The NPD Group, Inc. estimated traffic at brick-and-mortar stores increased in the week ending Dec. 26 to 69 percent of U.S. consumers from 68 percent the prior week. Overall brick & mortar shopping visits increased by 6.5 percent this week, according to  NPD's Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends* report. The Report also show that despite the increase in the number of shoppers in the market, brick & mortar shopping conversion remained relatively stable.

Brick & Mortar Shopping Conversion Rate
Weeks Ending Dec. 5 – Dec. 26, 2011

Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending
12/5/2011 12/12/2011 12/19/2011 12/26/2011
B&M Shopping Conversion 66.9% 67.3% 68.1% 67.9%

Source: Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends Report
+Shopping Conversion Rate is NPD’s measure of shoppers engaged in the shopping experience and making a purchase.

“The stability in the conversion rate is a good sign that holiday held its own this year,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc., “With so much of the season being front loaded with “self-gifting” it would have been easy for the consumer to be ‘tapped out’ and forego some important gift shopping for those on their list.  But they shopped for those on their list and showed it in their shopping conversion rates in brick & mortar stores.”

For the week ending Dec. 26, 2011 Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends report looks at shopping visits and shopping conversion for individual general merchandise retail channels. It was vertical retailers that posted the highest increases this week.    

Shopping Visits For Channels With Highest Percent Change Growth Shopping Conversion For Channels With Highest Percent Change Growth

General Merchandise Channel

Percent change in shopping visits, from prior week

General Merchandise Channel

Percent change in shopping conversion,from prior week
Specialty Beauty

+31%

 Book Store

+16%
Specialty Apparel

+26%

 Sporting Goods

+16%
Book Store

+22%

 Electronics Store

+11%
Specialty Footwear

+21%

 Greeting Card Store

+7%
Department Store

+19%

 Specialty Beauty

+7%

Source: Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends Report



In addition to the increase in brick & mortar shopping visits this week the average amount spent per buying visit was up 4.7 percent, from the prior week. This increase in spending is the largest week over week increase reported since the week of November 28th, which included Black Friday.
 

Online shopping activity continued its decline. For the week ending Dec. 26, 2011 online share of buying visits declined to 13.9 percent, down from 16.4 percent the prior week.

Online Share of Buying Visits
Weeks Ending Dec. 5 – Dec. 26, 2011

Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending Week Ending
12/5/2011 12/12/2011 12/19/2011 12/26/2011
Online Share of Buying Visits 17.3% 17.4% 16.4% 13.9%

Source: Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends Report

 

“’Christmas Crunch time’ (the final week before Christmas) gave a nice boost to brick & mortar stores. While online saw its usual drop off as shipping dates for guaranteed delivery passed the prior week,” said Cohen, “Online still had a healthy level of shoppers. So what does all this mean? Retailers had a nice Christmas, with a full load of shoppers, buyers and online visitors.”

“The front loaded holiday this year will likely take its biggest toll on the back end…the post-holiday period,” said Cohen, “Look for consumers to be ‘bought out’ or even ‘tapped out’ after the first week in January. This fourth period of the holiday retail season this year, will be the place where we see the consumer pulling back.”