Firstly, a moment of housekeeping - as this time next week is Good Friday, there won't be a Service Dealer Update popping into your inbox. We'll be back with you on Friday April 6th.
Hopefully you wouldn't have been able to find time to read your weekly dose of Service Dealer anyway - what with the glorious Easter weekend we definitely going to have! There’s bound to be a stampede of people wanting to get outside and use their newly acquired outdoor power equipment!
Actually, bringing us all back down to earth with a bump, the slightly concerning forecast appears to be that the cold weather might be returning next week. Which is awfully unfair considering how long and unseasonable March has been.
It's certainly been an odd month with many parts of the country seeing at least a couple of significant dumps of snow. And it's been extra weird where I'm based in Salisbury because we've also had the plot of a ridiculous airport novel playing out in our town!
These weather conditions though, have actually played into the hands of online retailers. According to figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, UK online retail sales were up +13.1% year-on-year in February. With the Beast from the East hitting the UK in the last week of February, the cold weather saw consumers turn online in their droves, causing a +3.5% lift in sales compared to the previous week. Which is not what bricks and mortar dealers want to hear!
But we shouldn't be all doom and gloom. We all know that the weather effects this industry more than most. And we all know that the weather will eventually pick up and the grass will grow. Hopefully then the season will just extend through October, November and into December.
And in the main, the market for outdoor powered equipment is looking up. I read a report out of the States this week that said global demand for powered lawn and garden equipment is forecast to grow 2.5 percent per year to $24.2 billion in 2021.
The report by The Freedonia Group, a Cleveland-based industry research firm, said a good proportion of this expected upturn will be as a result of the continuing improvements in battery powered products and the expected rise in popularity of robotic mowers.
The American Outdoor Power Equipment (OPE) magazine featured an interview with Jennifer Christ, manager of consumer and commercial products at The Freedonia Group, about the report. With regards to battery products, she told them, "Battery-powered equipment will achieve increased market share in all global regions, as technological advances make these products increasingly competitive with engine-driven equipment. Global demand for battery-powered lawn and garden equipment is forecast to increase 5.5 percent per year to $3.3 billion in 2021."
And in terms of other product sectors, she said, "Lawnmowers will continue to account for the largest portion of sales, owing primarily to the number of homeowners who possess and maintain their own lawns in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe." As well as this Jennifer also cites chainsaws as expecting to post the fastest growth through 2021, in part, she says, because these are less concentrated in mature developed markets than other product types. "Economic advances in developing nations will spur strong growth for chainsaws outside of the core lawncare market, as these products find use in applications such as forestry, roadside maintenance, and clearing land for construction," she is quoted as saying.
So that's some good news isn't it? I know it doesn't help much when you're shovelling your van out of the snow again to think that there will be a 2.5% increase in global sales come 2021 - but we've got to take the positives where we can!
Happy Easter!
