Nov. 13, 2006 – Youth products could boost holiday impulse buys

Aftermarket experts agree that children’s apparel is a growing segment for the industry
Investing in more children’s apparel and accessories could be an alternative for dealers expecting a downturn in a traditional holiday seller: youth quads.
While no industry-wide statistics are available to publish on youth ATV sales, there are factors that point to a likely decrease: increased federal pressure and attention to safety concerns, tightening by states of existing youth regulations or out-right bans, and a constant wave of low-cost Chinese imports available at other retail outlets.
All of those, not to mention the overall decrease in Motorcycle Industry Council-reported ATV sales, has to have dealers looking at other holiday profit possibilities involving the industry’s youngest participants.
One profit possibility: expanding the space for youth products in the accessories department. It’s a part of the aftermarket business that industry experts believe is expanding.
Greg Blackwell, LeMans’ vice president of sales and marketing for Parts Unlimited and Drag Specialties, calls children’s apparel sales a “growing segment of the industry.”
Warren Johnson, Fox Racing’s motocross media relations manager, said Fox’s children’s apparel doesn’t rival its women’s clothing in overall sales, but youth offerings are “an important part of the entire sales mix, definitely.”
“Every year the children’s portion of our business continues to increase,” Johnson said.
Fox Racing and Parts Unlimited’s Thor and Moose lines are among the industry’s aftermarket brands that offer a line of children’s apparel.
A company that goes in a different direction with youth apparel and accessories is Smooth Industries, a California-based manufacturer that has profited from supercross’ popularity.
Smooth offers an array of youth products, from pajamas to backpacks to bedding to mouse pads. Nearly all of them either feature supercross stars, like Jeremy McGrath and Chad Reed, or some aspect of the popular sport.
“When we first started in 2000, it was nearly impossible to get people to take us seriously and commit to ordering any pajamas,” said Mike Koger, president of Smooth Industries. “All they were hearing was ‘pajamas’ and here they were trying to sell riding gear and hard parts.”
Today, Smooth Industries supplies products to more than 1,300 dealers, many of those during the holiday season and what Koger calls the second-busiest retail period of the year, the back-to-school season.
So how did Koger grow his business, which has seen 125 percent growth in sales for the past two years, with the initial skepticism? He never required minimum orders. Koger would send two sets of pajamas to a dealer and then wait.
“There’s somebody at the shop who has a kid or who knows somebody who has a kid,” he said. “So boom, I knew that at least one (set of pajamas) would go to somebody right away. And sure enough, the following week we would get a reorder of several more and it would build like that.”
Plus, Koger said youth products are “an easier sell than women. You’re already selling lots of peewee bikes. You know you have kids coming in. You have kids gear. You haven’t always had women’s gear.”
The key to selling children’s apparel and accessories? “Nobody is going into (a powersports dealership) looking to buy some bedding or pajamas,” Koger said. “Our product, and I fully realize this, is just an impulse buy.”
Meaning the product won’t sell as well if it’s in an area where impulse buying isn’t likely to occur. Koger recalls the example of a dealership that had trouble selling Smooth pajamas. Turns out the store’s employees had stocked the pajamas in a round rack with riding gear.
Blackwell also cites the importance of ensuring stores have dedicated space for impulse items, from space near or behind the cash register to considering building a kiosk at the entrance of the store. Those little spaces can be key to selling what Blackwell calls “quick decision” items, from Alpinestar socks to Scott goggles.
Besides setting up successful retail spots, another key can be selection.
“If you’re going to be successful in (youth apparel), you have to stock it deep,” Blackwell said. “Having one medium blue and one extra-large of the same T-shirt is not going to sell you a lot of casual wear. You have to have 30 mediums and 30 larges so you can mass market to the public.”
The opportunity to possibly fill that niche hasn’t been lost on aftermarket companies.
“We dedicate a whole section in our catalog just for kids,” Johnson of Fox Racing said. “It’s really an important buying segment.”
And an additional profit potential for dealers to consider for the holidays.
“When they see the margins,” Johnson said, noting Fox’s apparel margins are better than its riding gear margins, “then it becomes a no-brainer.” psb