Retail Traffic on the Rise: Hypermarkets and Convenience Stores Lead with a 5.5% YoY Growth

The observation of the behavior of over 1.5 million consumers in 38,000 grocery outlets in retail networks showed that the overall traffic has increased by 5.5% YoY in the first half of this year. The greatest increase was observed in hypermarkets by 10.4%. Convenience stores saw an increase of 9.2% YOY, discount stores – 4%, and supermarkets – 0.3%. Additionally, the number of unique customers grew by 0.9% YoY. Convenience stores saw an increase – of 2.7%, supermarkets – by 1.6%, and hypermarkets – 0.3%. Moreover, the average number of visits per customer increased. According to the report’s authors, these increases are largely thanks to the Euro 2024. Looking at historical data, the previous report indicates that last year overall the volume was down, and there were fewer shoppers.

According to the report by the technology company Proxi.cloud, traffic (footfall) in grocery stores in the first half of this year overall increased by 5.5% YoY. This was largely due to the performance of hypermarkets and convenience stores. Jumps in these segments may have been related to the Euro 2024 and the desire for home fans to stock up on more food supplies. However, it is worth noting that the total time spent shopping has slightly decreased. A multi-dimensional analysis suggests that consumers shop similarly to the previous year – says Miłosz Sojka, one of the co-authors of the report from Proxi.cloud.

Taking into account individual formats, traffic increased most YoY in hypermarkets by 10.4%. Convenience stores are next in the ranking with a YoY increase of 9.2%, discount stores – by 4%, and supermarkets – by 0.3%. Mateusz Chołuj, the second co-author of the report from Proxi.cloud, comments that this is a slight rebound after last year’s “dip”. The improved mood of Polish consumers compared to last year, which according to GfK were last as good in September 2019, certainly has a significant impact on this. Another factor could have been this year’s Euro. Of course, we are considering a six-month perspective here. Therefore, one cannot entirely explain the entire increase with the football tournament, but it certainly had an impact on the final results.

The report also showed that in the first half of this year, the number of unique consumers in grocery stores increased by 0.9% compared to the corresponding period in 2023. Three formats saw increases YoY, i.e., in convenience stores – by 2.7%, in supermarkets – by 1.6%, and in hypermarkets – by 0.3%. However, discount stores saw a decrease YoY of 0.3%. Miłosz Sojka notes that changes in individual segments are so small that they remain insignificant for the industry.

It’s worth reminding that 2023 brought a slight decline in traffic and a smaller number of consumers in grocery stores. Hypermarkets saw the largest drop in footfall. Traffic only slightly increased in discount stores. The most visits were generated by convenience stores and also discount stores – says Miłosz Sojka.

The analysis also shows that in the first half of this year, the share of individual formats in the total number of visits to the tested points of sale (POS) has slightly changed. The list is open by the convenience segment with the highest result – 37.7% (in the first half of last year – 36.4%). Next are discount stores – 35.8% (previously – 36.2%), supermarkets – 20.2% (earlier – 21.4%), and last – hypermarkets – 6.2% (a year ago – 6%).

The increase in the gap between convenience stores and discount stores is not surprising. The change in the number of visits to stores in the former format was greater than in the latter, which naturally reflects the aforementioned results – explains Mateusz Chołuj.

According to the analysis, in the first half of this year, the average number of visits to POS per customer increased. Last time for all stores it was 128.49, previously – 121.61. There is evidence that consumers sometimes choose to refill their home shelves with fresh products, instead of making larger supplies each time. The increase itself should not be noticeable for trade because, as we can see based on another statistic – consumers do not cumulatively spend more time shopping – states Miłosz Sojka.

Furthermore, the report shows that the average customer visit to the store has slightly shortened YoY (first half of this year – 13 minutes and 14 seconds, previously – 13 minutes and 15 seconds). The average total time spent shopping per shopper also decreased (first half of this year – 13 hours and 30 minutes, earlier – 13 hours and 34 minutes). Chołuj argues that the change in the average visit time is so marginal that it hardly leaves room for discussion.

According to Miłosz Sojka, in the coming months, we should expect stability in statistics regarding the number of customers and the duration of their visits to stores. Differences will likely occur in the area of traffic and frequency of purchases. In these areas, the co-author of the report predicts that YoY changes will be closer to zero. Higher results in the past half-year were driven by Euro 2024. In the expert’s view, the current Olympics will not translate to such a large extent to consumer visits to shops.

The study was conducted by the technology company Proxi.cloud based on data from the first half of 2024 as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, excluding holidays and non-trading Sundays. The analysis included the behavior of consumers visiting discount grocery stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience chains.

The size of the sample was over 1.5 million consumers. A person’s entrance into a geofence was recorded as a customer’s shop visit when it lasted at least 2 minutes and no more than 2 hours. In the case of the convenience format, it had to be not shorter than 30 seconds and not longer than 30 minutes. Traffic in more than 38,000 outlets was examined, their locations were obtained from the websites of retail chains and Google Maps.

Data was gathered through a network of mobile applications using proprietary technology. The technology allows for passive data collection and is characterized by high location accuracy for users (accuracy from 2 to 20 meters depending on the method of positioning by the mobile device). This technology provides full control over location accuracy, and the radius of each geofencing is adjusted to the size of individual buildings. In addition, the user’s stay time at a given location is known, providing an additional level of protection against counting surrounding pedestrian traffic or employee traffic at the surveyed locations.