Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Study: Fewer holiday shopping trips, but bigger spend; bookstores make comeback

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Overall holiday foot traffic declined by 2.01% YoY, according to a survey by pass_by.

Holiday shoppers consolidated their trips this season, making fewer visits but spending more on high-value, meaningful purchases. 

That’s according to an analysis of shopper behavior from November 24th to December 28th from AI-based insights platform pass_by, which found that overall foot traffic declined by 2.01% YoY, while total spend increased 1.47%, reflecting a shift toward intentional, last-minute buying. The number of transactions slightly decreseased by 0.39%

In other findings, shoppers consolidated visits, with significant declines early in the season easing to single digits by mid-December. 

Top Performers 

The top performing categories by store visits were jewelry stores (up 10.83%) and hobby, toy and game stores (up 8.57%).  Shoe stores also saw healthy foot traffic, reflecting ongoing interest in fashion and footwear deals.

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