Sport Chalet starts holiday right
Sport Chalet kicked off the holidays with strong Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday sales figures and anticipates further growth for the duration of the shopping season.
Black Friday weekend comparable sales were up 17.1% compared to 2012, and Cyber Monday comparable sales increased by 34.8%.
"During the Black Friday weekend, our customers told us they would rather be gift giving, and as always, we helped provide them with the best gear, apparel and expert advice they needed for their favorite sports," said chairman and CEO Craig Levra. "To the delight of many customers, we resisted the trend of opening on Thanksgiving Day. On Black Friday, with 6 a.m. store openings, and throughout the weekend, our customers responded positively to our promotions, while many others shopped online and on their mobile devices, giving us a solid start to the holiday selling season."
Online shopping also surged and orders for Cyber Monday grew 91.6% over 2012, with more than 36% of sales originating outside of Sport Chalet's core states of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah.
"Since Cyber Monday, our comparable sales through Sunday are higher by 19.9% over the same week in 2012, and we are optimistic about the 2013 holiday season's potential," noted Levra. "Our customers are engaging with our experts across all of our channels, consumer confidence has risen to its highest level in five months and the weather is doing its part by giving our local ski areas a good snow base. While recognizing that the most significant selling weeks are ahead of us, we are hopeful this early sales momentum will continue and drive healthy sales growth over 2012 levels."
Sport Chalet operates 52 stores in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah as well as an e-commerce site and a Team Sales division. It offers more than 50 specialty services for the sports enthusiast, including online same-day delivery; climbing, backcountry skiing, ski mountaineering, avalanche education and mountain trekking instruction; car rack installation; snowboard and ski rental and repair; Scuba training and certification; Scuba boat charters; team sales; gait analysis; baseball/softball glove steaming and lacing; racquet stringing; and bicycle tune-up and at its store locations.