Placer.ai: Target Deal Days creates early holiday traffic boost
Target Corp. is off to a merry start for the holiday season, according to new third-party analysis of its recent Deal Days sales event.
Data from Placer.ai indicates that during the week of Oct. 3-9, 2022 – the week of Target’s Deal Days early holiday promotion – Target’s nationwide foot traffic increased 3.2% relative to the week of October 4-10 2021, or double the year-over-year (YoY) increase of the previous week.
In addition, the 2021 October Deal Days took place between Oct. 10-12, 2021, so the 2022 October Deal Days week growth took place compared to a 2021 week with a holiday sales event. 2022 was also the first year that a Deals Day event fell on Saturday – Target’s highest-traffic day of the week – and Placer.ai foot traffic data indicates that the overlap with Target’s weekly visit peak gave Deal Days a significant boost.
Calling it the ‘biggest Deal Days” event yet,” Target said the 2022 Deal Days sale would feature hundreds of thousands of deep discounts across its entire assortment. Analyzing foot traffic to Target’s stores nationwide over Deal Days, Placer.ai says that the October 2022 Deal Days event drew almost 28% more average daily visits to Target stores than in 2021, and around 57% more daily visitors per store than in 2020.
Comparing daily visits over the Deal Days event to the previous four-week daily average shows that the heightened traffic on Target’s 2022 October Deal Days sale relative to previous years was not just due to a strategic calendar shift. Visits to Target nationwide on Thursday, Oct. 6 were 6.1% higher than the previous four-week Thursday visit average; while Friday, Oct. 7 foot traffic saw a 7.6% increase relative to the previous four-week Friday average.
Saturday, Oct. 8 received a 4% boost when compared to average visits over the previous four Saturdays – which Placer.ai says is a significant increase when considering how high Target foot traffic is on a typical Saturday.
Target is also running its annual holiday price match guarantee a few days longer this year – from Thursday, Oct. 6 to Saturday, Dec. 24 — than in years past. Under the guarantee, Target will match the price if a customer buys a qualifying item at Target then find the identical item for less at Target.com, select online competitors or in a Target or competitor’s local print ad. Price matches may be requested at time of purchase or within 14 days after purchase.
Retail giants get a jump on the holidays
Deal Days took place right before the Prime Early Access Sale, Amazon’s early holiday sales event which offered Prime members hundreds of thousands of deals. In addition, Walmart launched deals, promotions, and expanded returns earlier this ever this holiday season, on Saturday, Oct. 1.
The three retail giants are making an early holiday push amid what many experts are predicting will be a modest holiday season. Deloitte’s annual holiday forecast predicts that year-over-year holiday sales will increase 4% to 6%. By comparison, sales grew 15.1% in 2021.