The news: Contrary to popular belief, the mall is far from dead—and it's even experienced a recent minor resurgence, as many malls seem to have bounced back from the pandemic and related lockdowns, according to an August study of mall foot traffic by location analytics provider Placer.ai.

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Klarna moving further into brick-and-mortar retail positions it to capture these sales, especially as in-store foot traffic rises: Throughout 2021, foot traffic at US Simon Properties has approached and on a number of occasions exceeded 2019 levels, per Placer.ai—sometimes by more than 50%—and this will likely carry over into the holidays thanks to COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

Retail foot traffic in the week starting April 5 declined 3.4% compared with a similar period in 2019, according to data from Placer.ai cited by the Wall Street Journal. This is a significant improvement from previous weeks—foot traffic in the week starting February 28 plunged nearly 30% compared with 2019—which likely indicates a revival in consumers’ desire to spend.

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Data from Placer.ai, a location analytics firm, indicates that retail foot traffic has been in double-digit negative territory every month since the beginning of the pandemic. Even as foot traffic has rebounded in recent months—in September, weekly retail foot traffic varied between declines of 13% and 17%—foot traffic fell well below the 4.7% holiday sales decline we expect. The reason?