The dining industry has been slow to fully recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and the ongoing inflation and tighter consumer budgets are making a 2023 comeback seem increasingly unlikely. Notably, even Valentine's Day – often marked by elevated restaurant visits – may not be enough to revitalize the industry. Still, some brands are managing to meet, and exceed, their 2019 visit levels. We dive into the state of the sector to better understand what is driving these trends.
Athleisure has become a global fitness trend. But brand preferences differ significantly across geographies. In today’s Insight Flash, we take advantage of CE Transact Global’s seven-country coverage to examine which brands are trending by geography in terms of direct-to-consumer market share, spend growth, and average ticket.
Discount and dollar stores thrived during the pandemic, with the category gaining popularity with a wider shopper base. As inflation concerns persist, discount and dollar stores are positioned to capture an even larger share of the market. Four players that dominate the discount and dollar store space – Dollar Tree, Family Dollar (owned by parent company Dollar Tree), Dollar General, and Five Below – were among the biggest foot traffic winners throughout the pandemic and 2022.
The Great Resignation has changed the way that many workers think about their workplace, with work culture becoming a pivotal part of someone’s decision to join and stay at a company. Amid a tight labor market, one would expect employers to shift the language they use in job postings away from phrases that would raise red flags for job applicants. Phrases like "must handle stress," "able to work under pressure," "can multitask," and "fast-paced environment" signal a toxic culture, which we have shown to be a major driver of the Great Resignation.
Aldi, the popular European grocery chain that first came to the United States in 1976, has quietly grown to be one of the largest grocery banners in the country, with close to 2,300 stores across 38 states. By consistently providing quality groceries at rock-bottom prices, Aldi has become a go-to destination for cash-strapped consumers eager to cut grocery costs. Despite an overall dip in inflation, rising food prices continue to inflict significant pain on American consumers. As food prices jumped 11.3% in January compared to 2022, we checked in to see how value grocers like Aldi are faring in the new year.
When the first COVID-related restrictions were announced in March of 2020, many thought the damage to brick-and-mortar retail would be permanent and widespread. But the pandemic also gave many segments a significant boost – and almost three years after the first social distancing measures, several of these categories are still enjoying elevated visit shares. We dove into the data to see which sectors are still benefiting from their pandemic gains and what may lie ahead for these categories in 2023.
1.
In its 2018 report on America’s middle class, the Brookings Institution identified the 15 metro areas nationwide – all of them small and mid-size –with the largest shares of middle-class households. Brookings defined “middle-class households” as those falling in the middle 60% of the national income distribution (meaning households that earn more than the bottom 20% of household income but less than the top 20% of households nationwide), adjusted to account for household size and for local differences in the cost of living.
On Nov 3rd, Netflix launched its lower priced and first ever ad-supported plan at $6.99 per month. Its three other streaming plans are all ad-free; the lowest priced “Basic” plan at $9.99 per month. As of January 31st, 2023, the plan has barely made a dent in the composition of subscribers, according to Earnest’s Orion spend data. The new ad-supported plan constituted 0.46% of total subscribers, slightly up from 0.33% in December, but barely noticeable among its overall streaming plan composition of Premium’s 45% share, Standard’s 43% share, and Basic’s 11% share.
As millions watched the Kansas Chief’s secure a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles during 2023’s Super Bowl, consumers not only celebrated Rihanna’s baby bump, but also viewed brands ranging from auto, snacks and medical devices. Of course, every Super Bowl commercial comes with a hefty price tag. This year, the answer to the yearly question— “Super bowl ads cost how much?”—was $7mm for a 30-second TV spot. The steep price seems outlandish, but when considering the addressable audience, the rationale makes more sense, especially this year.
Just a few months since its debut, the free ChatGPT chatbot and its peer products powered by OpenAI have become all the rage. Curious to understand the adoption trend since its launch and who the major users of ChatGPT are, we at Measurable AI take a dig into our “treasure trove of insights” garnered from our proprietary email receipt panel.
Eating healthier food and losing weight are popular New Year’s resolutions. Many U.S. consumers sign up with weight-loss programs to aid in their goal, but how likely are they to stick with their new eating habits? Consumer transaction data shows that weight-loss programs like Weight Watchers—owned by WW International, Inc (NASDAQ: WW)—and Nutrisystem see an uptick in new customers each January. However, retention rates show that most customers who signed up in January 2022 did not remain with either of these programs after a year.
Our latest white paper, Who’s in the Stands? An In-Depth Look at Arena and Stadium Visits uses location analytics tools to uncover the demographic and psychographic traits of sporting event attendees – including Super Bowl fans. With the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in the books, we reexamined some of our favorite analyses from the report using visit metrics from the latest Super Bowl. For the full report, click here.
When many Americans sheltered in their homes early in the coronavirus pandemic, meal delivery sales reached new heights. Consumer transaction data shows that in April 2020, combined sales for major meal delivery services grew 162 percent year-over-year and 59 percent compared to the previous month. Despite new macroeconomic challenges such as rising food prices, competition from dine-in restaurants, and increased fuel costs, the meal delivery industry as a whole is continuing to see some growth, though at much lower rates than those pandemic peaks. Our data reveals that in January 2023, sales for major meal delivery services grew 3 percent year-over-year, collectively.
With another holiday season behind us, and as high prices threaten to continue holding retail back in 2023, we dove into the foot traffic and location intelligence data to understand what lies ahead for Target, Walmart, and other leading superstores. Superstores such as Target and Walmart were one of the pandemic’s major retail beneficiaries. The category’s strength continued in the first half of 2022 as some shoppers traded down in the hopes of stretching their budgets in the face of ongoing inflation.
Does Valentine’s Day make you nervous? It may, especially if you’re planning a memorable romantic get-together with that special someone that hits all the right notes. It may also make you nervous if you’re a retailer, especially one that specializes in traditional Valentine’s Day gifts like flowers and jewelry. As a retailer, you’ve only just made it past the December holiday shopping season, and now you’re facing another holiday that poses the same uncertainties: How will inflation and other economic factors affect consumer behavior and my sales this February?
Globalization has faced challenges in recent years, with the pandemic and several supply chain disruptions. Nevertheless, companies around the world have kept expanding internationally, both in terms of their reach in foreign markets and also to recruit the world's finest talent. As a result, foreign companies hire a large and growing fraction of the worldwide workforce.
In our pre-holiday department store check-in, we noted positive trends for both the mid-range and luxury department store segments. In this blog, we’ll analyze the latest visit metrics for the department store space. Specifically, we’ll dive into Nordstrom, the visits share leader in the luxury department store category, and the impact of some of its brick-and-mortar strategies aimed at increasing efficiency and driving visits.
Off-price apparel was a notably resilient segment during the pandemic, with the major players even expanding their physical retail presence over the past couple of years. Now that inflation has replaced COVID as the major challenge facing retail, we dove into the data to see how the segment is performing and what might lie ahead in 2023.
With the Super Bowl approaching (reminder: It’s this Sunday!), more eyes are on the NFL now than any other time of the year. This year, however, the big game is not the only reason for the heightened attention: The Houston Texans’ recent firing of head coach Lovie Smith after just one year has reopened the question of whether the league discriminates against coaches of color. This debate has a long history, stretching back to civil rights investigations that led to establishment of the Rooney Rule in 2003.
It was one of the headline takeaways from data.ai’s State of Mobile 2023 report that there was a slight decline in direct consumer spending in mobile apps last year. The $167 billion total was 2% down from 2021. Inflation and other economic headwinds seemed to be the key factors here.
