According to Purply Retail's index, the fall sell-through for all stores reaches 49% before Christmas. Meanwhile, we see large differences in sales development during the fall between women's and men's clothing.
In this article, using Purply Retail's index, we will provide the most important and interesting statistics from the fall sales up to Christmas.
Looking at the overall figures for the entire index, we note that the clearance sale reached 49%. In terms of monthly revenue, December was the highest. Then followed November, October and September.
The payweek in September was the highest
If we break down the numbers by men's and women's clothing, we can see differences in how sales look during the fall season. In the chart below, we see how sales have looked week by week for women's clothing. The line also shows how the total sell-through has changed.
We can see that the week with the highest turnover is the payweek in September. It is therefore larger than both Black Week and the weeks before Christmas. This despite the fact that sales are generally worse in September than other fall months. We also see that the sell-through after the payweek in September had reached 50%. After that, the sell-through drops before picking up again in the last weeks before Christmas and landing just under 50%. This is because many items were delivered after September and because of re-buys before Christmas.
Early deliveries are important
One reason for the clearance sale curve looking like a "hammock", as seen in the red box in the chart above, is that deliveries have generally been late this year as well. However, regardless of the reason, it begs the question of how important deliveries after September really are. Rather, everything should be done to ensure that the women's clothing is in place in mid-September to maximize sales during the payweek and achieve as good of a sell-through as possible before Christmas.
Looking more closely at how the sales development of outerwear (jackets and coats) has been, it reinforces the importance of the payweek in September. In the chart below, we see that that week is overwhelmingly the largest and here the sell-through lands at just over 50% overall.
The curve for sell-through looks more reasonable here. However, we see that goods are delivered during weeks 43 to 46 which significantly lowers the final sell-through.
Sweaters are the biggest seller for women
Looking further at which product groups have been the largest, we see that sweaters, outerwear, and shirts/blouses account for the largest portion of sales during the fall.
On the men's side, the sales curve looks different. In the chart below, we can see that sales increase as we move deeper into the fall. The period from Black Week and the Christmas weeks is crucial for both turnover and sell-through. At the same time, we see a dip in the sell-through curve in October and here too, one may question the importance of late deliveries.
Outerwear is a large and heavy product group on the men's side and generates a lot of sales while also binding a lot of money. Below is the turnover and sell-through during the fall.
Here we can see that the overwhelmingly largest week is Black Week. We also see that there are large deliveries between weeks 42 and 44 which affects the total sell-through, as you can see in the red box. Here, it may be necessary to increase the sales of outerwear much earlier. Demand is partly driven by the weather, but it must be a goal to sell much earlier, perhaps even in campaign form.
We also look at the biggest product groups within men's clothing, and it's the same as on the women's side, it's sweaters, outerwear, and shirts.
Some conclusions to take into account:
Women's clothing is sold significantly earlier
The payweek in September is the largest week for women's clothing
The goods should be in store by mid-September
Heavy fall goods such as outerwear should also be in store in September
The team at Purply Retail
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