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No longer asleep at the switch...
SIA Finally Starts Tracking Online
Sales... With Some Interesting Results
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4/11-- This season, Snowsports
Industries America (SIA)
has finally gotten around to tracking online sales of ski and
snowboard gear, and looking at the new numbers, one has to wonder
what took them so long. Going back to the beginning of last season
('05-'06), SIA has been telling us that sales of telemark and
crosscountry gear have been either flat or falling significantly
in specialty stores and chain stores. This never did seem right
to us, running as it did contrary to not only our own explosive
growth in unique visitor numbers (up 33% same month, year to
year, see story below), but it was also at odds with what we
were hearing from the manufacturer's and most retailers. Nearly
all were saying that business was very good. Now we know why:
the equipment buying habits of telemark and backcountry skiers
have shifted, somewhat dramatically. While SIA was ignoring the
internet sales category, freeheel skiers have been shopping for
gear online at a relatively furious pace.
According to SIA, for the August
through December period of 2006, snowsport internet sales totaled
a whopping $234.9 million. To put that figure in perspective,
over the same period, total snowsports sales at chain stores,
a category that SIA has been reporting on for years, were pegged
at $346 million . Specialty stores, where most tele and AT gear
is sold, racked up total snowsports sales of $1.11 billion.
Of the almost $235 million in total
Internet sales sold from August through December, 60% of the
dollars were from apparel, 23% came from accessories, and 18%
of the dollars were from equipment (compare that to brick and
mortar specialty stores where 34% of all dollars come from equipment
sales). But here's the surprising kicker, the combined category
of telemark, randonee, and crosscountry equipment accounted for
17% of all online equipment dollars sold. In brick and mortar
specialty stores the combined category accounts for just 4% of
total equipment sales.
End of season update (June, '07):
Underscoring the extent
to which SIA was asleep at the switch, in their first year of
reporting on internet sales, total online sales of telemark equipment
finished the '06/'07 season nearly 15% higher than total tele
gear sales at brick and mortar specialty shops. It would appear
that by failing to report on internet sales earlier, SIA was
was missing more than half of the market for tele gear. Combined,
online and specialty store tele gear sales for the just-concluded
06/07 season turned out to be higher than any reported single
year tele gear sales in SIA Retail Audit history.
A few observations: Simply put, telemark and backcountry skiers
are turning to the Web when purchasing new skis, boots and bindings
to a far greater extent than had been previously known. In addition,
we now have a better understanding of why SIA's telemark gear
sales numbers have been declining in spite of evidence to the
contrary. The question has become, what exactly is going on at
SIA? How could the ski industry's trade group have been so asleep
at the wheel that they waited to begin reporting on internet
sales until those dollars began to rival the sales figures of
the chain stores?
While we were waiting for SIA to
recognize and catch up to a changing retail snowsports marketplace,
a major shift in the way tele and AT skiers buy their gear was
already underway. It now seems that rather than being in decline
(which we never believed anyway), interest in tele and backcountry
skiing (as reflected in the sales figures) was actually accelerating
rather rapidly.
Freeheel skiing remains a tiny niche
within the ski and snowboard industry. While still small, a healthy,
thriving tele and backcountry skiing marketplace is the foundation
upon which the evolution of our gear is taking place, and also
upon which innovations such as Rottefella's NTN, and Black Diamond's
nascent boot/binding system, are being built. As such, these
changes in the retail landscape of freeheel skiing gain in importance
to all us with an interest in the sport. More to come... stay
tuned. |