With retail earnings season about to kick off, Placer.ai, a data analytics company that measures foot traffic, warns that most companies are facing a tough year-over-year holiday season comparison. But pre-pandemic data tell a different story.
In a report on how Target Corp. TGT , Walmart Inc. WMT , Costco Wholesale Corp. COST , BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc. BJ and Sam’s Club are faring, Placer.ai found that the strength of 2021, as shoppers emerged from lockdown, made for a difficult comparison with 2022. “Pent-up demand, accumulated savings, and an early start drove an unusually robust season in 2021, so assessing the success of 2022’s holiday season is challenging,” Placer.ai wrote.
But by December, the year-over-year visit gaps had narrowed significantly, with all brands seeing traffic more or less on par with 2021 numbers, according to Placer.ai. This indicated that superstores still played a major role in consumers’ holiday shopping and party prepping routine, according to the data analytics company.
However, comparisons with 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, painted a much rosier picture, according to Placer.ai. “While November 2022 visits were slightly lower than November 2019 visits – likely due to the reduced importance of Black Friday, year-over-three-year visits in October and December 2022 were up almost across the board,” the analytics company wrote.