February mall visits roughly flat despite Valentine's Day boost
Mall visits remained fairly steady in February, despite being compared to a leap year.
New data from retail traffic firm Placer.ai’s February Mall Index shows that accounting for the comparison to a leap year in 2024, visitation patterns to indoor malls and open-air shopping centers remained stable in February 2025 despite the ongoing consumer headwinds.
In February, indoor malls saw a -3.8% decrease in visits compared to 2024. Open-air shopping centers saw a -4.0% decrease, and outlet malls saw a greater decrease at -8.3% compared to one year ago. Overall retail visits, not just to malls, were down -4.7% in February, according to Placer.ai.
However, when compared to average daily visits, mall visits were roughly flat in February. Indoor malls saw a -0.4% decrease, while open-air shopping centers saw a -0.7% decrease. Average daily visits to outlet malls dropped -5.2%. This is compared to the overall retail visit decrease of -1.3%.
[READ MORE: Placer.ai: Mall visits see increase in January]
Placer.ai noted that all three mall types saw significant visit increases on Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14) along with a rise in the share of evening (7 p.m. to 10 p.m.) visits. At the same time, only outlet malls saw a slight increase in the share of shorter visits (under 30 minutes) on Valentine’s Day.
“This data suggests that malls played a role in many consumers’ Valentine’s Day celebrations,” wrote Placer.ai content manager Shira Petrack. “Both in serving as a one-stop shop for gifts and as a centralized place with a variety of dining and entertainment options for the perfect Valentine’s date night.
Placer.ai’s Mall Index analyzes data from 100 top-tier indoor malls, 100 open-air shopping centers (not including outlet malls) and 100 outlet malls across the country, in both urban and suburban areas. Placer.ai leverages a panel of tens of millions of devices and utilizes machine learning to make estimations for visits to locations across the country.
