Placer.ai: TJX off to strong start across all brands

The TJX Cos. portfolio had an exceptional end to 2020 and a very strong start in 2021.

Visits to T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods locations quickly overcame a drop in traffic between October and November as COVID cases surged and then sustained the positive momentum into 2021, according to a report by foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai. 
 
Visits to T.J. Maxx were down 15.6% year-over-year in November, with the traffic gap decreasing to 7.8% in December and reaching 1.5% year-over-year growth in January. 

Marshalls saw a similarly impressive pace with the year-over-year visit gap declining to 13.0% in December and just 4.4% in January.

HomeGoods continued to ride the home furnishings surge, with growth of 4.6% in November, 7.1% in December, and a massive 24.9% year-over-year increase in January.

Even more impressive is that all three of these brands outpaced their respective sectors, according to Placer.ai. Weekly visits from the week beginning December 28 to the week beginning Feb. 1, showed T.J. Maxx and Marshalls consistently outperforming the wider apparel sector by a large margin. 

“The ability of both brands to provide significant value in an outdoor center seems to be propelling them ahead of the wider apparel space,” stated Ethan Chernofsky, VP of marketing, Placer.ai. “And considering that the economic uncertainty driving much of this attention is unlikely to end anytime soon, there’s good reason to believe that these brands will continue to lead the way for many months, if not years, to come.”

But perhaps the most impressive brand in the TJX portfolio is HomeGoods.

“While T.J. Maxx and Marshalls outperformed in a struggling segment, HomeGoods outperformed in one of the strongest, Chernofsky explained. “Looking at the same period shows that HomeGoods’s visits consistently outpaced the exceptional performance of the overall home improvement category. And like its other TJX counterparts, the ability to provide high value in a high performing sector could mean strong results deep into the year.”

Placer.ai’s full report can be found here.