These Shoe Stores Are Set Capture Share This Back-to-School Season, Foot Traffic Data Suggests
Speciality shoe retailers are seeing serious wins when it comes to traffic in their physical stores.
Visits to shoe stores were up 36.2 percent in June 2023 from a January 2020 baseline, which outpaces visit growth in apparel stores, at 8.2 percent. That’s according to a recent report from foot traffic data analytics firm Placer.ai, which found that shoe stores could enter the second half of 2023 with a strong bump in traffic, thanks to traffic-driving events like back-to-school and the winter holidays later in the year.
The report highlighted three shoe stores that have seen outstanding year-over-year traffic increases: Boot Barn, WSS and Nike.
“As retail gears up for the back-to-school season, Nike, WSS and Boot Barn appear to be in position to build on their recent success and drive traffic from back-to-school shoppers,” read the report, written by Placer.ai content writer Ezra Carmel.
Last year, between July and December, all three of these chains experienced a higher share of visits from households with kids compared to the national average, which suggests a preference for these stores during the back-to-school season.
According to Coresight Research’s U.S. Back-to-School 2023 report, consumers expressed a strong preference toward shopping among specialty retailers such as Foot Locker, Shoe Carnival and Famous Footwear, all three of which saw double-digit shares of shopper preference.
After a relatively slow Q1, a robust back-to-school season could give retailers a much-needed boost to make up for lost ground. Various shoe chains have already spoken confidently about their plans for back-to-school, with some rolling out new campaigns to capture demand.
Across the board, shoe retailers appear to be prioritizing their physical stores to attract demand this season, as consumers overwhelmingly plan to shop in stores, Coresight found. Almost four in five shoppers plan to shop in stores this season, up 4.1 percentage points from the prior year and more than 8 percentage points higher those who plan to purchase online.
Foot Locker recently launched its back-to-school campaign, which ties in a community focus with in-store events aimed at giving back. And the Caleres-owned Famous Footwear expects to surpass its best ever back-to-school performance from 2022 this year with a new marketing campaign that will target the millennial family.