April same-store sales for the core shops on the ActionWatch Retail Panel showed the best year-over-year numbers we’ve seen so far in 2009. After two months of being down more than 19%, it was a relief to be down only 14% in April 2009 compared to last year. Apparel showed the best improvement with a sales decrease of only 10% compared to being down almost 25% in the previous month. Also, retailers’ margins on apparel sales have steadily improved over the last three months although April’s 46% apparel margin was still two points lower than last year.
When drilling down into apparel classes, we find boardshorts sales were actually up over 4% compared to last year for the men while ladies’ skirts continued their sales increase streak to flirt with actually becoming a meaningful category in core shops. However, although I don’t want to be a downer, we have to consider that April’s sales improvements could be partially due to Easter moving from March last year to April this year. Even so, April’s numbers provide some hope that we might have hit the bottom and are now working our way back up.
-Cary Allington
The ActionWatch Retail Panel includes more than 200 surf/skate independent specialty shops across the U.S. and is growing rapidly as more retailers join the free program. Retailers who participate get free access to a set of 50 reports updated each month. Retailers interested in joining the ActionWatch Retail Panel can get more information at actionwatchreports.com.
All ActionWatch reports are made from the aggregated data of the participating retailers, which are located throughout the U.S. and vary in size from 750-square-foot shops to stores over 10,000 square feet. Data is collected monthly from electronic reports submitted by participating retailers.