The busiest time will be in the last 2 weeks before Christmas. In contrast, the highest accumulation of visits will occur 4-6 days before Christmas Eve. Last year, malls and shopping centers saw a 34% increase in traffic compared to the reference period in late October/early November. They were caught up only by hypermarkets with a 32% result. Discounters and supermarkets had decidedly weaker jumps of 10% and 7%. This year, malls and shopping centers have already recorded an 8.5% increase in Black Friday traffic compared to the “regular” previous Friday.
According to a report by UCE RESEARCH and Proxi.cloud, 51.2% of active consumers intend to go shopping at malls and shopping centers before the upcoming holidays. On top of that, 48.7% of consumers surveyed said they had been to such facilities at least once last year for pre-Christmas shopping. The report was based on an opinion poll of more than 1,500 Poles responsible for shopping in their households. Their responses show that this year’s traffic in malls and shopping centers before Christmas may be similar or even slightly higher than last year.
The data collected also shows that consumers will most often want to visit malls and shopping centers in the period up to two weeks before Christmas. On the other hand, the highest accumulation of visits will occur 4-6 days before Christmas Eve, mainly during the weekend, i.e. December 20-22, report analysts from UCE RESEARCH.
According to analyses by UCE RESEARCH and Proxi.cloud, last year increased traffic in shopping malls was particularly observed during the three weeks leading up to Christmas. This was favored by two shopping Sundays – December 10 and 17. At the same time, the Saturdays preceding them were no less crowded. This year, the increase in traffic will be cumulative over the two weeks preceding Christmas, rather than three, as last year. This will be due to the fact that this December’s shopping Sundays fall on December 15 and 22.
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– Last year, we recorded the highest traffic in retail establishments on December 22, which was just before Christmas itself. This shows that a large portion of Poles put off buying gifts until the last minute. This year, we expect the peak days to be Saturday, December 21, and shopping Sunday, December 22. The period immediately preceding the holidays is conducive to an increase in traffic due to the absence of e-commerce shopping. The time for delivery of such purchases before Christmas is too short, explains Lukasz Pytlewski, co-author of the report from Proxi.cloud.
A year ago, in the three weeks before Christmas Eve compared to the reference period, adopted from October 30 to November 5, 2023, traffic in such facilities increased by 34% on average. In hypermarkets, it increased by 32% on average, in discount stores by 10%, and in supermarkets by 7%.
– From this it can be seen that the strongest traffic growth in the pre-Christmas period is observed in shopping malls. This shows that their Christmas offers, including gifts, are definitely better suited than those of large-format retail chains. I predict that this time in shopping malls and hypermarkets, traffic y-o-y. will also increase by double digits,” says an expert from Proxi.cloud.
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The authors of the report add that there is a good chance of this happening. For example, this year malls and shopping centers have already recorded an 8.5% increase in traffic on Black Friday (November 29 this year) compared to the “regular” previous Friday (November 22 this year). – The intensity of promotions and their communication in the media made customers more willing to visit malls and shopping centers on that day. The aforementioned increase was undoubtedly noticed by retail chains operating in malls, concludes Lukasz Pytlewski.
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