The 2024 holiday shopping season is behind us, and U.S. retailers are looking to the new year with confidence thanks to the positive in-store shopper traffic seen in year’s final weeks. Year-over-year traffic was up 14.8% Christmas week (Dec. 22-28) and 20.0% the week of New Year’s (Dec. 29, 2024-Jan. 4, 2025). Sensormatic Solutions final audit of the entire 2024 holiday shopping season (Nov. 17, 2024 - Jan. 4, 2025) showed traffic was essentially flat year-over-year, down just 0.1%.

This year, as predicted, Black Friday was the busiest shopping day of the season. Final data from Sensormatic Solutions ShopperTrak Analytics showed traffic on the annual retail holiday was down 2.3% year-over-year. However, due to extended deals and promotions, Black Friday week (Nov. 24-Dec. 1) overall saw a 0.5% increase with traffic up 1.1% on Saturday, Nov. 30, and 5.0% on Sunday, Dec. 1.

Overall, Sensormatic Solutions corrected predicted the season’s top busiest in-store holiday shopping days, though the final list’s order deviated slightly from our projections. Dec. 22, which was predicted to hold the fifth spot, rose to number four. Meanwhile, Boxing Day (Dec. 26) dropped to eighth place despite seeing 3.2% year-over-year growth in traffic volume.

Year after year, shoppers embrace brick-and-mortar stores during the holiday shopping, reaffirming the channel’s importance as a cornerstone of the retail industry. If this shopping season highlighted one key lesson for retailers, it’s that personalization and flexibility are essential elements of positive in-store shopping experiences. This trend will continue into 2025 with shoppers prioritizing brands and stores that figure out how to tailor merchandise, messaging and in-store touchpoints to create meaningful connections.

For retailers, the new year will be about continued progress. Many will spend their time perfecting the omnichannel shopping experience to promote continuity, drive convenience and promote loyalty. New models and technologies will also be at the forefront, with retailers engaging in new store-in-store partnerships with beloved DTC brands, embracing social commerce initiatives, implementing emerging payments options and looking into the benefits of AI-supported loyalty and personalization initiatives.

To drive continued success and keep up with evolving trends, retailers must listen carefully to their customers and meet them where they are—both online and in-store, maximizing the omnichannel experience. This customer listening occurs first and foremost through data analytics. Retailers can optimize their approaches by utilizing both real-time and historical insights and AI-powered tools to build personalized, data-backed strategies. This year will be pivotal for ensuring accurate and immediate inventory, traffic, shopper mobility and more integrated data sets serve as the foundation of business decision making.

Alongside technologies to better shopper experience, the prioritization of loss prevention and shrink management will also continue to be a top priority for retailers in the new year. To adopt a more proactive stance, retailers should consider implementing technologies such as advanced radio-frequency identification (RFID), predictive analytics and other innovative solutions designed to mitigate shrinkage and enhance operational efficiency.

To learn more about how Sensormatic Solutions technologies are driving excellence in loss prevention, shopper insight, and inventory intelligence, visit www.sensormatic.com.

Grant Gustafson is the head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions