In this Placer Bytes, we dive into two of retail’s strongest players - Dick’s Sporting Goods and Best Buy.
Dick’s Sporting Impressive Visits Growth
While the company’s push into experiential deserves it’s own post, it was clearly the mark of a brand operating from a position of strength. Dick’s Sporting Goods has seen visit growth in all but one month thus far in 2021 when compared to the equivalent months in 2019. March and April saw the biggest jumps of 4.2% and 16.7% respectively, largely driven by the wider retail reopening and pent-up demand.
Yet, May, June and July sustained the success with visit growth of 14.0%, 4.4%, and 13.1%, respectively, compared to the equivalent months in 2019. The consistency is already a tremendous sign of the brand’s unique position and strength, but there is an even more exciting element of the recent success. July’s 13.1% growth numbers comes in comparison to a very strong Back-to-School season in 2019. The ability to show strength when compared to another strong period, even with continued COVID concerns, is an especially important achievement.
Best Buy’s Continued Strength
Another brand that seems to jump from strength to strength is Best Buy. The electronics giant had reached visit growth as early as April, with monthly visits up 2.5% when compared to 2019. Yet, visits faded slightly with May and June down -2.8% and -5.3%, respectively. And while these numbers aren’t all that weak on their own - especially considering lingering restrictions in California and other key regions during that time - July was already back to 3.7% visit growth compared to June 2019.
And like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Walmart and others, the success in July is an incredibly impressive achievement considering the heights hit in 2019. Should the brand prove capable of maintaining even a slightly reduced pace in August and Back-to-School season, 2021 could shape up to drive a huge boost.
It also doesn’t appear that July is bringing the end of the growth. Looking at weekly visits compared to 2019 shows that the week beginning August 2nd drove a significant jump of 6.8%, indicating that the Back to School season strength is sustaining.
Will Best Buy and Dick’s Sporting Goods continue to drive impressive visit growth? Visit Placer.ai to find out.
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