Every day, businesses open, close, and relocate. They sometimes change names, or get acquired by larger brands. At the same time, consumers are constantly changing the way they interact with retail businesses based on their own personal financial situation, and the larger economy.
In such a dynamically changing world, it can be difficult to stay on top of these trends and truly understand what the retail market landscape looks like. With accurate and fresh points of interest (POI) data, data scientists can easily understand how many businesses opened in a given month, at any level of geographic granularity. Enriching each of these store locations with consumer behavior data provides the necessary context for understanding the full picture, enabling data scientists to measure how economic trends impact the retail market.
Check out trends for the spring of 2022 and then download a sample of SafeGraph data to get started building your own retail analytics.
According to the National Retail Foundation, more than 8,100 new retail store locations opened across the United States in 2021. Whether a result of a new brand opening, an existing brand expanding its market footprint, or a store choosing to relocate to a new space across town, stores open each and every day.
In these infographics, we use the SafeGraph Places dataset to see how many retail store locations opened and identify any regional trends in store openings. We specifically measure NAICS codes beginning with 44 or 45 so that we isolate our findings to categories in the retail industry. From those NAICS codes, we identify the top retail category in each state that saw the largest number of store location openings in the given time period using the opened_on column in SafeGraph Places.
According to the National Retail Foundation, around 3,950 retail store locations closed in 2021. This was a significant drop in closures compared to 2020, which saw over 10,700 retail store locations close. Businesses close every day in every type of economy, but the closure rate can fluctuate due to factors like the pandemic, stimulus checks, or recession.
Each month, SafeGraph measures how many retail store locations closed using our Places dataset. For these infographics, to understand the state of the retail industry and how that differs regionally, we specifically look at NAICS codes that begin with 44 or 45 for April and May 2022. We identify the top retail category in each state that saw the largest number of store location closings using the closed_on column in SafeGraph Places.
Store openings can be the result of many factors, such as an increase in demand for certain products or services in an area, or the success and expansion of a particular brand. For example, in times of recession consumers may choose to shop more at bargain outlets, resulting in a boom in demand for those store locations. Analyzing retail store location openings by brand can reveal interesting insights related to consumer demand and economic health.
To see which retail brands experienced the most growth in the US during the given time period, we measure the amount of store location openings by brand. We then identify the five brands with the most POIs opened in the US, using the opened_on column in SafeGraph Places.
Store closures can occur for a variety reasons, including increased competition in a particular area, or a decrease in consumer demand for specific retail goods. As an example, during a recession consumers may choose to spend less money on luxury goods, resulting in a decrease in demand and a need for brands to close store locations that are underperforming.
To understand which retail brands contracted the most in the US during the given time period, we measure the amount of store location closings by brand. We then identify the five brands with the most POIs closed in the US, using the closed_on column in SafeGraph Places.
Consumer behavior fluctuates throughout the year based on factors like seasonality and popular trends, but also over time as a result of the larger economy. Looking at transaction data associated to specific points of interest (POIs) helps reveal these patterns in consumer spending and how it impacts different retail brands.
To see which retail brands saw the biggest decrease in transaction volume, we use SafeGraph Spend data to compare the number of transactions month over month at brands with NAICS starting in 44 or 45 during April and May 2022. With these insights, data scientists can attribute a retail brand’s performance to larger economic or regional trends.
Consumers often change how they interact with retail brands based on what time of year it is, what is popular among their friends and family at the moment, and also how the economy is doing. Transaction data for individual places shows how consumer spending changes over time, and also across regions.
In this infographic, we use SafeGraph Spend data to compare the number of transactions at POIs with NAICS starting in 44 or 45 for April and May 2022. Identifying the retail brands with the biggest increase in transaction volume month over month can help indicate how the economy is impacting consumer spending behavior and overall brand health.
Consumers spend money at multiple retail brands, and understanding these relationships is critical to profiling customers and building trade areas. While two stores may be competitors of each other, their customers may actually frequent different stores. These types of insights can help retailers understand how best to serve their customers and better compete in the market.
Using cross-shopping columns in the May and June releases of SafeGraph Spend, we choose two competitive brands and identify the top three other brands customers shop at. We do this by counting the number of times each brand’s POIs shows any spend with a related brand, reflecting the number of POIs where a customer had spent money at that specific location and the related brand.
