Golf retail is back with another bang!
Some crazy stats for this month as we start comparing sales to lockdown months.
More in my brief market update below.
Author: philbarnard
Golf Retail: Click and Collect More Sales
Retail and hospitality have been two of the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic – with more jobs lost in retail than any other sector.
In fact, clothing stores saw the largest sales hit during Lockdown 1.0 – losing 65% compared to the same period in 2019. In contrast, golf seemed to manage pretty well. Its innate Covid compliance – outside and well-distanced – meant that golfers could get out and enjoy the game. This attracted many lapsed golfers back to the sport and enticed some to take it up for the first time. All this play meant that golfers needed to buy kit but, with retail stores closed while golf was open, buying golf equipment and accessories became pretty difficult. Naturally most people jumped online to shop. Those retailers that could sell online had a bumper year while bricks and mortar stores experienced poor sales. Since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a huge shift towards online across general retail so, what could this mean for the golf industry?
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UK Golf: Retail Sales Market Update for March 2021
The doors have opened and golfers are now allowed to get out on the course across the UK. Here is a brief insight into how well golf retail sales did in March 2021.
Obviously figures are down for the month v 2020 as we only had a few days of play. Despite this, numbers were surprisingly good and, perhaps surprisingly, 4 categories were UP for the month on last year.
Golf Retail Sales: UK Market Overview 2020
Following on from my previous articles where I looked at elements of retail events during 2020, I wanted to sign-off with a final market overview – the idea being to provide a complete picture of that very unique year. Continue reading “Golf Retail Sales: UK Market Overview 2020”
UK Golf: Retail Sales Market Update for February 2021
While February didn’t open up as hoped we have still seen quite a lot of sales activity. The market was down overall but amazingly one category was up!
Watch my short video on where we are for the month and where we might be going next.
Don’t Panic 2 – LOCKDOWN UPDATE
Lockdown Plan Unveiled
While last week’s roadmap from the Government might have caused some disappointment, at least we now have a date to work towards. As it currently stands golf will be permitted on the 29th of March. Having lost, what will be close to 3 months of play and retailing, where does that leave us for the rest of 2021?
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UK Golf Retail Sales Market Update for January 2021
A new year – a new lockdown!
Some new data to ponder.
Januarys figures were down – no surprise there but how bad are they and how is the year starting to look?
Watch Phil’s short video to find out more.
Don’t panic! 2021 could still be great
I have previously said, and am pretty sure everyone would agree, 2020 was a crazy year. We now need to have quick look at events from the worst of conditions in order to plan for what happens next.
While lockdown #1 effected the various regions differently, Golf lost nearly a 1/3rd of a year to COVID, and, while general retail lost even more, it really has been a bumpy ride for golf retailers. We hit a low in May, with retail sales, year to date, down 54% in value. However, a resurgence in the popularity of Golf, due to its COVID compliance, saw golfers, new and old, loving the game and spending their money. At year end, the speciality golf channel recovered to be only 10% down on the previous year. All things considered, this was an amazing result.
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What’s in store for golf retail in 2021?
If I’d been sitting here a year ago, about to write this, I don’t think my imagination could have possibly created the events that eventually unfolded. I’m pretty sure I would have been focusing on the effects of the upcoming Brexit deal, changes in the high street and consumer shopping behaviour. Most likely, I will have talked about the impact of weather on the golf market. Nothing had more impact than the pandemic last year but before we look at 2021, let’s take a quick look back.
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UK Golf Retail Sales – Quick Market Update for the end of 2020
Well at last we have got through what most will consider as one of the worst years – unless you sell PPE that is. As it stands Golf proved its health benefits and turned out to be rather popular again. With all the ups and downs we have now complied the overall data for 2020 and the news is pretty good – value was only down 10.7%.
No surprises we are not up – it was almost an impossible task to loose nearly 16 weeks of the year and not expect some negative impact. However some are up and up a lot. Others are down but not as bad as it could have been. Here’s a quick video with some highlight numbers.
Phil Barnard 