ActionWatch: July Sales See Lowest Declines in 2009 To Date

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• August 31 2009
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Stores on the ActionWatch Retail Panel who have been reporting for at least a year showed the lowest sales declines of 2009 to date in July. It is encouraging that declines in the second quarter were lower than in the first, and now the first month of the third quarter was better than any of the previous months of the year.

Overall sales of all product categories tracked by ActionWatch were down 13.8% in July compared to the same month last year (see table below). This was a big improvement over June’s comp sales (see line chart below). Apparel experienced one of the best improvements compared to the prior month’s comp sales although it still has not broken out of double-digit declines yet this year.

Wetsuit comp sales have been very erratic this year, but July was one of the category’s better months with a sales decline of less than 4% compared to the prior year, which also made wetsuits the best performing category in July by this measurement. In contrast, accessories had the worst performance in July with sales down 24.3% compared to the prior year.

Looking down to the class level, woven shirts had a strong July with sales up over 6% compared to last year. Men’s/boys’ boardshort sales were also slightly up compared to last year. Skirt sales were up dramatically yet again in July while the dress and swimwear classes were down single digits.

–Cary Allington

Click on chart and graph to make larger.

ActionWatch July 2009 Year-Over-Year Comp Sales Graph

The ActionWatch Retail Panel includes 250 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 www.ActionWatch.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.