The retail landscape evolves quickly. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widescale disruption throughout the US market in all retail categories. But how does that playout for an individual brand on a practical level, and how can mobility data detect the changes, measure their effects, and inform decision-making for retailers?
To find out, we used data from Unacast NOW to take a look at how Athleta is faring across the US over the summer of 2021. To provide context, we compared Athleta to lululemon, with special focus in markets where the two compete head to head. The interactive table below shows the results. Athleta is in purple, lululemon in red.
The two brands compete head to head in several markets across the country. Overall, Athleta attracted about 350,000 visits to their retail stores between June 12 and August 14 2021. Athleta outperformed lululemon overall in 11 states: Montana, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
When we adjust the view on the table above to select 'MSA' from the drop down menu, we see that Athleta, while losing other states to lululemon, is nonetheless doing well in several urban markets, including Philadelphia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Dallas and several mid-sized cities dotted across the map.
Athleta's strongest-performing store in terms of controlling the highest percentage of foot traffic in its local market is in Birmingham, Alabama -- that store draws about 83% of the local category traffic. The brand's lowest performing location by the same criteria is one of its' several stores in New York City, which draws only about .2% of the city's very large market.
Use the table above to study Athleta's foot traffic performance by state, MSA, or individual store. If you'd like to know how to build insights like this yourself (no data science degree required), watch the little video below and get a free trial of Unacast Now. Or, you can download the Tableau Workbook by entering your email in the form above.
