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Downbeat April Sales Affected by Weather, Port Delays
For many retailers, sales dipped in April.
All of the retailers followed by California Apparel News’ index reported declines during the month. The Buckle Inc. and Zumiez Inc. posted same-store-sales declines of 3.8 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
L Brands, the parent company to Victoria’s Secret and Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Steinmart, an off-pricer, reported same-store declines of 1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively. Gap Inc. will report its April sales on May 11.
Retail analysts blamed the generally downbeat performances on a host of influences beyond retailers’ controls. First, there was an early Easter. It took place on April 5, and most of the sales for Easter gifts and clothes were made in March, said Ken Perkins of Retail Metrics, a Boston-area market-research firm.
Weather was cold in much of the United States during the month, which kept people from shopping. “Ill effects from the West Coast’s port delays still lingered through [the first quarter] into April,” Perkins wrote in a May 5 note.
Adrienne Yih, a retail analyst for Janney Capital Markets, characterized April sales as “inline to slightly below expectations.” The headline for her May 7 research note on the month was “Don’t Place Too Much Weight on a ‘Noisy’ April-Shift, Weather, Port, GDP.”
In the report, she noted that “we believe conservative inventory planning should help mitigate margin pressure entering [the second quarter of 2015].”
Bebe Stores Inc. announced sales for its third quarter of its 2015 fiscal year on May 7. Same-store sales for the quarter that ended April 4 increased 1.2 per- cent. Net sales from continuing operations increased 4.1 percent to $92.7 million, said Jim Wiggett, Bebe's chief executive officer.
It was a good quarter for Bebe, but Wiggett also noted that weather and the lingering effects from the port delays affected his company’s performance.
“Our third-quarter results reflect continued progress in our turnaround with the third consecutive quarter of comparable-store sales growth despite significantly fewer promotions and a meaningful reduction in marketing spend. To a lesser degree, we believe that the port delays and prolonged cold weather also created pressure on our sales,” he said in a prepared statement.
