According to a report from the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), 151 million people visited a mall or shopping center over Black Friday weekend. Of those holiday shoppers, 88% of their spending was captured at omnichannel retailers. What is more is that among shoppers that utilized click-and-collect, 64% made an additional purchase when they visited the store to pick up their merchandise.
This statistic falls in sync with what the ICSC has coined The Halo Effect. Physical stores have an impact on a retailer's brand image, consumer perception and the amount of traffic driven to a retailer's website. In fact, ICSC found that not only is there a 37% increase in web traffic when a retailer opens a new store, but also the share of web traffic in the market increases by 27%. Perhaps not surprisingly, closing stores causes a proportional drop in web traffic to a retailer with the more stores closing the larger the drop.
When considering the sharp contrast to the days when brick-and-mortar retail appeared to be dying, those retailers who invested in an omnichannel presence instead of loading up potentially unserviceable debt will remain robust. Not only will they continue to survive, but will thrive as retail continues to evolve. For those who planned well, Black Friday was just the beginning of what will likely be a record-breaking holiday season.