Improved foot traffic shows that good malls still draw a crowd: While they may not have the trajectory of ecommerce, traditional retail is recovering, even amid ongoing delta variant concerns.

COVID-19 vaccines and tests drove foot traffic to CVS stores, and the retail giant saw a boost in store sales. CVS’ ancillary healthcare businesses (Aetna and Caremark) also saw a boost thanks to vaccine and testing efforts. Aetna’s revenues grew 12.8% YoY to $23.1 billion. And it saw a spike in membership, hitting 24.5 million members by the end of Q1’21—up from 23.6 million year-over-year.

With limited hours and foot traffic, the store is a far cry from the more than 500 Apple stores, which are located in prominent locations around the world, or even the Google store, which opened last year in New York’s bustling Chelsea neighborhood. The big takeaway: Meta’s metaverse bet will only pay off if it can demonstrate the value of investing in hardware to experience the virtual world.

That means it’ll probably see more patient foot traffic, and along with it, more demand for flexible payment plans. Plus, Walgreens already offers Afterpay to consumers for retail goods. That means it likely won’t be a heavy lift to offer the same services for telehealth visit bills, too.

See where retail foot traffic tripled in Q2

Some refill stores in the UK are seeing a decline in foot traffic as consumers shift to ecommerce. And a clunky buy-back process that accepts only a limited selection of products back can hamper resale initiatives. Retailers need to offer more sustainable ways to shop that don’t come at the expense of a seamless shopping experience. Resale options should be made widely available on retailers’ sites.

During the pandemic, certain retailers that were highly dependent on foot traffic and malls took a hit. This is also going to be the case for retailers that are popular only on social media like Instagram. We're already seeing shifts from Instagram-famous brands, [they're] getting less traction because they are not early adopters on TikTok.

Black Friday brick-and-mortar traffic drops 28.3% from 2019 but rises 47.5% over last year: The results shows consumers are stretching out the holiday season by shopping earlier in wake of supply chain concerns.

Resumption of pre-pandemic shopping rituals like door-busting at big box retailers and fashion-finding at the malls will generate strong foot traffic. Mobile traffic will also spike on Black Friday as consumers prepare for in-store shopping trips and engage in showrooming while there. We expect online sales to increase 15.8% to $10.42 billion, assuming the No. 2 spending day position for the season.

These outsized gains were driven by the combined impact of a strong rebound in foot traffic (which was down in holiday 2020), plus double-digit gains in average transaction size, per RetailNext estimates. Ecommerce growth reached double digits, rising 10.4% to $204.20 billion, a solid performance following the dramatic 32.0% surge in 2020.

eMarketer research analyst Daniel Keyes, principal analyst Andrew Lipsman and senior forecasting analyst Cindy Liu at Insider Intelligence discuss what happened when Amazon eased up for a few months and what will happen when it hits the gas. They then talk about some new Google features, Amazon looking to buy a driverless car company and some maybe permanent grocery store foot traffic trends.

By offering free rides to CVS locations, CVS can attract more people to its medical care services like vaccine appointments, while increasing foot traffic in CVS Health stores. About 30% of the US population and more than 54% of adults 65+ have received a COVID-19 booster shot.

On today's episode, we discuss Amazon's current size, how much more of the market it might swallow, and whether others could ever compete. We then talk about Best Buy's new membership program, Instacart, DoorDash, and Walmart getting into financial services, and how much in-store foot traffic has recovered in 2021. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer analysts at Insider Intelligence Daniel Keyes and Blake Droesch.

In 2020, auto dealerships made up for lost foot traffic by moving sales operations online. This helped some regional dealerships stay afloat during the early stages of the pandemic. Many urban dwellers became less reliant on public transportation or left cities all together, increasing demand for both new and used cars.

With the exception of grocery stores and drugstores—which remain open—practically all other brick-and-mortar retail has seen a seismic drop in foot traffic before temporarily closing down their locations for the foreseeable future as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread in the US. This is resulting in huge drops in revenue.

In stores that get a lot of foot traffic, mPOS solutions like Adyen’s can be a good way to reduce the time customers spend in checkout lines. Store employees can also use Adyen’s product for customer service activities like checking current inventories or handling returns—helping streamline operations and improving the customer experience.

Retail clinics like CVS and Walmart Health already offer digital options like self-scheduling to boost patient foot traffic and enable expansion: CVS plans to transform most of its brick-and-mortar stores into primary care offices over the next few years, for instance. What’s next?

In-store foot traffic increased 30% after the launch. Similarly, The North Face used VR headsets to give in-store customers a tour of Yosemite National Park and the Moab desert, with fellow hikers wearing North Face outfits. More seamless shopping: Magic (AR) mirrors let customers try on clothes or beauty products in a fraction of the time required in a fitting room.

Retailers that seek to draw more consumers to stores may find that offering home delivery, or expanding it to apparel, can drive foot traffic. Online clothing shoppers also want the option to try before they buy. This was another rarely offered feature due to the cost, logistics, and risks involved.

To get a grasp of where the market is headed, OAAA’s Radigan suggested that advertisers monitor data that follows people’s movements, such as location, retail foot traffic, and sales receipt data. “The impact of COVID-19 really showcased how traffic movement is very local and very regional,” she said. “So, use credible data that's able to prove out how traffic is moving.”.

CVS’ foot traffic to its existing health and wellness services shot up thanks to consumers’ vaccine appointments. It's given 43 million COVID-19 vaccines to date—a figure which will likely continue to balloon as it is now offering the vaccine for pediatric consumers aged 5 to 11. Low-cost and transparent pricing.

And with in-store foot traffic also expected to bounce back from last year, Affirm will likely see gains from brick-and-mortar shoppers. Affirm’s exclusive partnership with Amazon should also give the BNPL provider a major boost considering the etailer’s holiday track record. And new customer tools and app features should also sustain Affirm’s performance.