For Walmart, Sam’s Club and Target, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
The trio of retailers are seeing signs of a turn-around in their brick-and-mortar stores, despite the general misfortunes currently plaguing the industry thanks to the Coronavirus and the white-hot popularity of online shopping, which began pre-pandemic but soared as consumers were stranded at home, according to a new report from Placer.ai.
Also of benefit to the stores is a change in the habits of retail customers, who largely have shifted to mission driven shopping, “incentivizing visitors to spend even more time at these locations – a trend boosting visits and basket sizes,” the report stated.
Walmart Supercenters, the Neighborhood Market brand and Sam’s Club all started the year
Over the last six months, Sam’s Club has seen an average year-over-year traffic spike of 3.5% – an increase that has boosted its standing in the wholesale club space. A highlight of this period was the month of October, which saw a 7.5% uptick in visits.
Simultaneously, both Walmart Supercenter and Neighborhood Market stores have been trending positively, with October posting the second smallest visitor gap, compared to last year, since the pandemic made its impact felt in April.
Target’s success has been similar. While the popular retailer saw visits drop year-over year in March and April—by 11.4% and 31.7%, respectively—at the height of the pandemic, they haven’t fallen lower than 2% from 2019 levels since that time. Further, recent months have been particularly strong for Target, with visits in September and October up 1.8% and 4.1% respectively year over year, and visit durations up nearly 5% year over year in
“The timing is exceptional heading into a holiday season that seems perfectly suited to serve Target’s strengths. The brand has proven effective at benefitting from online surges, is less Black Friday dependent than many other brands and is very well suited to mission driven shopping.” The result, the brand continued, is “a brand positioned to show its full strength heading into a critical retail period…” GlobeSt.com