Black Friday foot traffic falls sharply amid extended holiday shopping season
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Readily available online sales and a longer season of holiday deals dampened US consumers' appetite to bust down doors on Black Friday.
While traffic to stores increased substantially as compared to the 2022 average, the visits as compared to pre-pandemic levels showed a stark decline. According to data analytics firm Placer.ai, visits to indoor malls fell 14.3% from 2019 levels while outlet malls saw a 17.8% drop in the same comparison.
“Even compared to a Black Friday in 2021 that was limited by rising COVID cases, and an active effort by retailers to shift focus away from the retail holiday, brick-and-mortar visits were down nearly across the board,” Placer.ai VP of Marketing Ethan Chernofsky commented. “The data serves as the latest indication of the ongoing decline of Black Friday’s centrality.”
Indeed, retailers like Target (TGT), Gap (GPS), and Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) each kicked off holiday promotions earlier than usual in order to clear excess inventory. Amazon (AMZN) also launched a second Prime Day event in October to saturate the promotional environment in the fall and weaken the impetus to get out to stores on Black Friday. Additionally, online shopping that took center stage amidst the pandemic appears quite sticky.
For specific sectors of retail, department stores, big box stores, and home improvement stores saw significant deceleration from 2019.
For department stores, Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN), Macy's (NYSE:M), and Kohl's (KSS) saw visits decline 25.8%, 29.3%, and 29% respectively from the prior period. Dillard’s (NYSE:DDS), however, led the pack with a 36.2% decline in foot traffic from the Black Friday before the pandemic.
Among big box stores, Costco Wholesale Corporation saw visits decline 12.3%, BJ’s Wholesale Club traffic fell 25.3%, and Walmart’s (WMT) Sam’s Club saw 14.2% fewer visitors. Target (TGT) saw a comparatively modest 5.8% drop in visits as compared to 2019. Meanwhile, Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW) saw 23.4% and 30.5% declines in foot traffic, respectively.
More positively, off-price retailers like TJ Maxx, owned by Companies (TJX), and Ross Stores (ROST) saw growth from pre-pandemic Black Friday sales while the likes of Burlington Stores (BURL) saw only modest declines.
Electronics retailers as well as beauty centers and spas were also bright spots in the data with respective leaps of 24.9% and 64.6% in foot traffic as compared to 2019. Ulta Beauty (ULTA) led the latter category with a 16.5% jump in traffic from 2021 and a 31% rise as compared to 2019. Interestingly, Best Buy (BBY) traffic fell 27.4% as compared to Black Friday in 2019 despite the positive electronics retail trends.
Read more on the strong online sales that buoyed overall Black Friday sales figures.