‍

The European Outdoor Group’s (EOG) ground-breaking State of Trade report delivers hard facts about the European outdoor industry. Based on wholesale sell-in figures for outdoor products, the report provides users with the size, scope and direction of these markets, by season, country, category and sub-category.

The main product categories in the report include Apparel, Footwear, Backpacks, Sleeping Bags, Tents, Climbing and Outdoor Accessories and these seven product categories are split into a further 48 sub-categories.

The report is based on to two data sources:

Primary information – wholesale sell-in figures submitted by each participating company on a 100% confidentiality basis.

Secondary information – brand gap analysis. The purpose of the gap analysis is to provide market estimates for the brands that do not participate in the report. The gap analysis draws on industry expertise and publicly available data and research. The combined total of the primary and secondary information is used to compile an overall market size for the outdoor industry based on the EOG market definition of outdoor products.

Project details:

‍
The State of Trade Report is funded by the EOG.

The project is open to all relevant brands, including retail brands (own label) trading in Europe and the resulting market data is provided free of charge to participants.

Participating brands provide their sales data at wholesale level in value and volume by country, sub-category and season. This is on a 100% confidential basis through a secure online platform.

Data collection begins in February each year after brands have closed their books for the previous year.
An independent third party Notary Public is signed up to the project to manage the confidentiality of the project and to ensure that there is no visibility of which brand has supplied information.
Data collection closes at the end of April and data analysis begins. This is conducted by the EOG and a research partner and neither have any knowledge or access to which brand has supplied specific data.
The final online report is made available during Quarter 3.
Subject to participants meeting the data collection deadline, top level market figures will be presented at the OutDoor trade show in July each year.

State of Trade Q&A

How do I join?

‍
All outdoor brands are invited to apply to participate and the European Outdoor Group (EOG) then reviews the application to check product category relevance to the report. Brands are asked to commit to the project for a minimum of three years to allow for data consistency. At this stage, participation is aimed at brands and this includes multi-brand companies and retailers with own brands. In return for being part of the project all participants get free access to the online report.

To apply to join the project please contact us at  info@europeanoutdoorgroup.com

What do I need to do as a brand?

‍
Once a year, participating brands provide their sales data at wholesale level – also sometimes referred to as sell-in data. Figures are supplied by season, country and sub-category on a confidential basis to the secure online system. Access to the system is currently free of charge.

The product subcategories are clearly defined in the system and brands must submit their figures using the same ‘EOG’ definitions to allow for consistent reporting.

What about confidentiality?

‍
Confidentiality is paramount to the running of this project and there has been a significant investment in developing the secure online platform for the data collection and reporting of the research.

Furthermore, the EOG works with a third party Notary Public whose task is to ensure anonymity of the data. The data supplied via the online platform operates on two servers. Participant details and the supplied data are held separately on these servers. No party has access to both servers, so it is not possible to link the data with the details of an individual participant.

The EOG does not have any visibility of which brand has supplied the data.

What about point of sale retail data?

‍
The ideal scenario is to have electronic point of sale data representing the retail sell-out figures for each country. However, in research terms, this is a long way off. What the State of Trade report provides is reliable, credible and useful data providing market estimates for many outdoor product categories across 22 European countries.

We are a public company and we are concerned about giving out information that could be price sensitive.

‍
This is perfectly understandable. However, the objective of the project is to supply outdoor brands with aggregated sell-in figures in retrospect. Data collection only begins when the books have been closed after the year-end. The data collection is guaranteed to be 100% confidential and no data provided could possibly have any impact on share prices.

We would like more details about the project

‍
The project first started by collecting data on seven headline categories.

For the 2012 report the EOG invested in an online system for the collection of the data and this allowed the project to expand significantly from reporting seven categories to cover almost 50 sub-categories.

The online system has been developed to allow flexibility in responding to the data needs of outdoor brands.  However, there are limits to how far the EOG can finance each additional development, so extensions in the future may have to be chargeable and prioritized.

Is it only open to EOG Members?

‍
Absolutely not. The EOG is a group of brands that co-operate together on a whole range of issues, with most of the work carried out on behalf of the entire outdoor industry. The project is open to active and established brands with relevance to the outdoor sector.

I’d like to find out more

‍
You can contact Pauline Shepherd of the EOG team at: marketresearch@europeanoutdoorgroup.com

You can also meet the EOG team in person at ISPO MUNICH and at OutDoor by ISPO or during the European Outdoor Summit.

‍

To join the programme please get in touch with us at info@europeanoutdoorgroup.com

‍

In the event that not enough companies decide to participate in State of Trade, the EOG reserves the right to cancel the project at any time.