Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday retail traffic suggests the beginning of a successful holiday season

CHICAGO, Nov. 25, 2017 -- ShopperTrak, a Tyco Retail Solutions’ brand, today released preliminary shopper visit data for brick-and-mortar retail stores on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, finding that shopper visits declined a combined 1.6 percent when compared to the same days in 2016. Black Friday 2017 shopper visits decreased less than one percent when compared to Black Friday 2016.

“There has been a significant amount of debate surrounding the shifting importance of brick-and-mortar retail, and the fact that shopper visits remained intact on Black Friday illustrates that physical retail is still highly relevant and, when done right, profitable,” said Brian Field, senior director of advisory services for ShopperTrak.

“This year, a greater number of brick-and-mortar retailers opted to close on Thanksgiving Day, which not only allowed store associates to be with their families, but it also redistributed shopping visits to surrounding days,” added Field. “Based on several years of overall retail traffic data, we know that opening on Thanksgiving Day was merely pulling shopping visits from Black Friday, as opposed to creating an additional opportunity for shoppers to hit the stores. By remaining closed on Thanksgiving Day, retailers are able to re-distribute visits to the days before Thanksgiving Day, as well as this weekend. Further, remaining closed on Thanksgiving Day also contributes to lower overhead and increased goodwill.” 

Looking ahead, eight of the 10 anticipated busiest shopping days still remain, including Super Saturday, which will fall on Dec. 23. Importantly, there are four Saturdays in Dec. prior to Christmas Day, and this will elevate the importance of both Dec. 23 and Dec. 16, alike. Additionally, Dec. 30, which did not rank as one of the ten busiest days in 2016, is expected to be the ninth busiest day of the year because it falls on a Saturday.    

For more information on holiday shopping trends, visit the ShopperTrak blog: www.shoppertrak.com/blog.

About Johnson Controls
Johnson Controls is a global diversified technology and multi industrial leader serving a wide range of customers in more than 150 countries. Our 120,000 employees create intelligent buildings, efficient energy solutions, integrated infrastructure and next generation transportation systems that work seamlessly together to deliver on the promise of smart cities and communities. Our commitment to sustainability dates back to our roots in 1885, with the invention of the first electric room thermostat. We are committed to helping our customers win and creating greater value for all of our stakeholders through strategic focus on our buildings and energy growth platforms. For additional information, please visit http://www.johnsoncontrols.com or follow us @johnsoncontrols on Twitter.

About Tyco Retail Solutions

Tyco Retail Solutions, part of Johnson Controls, is a leading provider of analytics-based Loss Prevention, Inventory Intelligence and Traffic Insights for the retail industry. Our solutions deliver real-time visibility and predictive analytics to help retailers maximize business outcomes and enhance the customer experience in a digitally-driven shopping world. Our more than 1.5 million data collection devices in the retail marketplace capture 40 billion shopper visits and track and protect billions of items each year. Our retail portfolio features the premier Sensormatic®, ShopperTrak® and TrueVUE™ brands, as well as a full suite of building technology solutions. For more information, please visit TycoRetailSolutions.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and our YouTube channel

CONTACT:
Anne Lines
Matter on behalf of Tyco Retail Solutions
Work + 1 978-518-4512 
[email protected]