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Back to School’s Retail Surge
The Back-to-School season made business surge in August, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Retail sales increased 5.2 percent compared with the same time last year, said Jesse Tron, a spokesperson for the New York–headquartered trade group.
“Sales posted a very strong gain, with apparel stores closing out the month at their highest year-over-year gain in four months,” he said.
Adrienne Tennant, a prominent retail analyst at Janney Capital Markets, described retail business as “solid” at the end of August, especially for teen retailers. “We believe promotions have been compelling and aggressive, both in-store and online, throughout the month of August, which helped drive traffic,” she wrote in a Sept. 4 research note.
Ken Perkins of Boston-area market-research company Retail Metrics wrote in a Sept. 4 research note that August sales received a lot of support from Back-to-School shopping. “While consumer spending has been tepid throughout much of the current recovery, the consumer is still event shopping,” he wrote.
August’s sales surge did not proverbially lift all boats, however. Gap Inc., the San Francisco–based specialty retail giant, reported comp-store declines for its Gap and Banana Republic divisions. The declines were 6 percent and 2 percent, respectively. However, its Old Navy division posted a 2 percent increase in its same-store sales.
Quiksilver Inc. also reported a decline when the Huntington Beach, Calif.–based surf giant announced results for the third quarter of its 2014 fiscal year. Net revenues decreased 19 percent to $396 million compared with $488 million in the same quarter in the previous year. Andy Mooney, Quiksilver’s chief executive officer, promised improvements.
“We are resolving the product-delivery issues and already see improved fulfillment in the Holiday season. We continued to right-size staffing, redeployed our marketing to invest more in media and point of sale, improved the quality of distribution in North America, and completed a number of licensing transactions for peripheral product categories. We are encouraged by the positive feedback we have received on our Spring 2015 product lines, both for apparel and footwear.”
Zumiez Inc. of Lynnwood, Wash., reported a solid August. The skate and action sports–friendly chain reported a same-store-sales increase of 2 percent. It also reported results for its second quarter on Sept. 4. Same-store sales for the quarter increased 3.4 percent compared with the same time in the previous year. Total net sales increased 11.9 percent to $176.7 million from $157.9 million. During a call with Wall Street analysts, it was announced that the company would open 56 stores in 2015.
