bit of spring shopping fever last month and they shopped outdoor stores, snow or no snow.”
Online sales continued to fuel growth, jumping another 14% overall for the month versus the same period last year. Specialty brick and mortar stores were up 3%.
Warm-weather categories such as sportswear, trail running shoes, casual shoes, sandals, tents, sleeping bags, packs and camp accessories saw dollar growth at outdoor retail. However, Ms Stahura notes that it wasn’t all good news, as winter categories saw little to no hope for recovery.
“Winter 2011/12 ended with a whimper, and outdoor retailers need to cut their losses on winter inventory,” she said.
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