Early Easter Leading to Strong April Sales

Yes, Easter was early and it hurt apparel sales in March because consumers weren't ready to buy summer merchandise.

In the 250 year span from 1875 to 2124 Easter was never before March 23rd and Easter occurs only twice on March 23rd, first in 1913 and then again this year 2008. Next year we return to a retail friendly Easter date of April 12.

In my post Early Easter May Lead to Retail Markdowns I guessed retailers would have a slow second half of March, followed by a strong April leading into the spring school vacation weeks. Based solely on the telephone and fax re-order volume at Corky it looks like spring apparel sales have perked up nicely!

If your a specialty retailer find comfort in that your soft March sales were due to an early Easter that impacted everyone. If you ran a spring promotional event in March and had limited success I'd suggest you try it again. Consumers, including me, are shopping now for their spring and summer clothing and we are ready to respond to creative promotional events!