Dramatic Increase of 10.1% YoY in Top Retailer Foot Traffic over Thanksgiving Weekend

Placer.ai, the world’s most advanced Foot Traffic analytics platform, released its initial ‘Placer.ai Retail Index’ that measures Foot Traffic at major retail brands and shopping centers across the United States. The Placer.ai Retail Index tracks Foot Traffic at over 24,000 stores across the United States. This update compares Foot Traffic over the Black Friday weekend in 2018 vs Black Friday weekend visits for 2017.

Placer.ai’s key takeaways for the Black Friday weekend 2018 shopping period include:

• Overall Foot Traffic increased 10.1% YoY at the top 30 retailers as compared to last year.
• The top 3 retailers in the ‘Placer.ai Retail Index’ for the Thanksgiving weekend were Hobby Lobby, Ulta Beauty, and T.J.Maxx, each delivering a 26% increase in foot traffic.
• As a category, mass merchants like Walmart and Target showed the largest lift in traffic at 12% YoY compared to 2017.
• Best Buy continues its positive momentum with a 14% increase in 2018 YoY.
• Walmart continues its reign as the most visited mass merchant with over 60M unique visits.
• T.J.Maxx dominated the off-price apparel category (a 12% increase in visits in 2018), well ahead of Ross (which posted a 4% increase).
• Americans love their hardware stores with Home Depot clearly winning the category with over 15M visits and an increase of 10% in foot traffic as compared to 2017

“While Thanksgiving weekend 2018 was big for online retailers, this data reinforces that bricks-and-mortar retail is not dead,” said Noam Ben-Zvi, CEO and Co-Founder of Placer.ai. “In fact, those retailers that have heavily invested in their online capabilities while simultaneously elevating their in-store experience generally saw the largest increases in foot traffic to kick off this holiday season, underscoring the importance of having a comprehensive multichannel approach in today’s consumer environment.”

To see the Placer’s full report on Black Friday Weekend 2018 or ask any questions about our findings, please email press@placer.ai

About the Placer.ai Retail Index:

The Placer.ai Retail Index tracks the aggregate Foot Traffic at the over 24,000 retail locations representing 30 top brands to measure the health of the physical retail economy and gain insights into the impact that events have on consumer behavior. Retailers included in the Placer.ai Retail Index include: Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Best Buy, Costco, JCPenney, Ross, Michael’s, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom, J Crew, Ulta, The Home Depot, Lowes, Sam’s Club, HomeGoods, Belk, Bj’s, Hobby Lobby, Dick’s Sporting Goods, PetSmart, Burlington, Crate & Barrel, Neiman Marcus, Sears, Hibbett, and Menards.