IS HIGHER PRICING AFFECTING SOME CATEGORIES?
When you consider the current global political chaos and economic concerns, the retail sales patterns are very positive for 2023. Data from Golf Datatech’s UK golf audit for the first ten months of this year shows the year-to-date (YTD) position is up +4% in value versus 2022, and +19% on 2019.
Industry performance has changed significantly since the Pandemic but the general trends have returned to pre-Covid norms. However, while the general shape and trends of the market have remained similar there are some very definite points of difference.
The Clubs category has seen the biggest growth since the Pandemic by far – up +28% to date vs 2019 (even though club sales are relatively flat in 2023 vs 2022). The Apparel category has also fared well since 2019 but not to the same extent as clubs - up +14% on 2019.
By contrast, other categories, namely Shoes and Trolleys, have not experienced a similar revival in sales – Up just +5% and +2.8% respectively vs 2019.
One explanation for this could be that some consumers have moved to no traditional golf retailers, such as Amazon (and, as a result would not be included in Golf Datatech’s retail sales reports). This could be the case for the Shoes, but possibly not when it comes to Trolleys, which I believe has a different issue.
Over the last two years, the Trolleys category has seen a significant drop in units sold which may be more to do with price elasticity.
Put simply, trolleys are just a lot more expensive than they used to be. In fact, this category has seen the largest price increase since 2019: up + 30%. While there are consumers that are willing to pay the higher prices, perhaps there are less of them.
Interestingly if you look at units sales in the 2023 – there are only 4 categories that have seen a decreases. The 3 biggest drops are produced by categories with the biggest price increases in 2023 – Distance Devices, Men's Bottoms and Trolleys.
Have electric trolleys just become too expensive? Certainly, as prices have increased substantially, units have dropped. Across general retail, consumers are still happy to pay higher prices, but perhaps there are limits. People are spending more and seem able to cope. However, when it comes to golf, you do find that people switch their spending from one product to another and I suspect some consumers have turned to manual trolleys as a cheaper alternative.
It’s great to see golfers are playing and spending money. The golf market is resilient and next year, we should watch to see if consumers are willing to spend more and pay higher prices.