Placer.ai: Shopping center visits stay hot in July
Visits to shopping centers – especially indoor malls and open-air centers – continue to rise as the summer progresses.
Placer.ai’s July 2026 Mall Index revealed that malls' momentum in the first half of the year continued going into the second half of the year, with year-over-year visits to shopping centers up across all three formats analyzed (indoor, open-air and outlet). Open-air shopping centers saw traffic up 5.1% in July, followed closely by indoor malls at 4.3%. Outlet malls, which spent much of last year trailing 2024 levels, posted a 0.5% increase in traffic.
Despite increased visits, average dwell time declined year over year across all three mall formats between February and June 2026. Placer.ai says this suggests that much of the traffic increase came from task-oriented shopping behavior, which limited opportunities for cross-shopping and dining.
However, July saw a reversal of the trend, with average dwell time up across all three mall formats. Indoor malls saw the largest increase in dwell time, rising 2.7%, while the other two formats saw more moderate growth.
“July's combination of rising visits and longer dwell times suggests that shopping centers are not only attracting more consumers but also creating more opportunities for discretionary spending – a positive signal for retailers and landlords alike,” noted Shira Petrack, head of content at Placer.ai. “If this shift in engagement persists through the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons, it could support stronger tenant performance and reinforce demand for experiential merchandising, dining and entertainment that encourages shoppers to stay longer.”
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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.
