Angus Mordant / Bloomberg through Getty Images
What you need to know
- Placer.ai stated that the retail foot traffic has increased 0.4% between 2023 and 2024.
- The group reported that dollar and discount stores experienced a strong start to the year. Placer.ai reported that by 2024 the trend will be in favor big-box stores and specialty retailers.
- National Retail Federation has expressed optimism about 2024, predicting a positive rebound of sentiment.
The Placer.ai website reports that retailers will see slightly higher foot traffic than in 2023. In the second part of the year, shoppers are more likely to shop at grocery stores and superstores.
Placer.ai tracks foot traffic and says that stores will have 0.4% more visitors in 2024 compared to 2023. The year-long trend showed that traffic was slowed at specialty stores, and increased in dollar and discount stores. Placer.ai reported that as the consumer’s sentiment improved over last year, shopping trends began to shift in favor of furniture stores and specialty retailers.
National Retail Federation stated that overall, consumer spending in 2024 was high despite the fact that confidence had been low for a large part of the year. Placer.ai is optimistic for 2025, thanks to a recent uptick in consumer sentiment. Placer.ai also believes that the cooling of inflation will help keep retailers afloat this year.
“There is good reason to expect healthy economic growth,” Jack Kleinhenz was the Chief Economist of National Retail Federation. “The resilience of the U.S. consumer should hopefully remain part of the dominant narrative.”
Concerns about high prices and economic uncertainty drove up visits to retailers known for value, such as Dollar General (DG) and Five Below (FIVE), in the first quarter, Placer.ai said. Around April, their traffic started to fall off.
“Visitation trends in the dollar & discount channel slowed considerably,” R.J. Hottovy is the head of Placer.ai’s analytical research. “Consumers increasingly turned to superstores and grocery chains, which began offering more competitive pricing during the second half of the year, shifting the perceived value proposition."
By the third quarter, visits were up at grocery stores and big box retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT), which tend to serve higher-income households, according to Placer.ai.
Furniture stores started 2024 with a dip in traffic, but were seeing a 3.5% year-over-year increase in visits by the fourth quarter, Placer.ai said.
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