After a slow start to the year, with sales dropping by double digits over last year for many, 12 volt retailers and distributors say sales are turning a corner.
According to a short poll of industry members, sales fell by up to 25 percent over last year for the first six weeks of the year, but began to rebound in mid-February with the onset of tax return season and the warmer weather.
Freeman’s Car Stereo, NC said it is starting to see tax return money which has boosted sales. “It started picking up the second week in February,” said Dave Wall. “You can tell when money hits because Thursdays are super busy. That’s how it used to be before Covid when everyone had money. Now we see it gets really busy Thursday through Saturday and traffic is up and people seem to be spending a little more.”
Sound of Tri-State also confirmed that same pattern. Sales were down 10 percent below last year for January and the first two weeks of February and then began picking up, coinciding with the chain’s tax season promotion
SoundFX, RI said sales started to pick up in the latter half of February as the weather started warming.
ABC Automotive Electronics, IL and Performance Autosound, WA said they are seeing a small uptick.
Sales at Mesa Radio, NM followed the same pattern of falling below last year’s levels for the first six weeks, but starting to pick up towards the close of February.
John Faust of ABC Automotive said, “The phone’s still not ringing, but if it’s a nice day, we start getting more traffic. It’s better than it was a couple of weeks ago.”
Sounds Good Auto in Canada said sales have been about even.
One powersports audio vendor noted that the price to finance a UTV has gone up to 8.5 percent from 2 percent so there is less money for owners to spend on accessories.
But Wall said, “I think we’re going to see things get better as the year progresses. We may not be completely out of the woods, but towards the end of the year I think we’ll see an uptick.”
Let us know what you are seeing in sales in the comments.
I had no idea, thanks for posting this Amy! We are blessed to be holding steady. We are definitely working harder than ever to get those leads, but they do come through. I think part of this may be regional. I’m sure it helps that we are located in a pretty affluent area. We also work really hard on social media/SEO and the other big thing I want to mention is TEXTING is huge. I know people say the phones aren’t ringing and many days ours are not, but clients are TEXTING, we text back all day long and it leads to sales. If you haven’t already looked into a desktop texting service, check out TextRequest. People can text your shop number with questions, send you pics of their car so you can verify details, you can text back full PDF estimates, book a job and collect payment. The more convenient you make the process, the easier it is to close the deal 😉
News to me, I don’t even have tumbleweeds to sell to. I’m doing around 2-4 cars per week currently. It’s slower than I’ve ever seen it, especially during tax season.
Some of my smaller dalers in small towns are still slow in AR & OK but bigger areas like FL & Chicago people are coming through with thelr tax returns now.
Some of my smaller dalers in small towns are still slow in AR & OK but bigger areas like FL & Chicago people are coming through with thelr tax returns now.