In the report, The Halo Effect III: Where the Halo Shines, which quantified the impact of opening or closing physical stores on digital sales and retailers’ overall performance, ICSC stated that online sales increased following the opening of a store and decreased when a store closed across almost all product categories.
The study also examined the impact of opening or closing a store on average basket size, demonstrating that opening a physical store causes a shopper’s average online basket to gain. For established retailers, that basket advances from $94 to $104; for emerging retailers, it jumps from $111 to $120. Then, among apparel brands, a store opening drives an 11.6% increase in online sales and a store closing drives a 19.4% decrease in digital revenue.
The report also asserts that Gen Z is playing an important role in the revitalization of physical retail, with the underlying research showing that members of the generation shop in-store more than Millennials and Gen Xers and at a similar rate to Boomers.
“ICSC’s data has always shown that consumers prefer shopping in-store over other channels,” said ICSC president and CEO Tom McGee in announcing the report. “While our earlier research on the halo effect demonstrated how physical stores drive web traffic and brand awareness, our latest report dives deeper by analyzing actual spend data. The findings quantify just how important brick-and-mortar is to today’s omnichannel consumers and underscore what retail experts already knew: The core of the omnichannel experience is the retail store.”
