BOULDER, Colo. (BRAIN) — While women's specific bike, accessory and apparel sales are trending upward, there is still a big opportunity to grow.
That's according to data presented during a webinar hosted by the Outdoor Industries Women's Coalition Wednesday. Julia Day, the executive director of NPD Group's Sports and Leisure Trends Division, told attendees that cycling industry sales totaled $3.3 billion a 12-month period ending May 2015, with sales of women's-specific products totaling $468 million, or 14 percent, up 5.1 percent over the same period ending May 2014.
The webinar, entitled "The Women's Market: Women's Sales in the Outdoor, Run/Fitness and Cycling Markets," highlighted trends driving specialty retail, keying in on POS and consumer data collected in the U.S.
The POS data collected from NPD's IBD partners includes only women's-specific product sold, not total purchases made by female customers.
"If a woman purchases a men's Giant bike model instead of a women's-specific model, we can't see that," Day said. "We can only denote if the bike is women's specific."
Areas of growth in women's-specific bike sales over a 12-month period ending May 2015 include:
- Hybrid bikes: $121.6 million, up 10.6 percent
- Comfort bikes: $35.4 million, up 24.3 percent
- Full suspension mountain bikes: $21.1 million, up 24.4 percent
- Cruiser/classic bikes: $18.8 million, up 10.8 percent
- Commuter/town bikes: $14.9 million, up 47.9 percent
Some women's-specific categories that showed a decline in sales over the same 12-month period ending May 2015 include:
- Performance road bikes: $109.1 million, down 3.8 percent
- Cycling shoes: $17.8 million, down 6.5 percent
- Gloves: $8.2 million, down 4.4 percent
- Performance saddles: $4.6 million, down 5.5 percent
