E-commerce hasn’t killed the Black Friday mall experience quite yet
Despite many retailers embracing earlier and earlier online holiday shopping before Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving continued to be a banner occasion for malls and shopping centers.
Some malls have already reported record Black Friday traffic, at least within the past few years, including Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota and Greece Ridge Mall in Greece, New York, according to media reports. Consumers who shopped in stores between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday increased 3% from 2024 to 129.5 million, according to the National Retail Federation. Meanwhile, NRF reported that 9% more shoppers, 129.5 million, shopped online during that same period than last year.
Foot traffic data platform Placer.ai found that Black Friday traffic was up 3.1% in indoor malls, 1.7% at open-air malls and 0.2% at outlet malls. However, for the entire week, the company found that indoor mall traffic was down 0.2%, open-air malls were down 1.4% and indoor malls were down 3.1%.
This all points to the fact that many shoppers still see the value in the experience of hitting the mall on Black Friday.
“A lot [more] of them decided to actually open that wallet the day of Black Friday, compared to last year,” said Caroline Wu, director of research for Placer.ai, adding that the decline during the week may suggest people are doing shopping earlier in November.
However, RetailNext, an in-store analytics platform for retailers — which measures foot traffic within stores themselves using cameras, while Placer.ai relies on cell phone location data — reported that visits to mall stores as a whole were slightly down year over year. Overall, in-store foot traffic (not just at malls) was down 3.6% year over year on Black Friday itself and down 5.3% on Black Friday and Saturday, according to RetailNext.
“At a national level, the traffic we’re seeing doesn’t suggest that mall traffic was record-breaking overall this Black Friday,” said Joe Shasteen, global head of advanced analytics for RetailNext. “While individual malls may have seen record turnout, malls as a whole were slightly down year over year, though they did perform somewhat better than the overall U.S. average on Black Friday itself.”
Mall of America reported that more than 14,000 guests entered the mall within the first hour it was open on Black Friday. It also said Black Friday traffic at that mall was up 8.5% compared to 2024 and up almost 2% compared to 2019, the previous single-day attendance record. About 230,000 people came through the doors of Mall of America on Black Friday, according to estimates based on car counters, the most since the company began tracking this in 2011.
The mall also said 30% of tenants who responded to a survey had the best sales out of all locations in their respective chains.
“It’s about being a leader in the space, knowing how to deliver the best experience possible and bringing that convergence of the shopping experience — getting deals, and having the thrill of the hunt of finding great treasures — but also the entertainment components,” Jill Renslow, chief officer of marketing and business development for Mall of America, told Modern Retail.
The mall gave away gift cards and scratch-off promotional cards to people who came in the door early in the morning. The mall also brought in JoJo Siwa for a performance of holiday music.
Renslow said deals from retailers likely contributed to this performance, as well, as many stores offered 30-60% off the entire store, whereas, in the days leading up to Black Friday, stores were just 30-40% off. The mall had nearly 25 new tenants this year, also possibly bringing in traffic, including Labubu maker Pop Mart, Skims, Alo and Samsung.
“It’s a combination of all of those pieces,” Renslow said. “We want to make sure we’re celebrating all the new stores. We’re also showcasing all the deals for the tenants that have those offerings throughout the season and also the entertainment. It’s the mix of all those things that we can bring to the table that really drive the traffic to Mall of America.”