Over the holiday shopping period, it seems that only a small number of retailers actually dominated store visits. Based on information from Reveal Mobile, about one out of three US shoppers visited Walmart or Target between November 12 and December 31, 2018.
According to the mobile-location data from Reveal Mobile, 86 percent of the total retail store visits during this period were mainly at Walmart, Target and others.
Neither Sears or Kmart (which is owned by Sears Holdings) unsurprisingly didn’t make the list, even though there’s a possibility that those companies may yet survive. Sears Holdings chose to close over 140 stores last October and about another 40 in Q1 2019.
Using a store-visitation methodology similar to Reveal Mobile’s, Placed, a locations analytics company, believes that if and when Sears and Kmart store closes, there are some potential beneficiaries who would benefit. According to Placed, there’s a “roughly 19-25 percent” overlap in Q4 among the shoppers at Sears, Kmart, JCPenney and Kohl’s. With these Sears and Kmart closures happen, JCPenny and Kohl’s should see more visits.
Dollar Tree and Dollar General will benefit from Kmart closures, in particular. The discount chains have a 37 percent and 24 percent customer overlap with Kmart. Big Lots and Five Below may also pick up abandoned Kmart shoppers.
With Sears’ out of the picture, the company’s former specialty product shoppers will go to Best Buy (27 percent overlap), Victoria’s Secret (20 percent overlap) and Finish Lap.