I think the market would have been expecting a slowdown in sales after the Xmas and January, back to school peak in sales. As I've posted earlier, Feb was (for me at least) a surprisingly strong month based on app download rankings and while consumer purchases dipped through the month, the strong start to Feb meant that average download ranking in Feb was equal to that of Jan (i.e. sales to consumers for Feb were probably in line with Jan). The dip continued into early March but has since reversed, with some volatility but it has been a quite sharp reversal higher. If it continues that way then the average download ranking for March (which would be proportional to customer purchases) could again be in line with January. The reversal is encouraging because it comes at a time when advertising has been wound back following the strong budget for the peak Nov-Jan period. Sales may now be feeding off referrals/word of mouth and social media more so than the tv/radio and shopping centre billboard advertising that we saw especially through December. Considering JB hasn't yet restocked recently and some stores continue to be out of some colours, it might also mean on line sales are picking up and if a decent proportion of those are from our website then that means a good boost to profit margins. Hopefully we now see a continuing gradual pick up in Australian sales for the rest of the year . Sales will get a boost from the UK rollout anytime now as the launch is due next month. Even a modest start will boost sales to customers.
