Mall Visitors Are Staying Longer

Mall traffic got off to a shaky start this year but year-over-year visits are recovering, according to the June numbers in Placer.ai’s Mall Index, written by Shira Petrack.

Indoor mall numbers were on par with numbers from a year ago but open-air lifestyle centers that have a bit more of an urban feel and outlet malls were up 2.6% and 2.3% respectively. And month-over-month visits this year were up in June versus May.

Perhaps more significantly, shoppers aren’t rushing in to buy and then exiting fast. They’re hanging around or “dwelling” longer, according to the same data. Dwell time is counted from the time they enter until they leave whether it’s to window shop, eat, socialize or rest on a bench.

In June all three types of malls saw a 6.8%, 5.4% and 11.5% YOY increase in median dwell time respectively. For indoor malls and outlet malls this was the largest increase time all year. Open-air lifestyle centers saw the biggest increase since January. They represent an evolution of the original mall type, developed more than 101 years ago when an early version, the Country Club Plaza, was constructed in 1922 by the J.C. Nichols Company in Kansas City, Mo. One of the earliest enclosed malls was the Valley Fair Shopping Center in Appleton, Wis., which opened in 1955. The outlet mall concept came later with one of the earliest, Liberty Village in Flemington, N.J., which dates from 1981.

The report also concluded that shoppers may be getting ready to spend again after holding back, based on a report from PwC’s Consumer Insights, which found that 69% didn’t buy nonessentials as their cost of living rose, and a vast majority also adopted cost-saving behaviors. This could bode well for retailers and malls in particular, before the busy back-to-school shopping days and more ahead of holiday shopping.

While June 2023 data delivered good news for all mall categories, open-air lifestyle centers showed the greatest resilience. Visits to indoor malls and outlet malls remained down a bit compared to the same H1 period a year ago, the traffic to the open-air versions increased 2.7% for the same period.

The cohort that’s visiting the most is the affluent shopper, who’s not as affected by economic changes as other consumer profiles are, the report said. Where they went included a diverse geographic mix of the Oxmoor Center in Louisville, Ken., the Patriot Place in Foxborough, Mass., Bradley Fair in Wichita, Kan., Redmond Town Center in Redmond, Wash., and Promenade on the Peninsula in Rolling Hills Estates, Calif. Visits to these grew a wide range of 9.7% to 33.1%.  Stores within vary; for example, the Oxmoor Center website lists Sephora, H&M and Nike among its shops.

Overall, the summer outlook looks rosy or as some retail pundits like to say, “cautiously optimistic,” with inflation easing and retail foot traffic increasing. Also, the warm weather brings forth more, especially to the open-air centers, which, so far, are outperforming their counterparts.