New report by Placer.ai shows Walmart’s growing strength

In the world of offline retail, there is no matching the juggernaut that is Walmart.

That’s according to a new report by foot traffic analytics platform Placer.ai, which looks at the in-store performance of Walmart Supercenters from November 2019 through January 2020. The results were impressive — and all the more so considering the shorter holiday season, Placer.ai noted.

Monthly visits to Walmart in November, December and January were all significantly higher than visits in the same months during the two years prior, the report noted. Overall visit growth for the period was 3.0% in 2019/20, compared to the same three month period in 2018/19.

Compared to the baseline for the period from January 2017 through January 2020, visits in November and December 2019 were 8.9% and 22.0% above the baseline respectively, with January 2020 visits coming in 6.0% below, Placer.ai found. This was a significant upgrade over the previous year when visits were 4.3% and 21.3% above for November and December 2018, and 10.1% below in January 2019. 

Sam’s Club also saw growth. Apart from a minor decrease in year-over-year traffic in December 2019, November 2019 and January 2020 had strong year-over-year growth for in-store visits, according to Placer.ai.  Looking at the period from January 2017 through January 2020, November 2019 saw visits that were 8.8% above the baseline, besting 2018’s mark of 0.4% below. This continued into the new year when January 2020 visits were 4.8% below the baseline for the period, better than the previous year’s 9.5% below.

“The addition of an increasingly effective Sam’s Club alongside the existing and seemingly endless strength of Walmart Supercenters could give the brand a significant boost at the start of the new year,” stated Placer.ai.