Despite a rocky economy (thanks to inflation and rising interest rates) retail foot traffic saw a slight increase in 2024 compared to the previous year.
According to a recent report by location analytics platform Placer.ai, overall retail foot traffic rose by 0.4 percent year-over-year in 2024. While most months experienced year-over-year growth, some (including January, April and September) saw dips due to “extraneous factors” like adverse weather and calendar shifts.
“Looking at 2024 as a whole revealed that the year did outperform 2023,” Noam Maman, marketing data insights analyst at Placer.ai, said in a recent blog post. “[This] suggests that consumer behavior remains resilient and that 2025 could mark a further turnaround if cooling inflation meets consumer expectations.”
In line with consumers’ cautious spending habits over the last year, discount and dollar stores experienced the most foot traffic growth with a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase, followed by superstores with a 1.7 percent year-over-year growth. This highlights consumers’ increasing demand for value in the face of high prices and economic uncertainty, Placer.ai added.
Beauty and spa also saw notable growth at 1.6 percent, reflecting consumers’ desire to invest in self care, even amid financial pressures.
Meanwhile, many discretionary retail categories lagged in 2024. For example, the furniture and home furnishings category saw the steepest decline at -5.7 percent, with negative visit trends from January to July. However, the category rebounded in the fourth quarter 2024, finishing with a 3.5 percent year-over-year increase in visits.
