Heading into 2020, cycling studios and spin classes were gaining speed. As studios closed, at-home cycling brands kept the trend in focus. But troubles at Peloton earlier this year followed by a recent announcement from Soul Cycle that it was closing a quarter of its studios seem to indicate that the workouts have gone off course. In today’s Insight Flash, we examine how spin classes have fared versus overall athletic clubs in our CE Transact data, then deep dive into specific trends for Peloton class attendance using our CE Web data, followed by tracking the markets where SoulCycle is closing from our CE Transact data.
As y/y inflation in the UK continues to create woes for shoppers, which businesses are suffering as well? In today’s Insight Flash, we dig into not only where average ticket has increased the most, but also look at which subindustries might be seeing the impact of trade up/trade down. Since the beginning of the year, the largest changes in average ticket have been concentrated in travel-related industries, likely partly due to longer trips during the holiday period but also partially driven by rising costs as demand and fuel prices make transport more expensive.
In last week’s earnings report, DIN reported rising sales at Applebee’s and IHOP among High Income shoppers making over $75,000 per year. They hypothesized that this was the result of those shoppers trading down from more expensive dining destinations as year-over-year inflation pressures continue. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our demographic data to see how high-income individuals have altered their spending in recent months. We look at overall spending by income group, deep dive into the restaurant sector, and examine changes in average ticket across subindustries for high income shoppers.
With inflation in both the US and UK forcing shoppers to trade down for cheaper goods in certain categories, is discount apparel retailer Primark seeing a tailwind from shoppers looking for cheaper apparel choices? In today’s Insight Flash, we look into Primark’s spend growth versus its broader industry and subindustry, trends in average basket, and which brands are most likely to be cross-shopped. In Primark’s core UK market, spend growth on a three-year basis outpaced the broader industry and subindustry pre-pandemic.
With gas prices surging over the last year, electric vehicles are looking more and more like an attractive alternative. But auto manufacturers aren’t the only ones to benefit from their increasing popularity – companies operating charging stations are also primed to take off. In today’s Insight Flash, we compare the success of three top charging station brands, looking at overall growth, changes in average ticket, and popularity by geography.
A heat wave at the end of July led to scorching temperatures across the US. As consumers cranked up their air conditioners and iced their beverages, did any businesses benefit from the warmer weather? In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our partnership with WeatherOptics to examine the impact in two markets on the East and West Coast, and to deep dive into how the heat wave progressed for movie theatres, a seemingly cool haven for those looking to keep their AC bills down.
After a contentious battle between JetBlue and Frontier, Spirit Airlines has finally announced a deal with JetBlue. In today’s Insight Flash, we look at what the deal will mean for their combined consumer spend share, how close the companies really are when it comes to ticket prices, and which competitors are the most at risk in key hubs based on cross-shop.
Mall mainstay Claire’s jewelry has seen a recent turnaround, moving to off-mall locations and partnering with large brick-and-mortar chains to display its products. In today’s Insight Flash, we look at how the company’s DTC business is performing in the US and UK versus the broader subindustry, whether it’s capturing nostalgia Gen Zers or a new audience in the US, and whether its new Walmart partnership is likely to boost sales.
Although temperatures have been rising, the housing market has been cooling. In today’s Insight Flash, we focus on how to use our CE Web webscrape dataset to catch the inflection points of when the downturn started and when it might reverse, looking at leading indicators of sales and changes in ASP at the state level. CE Web captures listings on the Opendoor and Offerpad websites, with the removal of a listing usually a leading indicator of a pending sale.
According to recent reports, Starbucks is looking to sell its UK business. Although sales have recovered somewhat with offices reopening, does lower loyalty in the UK versus the US pose a problem? In today’s Insight Flash, we compare trends in the US versus UK, loyalty metrics, and cross-shop to dig into the company’s performance across geographies. Looking at spend versus pre-pandemic levels, Starbucks UK growth is very similar to US growth.
Amazon’s Prime program has vastly expanded its features over the years – adding streaming media, discounts at Whole Foods, and a recently announced free year of Grubhub+/Seamless+. Will tying in with other loyalty programs provide a boost to subscriptions? In today’s Insight Flash, we examine cross-shopper behavior to assess the desirability of the partnership, as well as looking at retention for Grubhub+ and whether new Prime subscribers have been slowing.
With Johnson’s resignation and new leadership on the horizon, the overall state of the UK economy is becoming more important to monitor. In today’s Insight Flash, we review the tools available in CE Transact UK for understanding overall UK spend, for looking at spend by country, and to understand which industries are driving the total growth. UK consumer spend on debit and credit cards has been growing at about 10% above pre-pandemic levels (on a three-year basis) since calendar Q2 2021.
With high gas prices continuing to impact consumer spend, delivery startups gaining market share, and, well, the fact that it’s the eleventh of July, it’s only appropriate to take a deep dive into the world’s largest convenience chain 7-Eleven. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our ability to separate the company’s fuel versus ex-fuel sales to assess performance versus the overall Convenience subindustry, examine how often its customers cross-shop competitors, and look at how demographics differ between the two sides of the business.
Zalando is blaming its recent woes on broader industry trends. But although other European online fashion retailers are also seeing slowing sales, is there more to the story? In today’s Insight Flash, we compare Zalando’s recent spend growth to the broader industry, break down trends for urban shoppers versus the total UK, and look at whether new customer acquisition has slowed.
A volatile economic environment has caused large swings in performance for many companies, making it more important than ever to understand the macroeconomic trends affecting all merchants. In today’s Insight Flash, we highlight several analyses that are part of Consumer Edge’s unique suite of macro products, looking at y/y growth in total spend, spend cut by demographics, and which industries and subindustries are most impacted by spending trends in a particular demographic.
On June 10, the US government removed a restriction that travelers flying in from other countries needed to show a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country. This restriction was a potential barrier not only to foreign tourists, but to US citizens who were hesitant to travel abroad and risk getting stuck in a foreign country. In today’s Insight Flash, we look at spend growth on international airlines for US travelers and US airlines for UK travelers to determine the extent to which the policy change has boosted foreign travel.
Earlier this month, the UK experienced a rare Platinum Jubilee in honor of Queen Elizabeth II. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our ability to pinpoint exact transaction dates in our UK Transact data to look into how shoppers celebrated during the four-day bank holiday Thursday June 2 to Sunday June 5. In general, there wasn’t a dramatic change in total UK spending. The week before and the week of the Jubilee saw spend 13% and 14% higher than the first week of January, below the spend lift seen in the week before the Early May Bank Holiday.
A particularly warm Memorial Day weekend this year provided perfect weather for beaches and grilling, as well as visiting theme parks and outdoor attractions. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our partnership with WeatherOptics and our unique weather impact tracking capabilities to highlight which companies saw the biggest boost from the beautiful weather, and in which geographies.
In mid-May, food delivery service Grubhub and its subsidiary Seamless offered a “free lunch” promotion in the NYC area, giving diners $15 off orders between 11AM and 2PM. Many reports labelled the promotion a logistical disaster, citing customer complaints of long wait times and cancelled orders due to overwhelmed restaurants and drivers. But did it drive sales? In today’s Insight Flash, we use our unique ability to see the actual day a transaction was charged to a user’s payment card in order to examine behavior in the NYC CSA during the promotion.
As companies have been reporting earnings recently, many have noted weakness in low-income spending, even as higher income groups have remained less impacted by recent macro pressures. With gas prices rising and no stimulus checks on the horizon, it is unclear how long this low income weakness will last. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of our unique household demographic data to better understand where a low income pullback in spend will have the strongest impact.
