Our latest white paper features seven brands from a range of sectors, from furniture to apparel to entertainment, that have been largely written off by leading retail or Wall Street analysts – but their foot traffic data indicates serious comeback potential.
Below is a taste of our findings. Read the full report to find out what other brands made the list and why be believe these companies may well turn out to be the surprise retail rebounds of 2022.
Macy’s Store Fleet Consolidation is Key to its 2022 Success
One retailer to keep a close eye on is Macy’s. The reasons for concern are also fairly evident – Yo2Y visits down every month since January 2021. But the data offers a major glimmer of hope.
Overall Yo2Y visits in October 2021 were essentially equivalent to pre-pandemic levels, despite the brand operating with substantially fewer stores. And looking ahead, Macy’s store fleet consolidation may be key to its success in 2022.
One major challenge retailers face when effectively rightsizing is taking into account natural cannibalization patterns between stores thus undermining efforts to optimize the retail fleet. In other words, optimizing a brand’s overall physical retail footprint does not necessarily mean closing underperforming stores. In fact, deciding which stores to cull and which to keep based solely on the various stores’ hard performance numbers can end up eliminating stores with a high success potential that are currently being cannibalized by nearby branches of the same brand.
Likewise, maintaining several high-performing stores open incurs high operational costs in an area that happens to have a particularly high number of the brand’s customers, even though the brand could reach the same audience with a single, perhaps larger store.
Foot Traffic Data Indicates Successful Rightsizing
Location analytics data shows that Macy’s is rising to the challenge and relying on a holistic strategy to guide its rightsizing efforts. While overall visits are down, the average number of visits per location has been increasing significantly, indicating Macy’s success in reaching a similar audience with a smaller number of locations.
Macy’s has also shown a willingness to innovate with new concepts like Backstage and Market by Macy’s – clear signs of a retailer willing to push boundaries and evolve in the right direction. This approach along with their rightsizing efforts enable the brand to reach its massive audience more efficiently, providing ample reasons for optimism surrounding Macy’s next act.
Want to find out the other brands on our 2022 surprising retail rebounds list? Read the full white paper here.
