Placer.ai: Mall visits see visits rise in August
Back-to-school shopping helped boost mall visits across the board in August to close out the summer.
According to data from retail analytic firm Placer.ai’s Mall Index: August 2024 Recap, year-over-year visits in August 2024 increased by 7.3% for indoor malls, 5.8% for open-air shopping centers, and 6.1% for outlet malls.
The increased August visits came on the heels of a sluggish July 2024, when indoor mall visits (-1.0%), open-air center visits (-1.0%) and outlet mall visits (-3.8%) were all down year-over-year. However, Placer.ai says these decreases were likely due to a calendar shift rather than to any decreased back-to-school momentum. July 2024 contained one less Saturday and Sunday than the equivalent period of 2023, when malls draw some of their biggest crowds.
In January-August 2024, weekends accounted for 39.0% of visits to indoor malls, 35.6% for open-air shopping centers, and 43.0% for outlet malls.
Of the three mall types, Placer.ai found that open-air shopping centers were most likely to draw college students in August 2024. Their captured markets were over-indexed for Spatial.ai’s “College” segment by 170% compared to the nationwide baseline. Indoor malls saw a 67% increase in college segment visitors in August, while outlet malls saw a 10% decrease year-over-year.
Outlet malls were most likely to draw households with children, with captured markets that were over-indexed for this demographic by 3%, and indoor malls drew somewhat higher-than-average shares of both demographics.
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The year-over-year visit spikes in August come as mall visits as a whole are nearing pre-COVID levels.
Placer.ai’s monthly 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.
