Multiple outlets are reporting that German-based grocer Lidl has halted expansion plans in New Jersey. The news comes on the heels of inMarket’s Lidl Report Card, which identified decreasing foot traffic at the chain after its U.S. debut in June 2017.

inMarket CMO Cameron Peebles explained to Supermarket News today that Lidl’s strong opening in foot traffic eventually fell into late-summer decline. Peebles also said that changes to Lidl’s expansion strategy could potentially be a result of disappointing traffic performance, saying “Consumers vote with their feet in the retail environment.” He speculated that perhaps the brand had failed to retain customers after they made their first exploratory visits to the store.

NJ.com also mentions the recent inMarket Report Card in its story: "Lidl's June success doesn't seem to have maintained itself… While the low-cost grocer has seen some initial success, they'll need to inspire customer loyalty through great in-store experiences if they want to truly gain SOV (share of visits) from the established players in the space."

Lidl -- the German grocer operating over 10,000 stores across 28 countries -- entered the U.S. market for the first time in June, 2017.  It's a bold move at a time when major e-tailers like Amazon are diving into brick-and-mortar retail, and established low-cost players like Walmart becoming more aggressive than ever.

Lidl selected nine launch markets across North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia for its first U.S. stores. To understand their traction, we dug into inMarket Location Data -- which aggregates store visits across all retailers in the U.S., based on a pool of 50 million consumers per month -- to see how Lidl has fared thus far, and if there was an impact on its competitors.

(inMarket uses this same proprietary, first-party location data to power online-to-offline advertising campaigns for the world’s leading brands and retailers. If you're interested in putting our location data to work for your brand, contact us today.)

In brief: Lidl started hot in June -- appearing to acquire visits from competitive retailers like Walmart, BI-LO and Harris Teeter. That success was short-lived, however, as traffic dropped off in July and August.

Consumers vote with their feet, and inMarket’s location engine is able to precisely measure if Lidl’s competitive offering is resonating and driving consistent foot traffic. Check out the full report over at inmarket.com/insights today.

At inMarket, we're aggregating and analyzing location data from over 50 million anonymous consumers per month, via hundreds of apps. (Don't take our word for it. Our scale is verified by comScore.)

We use that data to power best-in-class advertising programs for the world’s top brands and retailers. It’s also very useful for predicting business trends, and drawing quality insights on how Americans truly shop in the real world.

This week we’re putting that data to work in a new format, and we're introducing a quick-fire version of our popular inMarket inSights deep-dive category reports: The inMarket inSights Report Card. These one-page analyses will reveal  location data insights and add context to the hottest business trends in real-time.

Our first edition inMarket inSights Report Card covers Amazon’s impact on foot traffic at Whole Foods since taking control on 8/28 -- with a quick look at competitive grocers as well.

Check out the inMarket inSights Report Card for Amazon's Whole Foods -- live today at www.inmarket.com/insights.

eMarketer -- the leader in e-business data + research -- has featured inMarket's latest inSights report on generational shopping trends. We've included an excerpt below, and encourage you to check out the full story here. 

According to InMarket's new "Foot Traffic Power Rankings," millennials show a distinct preference for discount options when it comes to brick-and-mortar shopping.

The rankings are based on analysis of foot traffic to physical stores, using mobile location data from January through April 2017. Rankings are determined by frequency of visits compared with the category average for each generation. 

For the general retail category, the top three brands were discount purveyors of apparel. The No. 1 brand was Ross Stores, followed by privately held Rainbow and then Burlington Stores. Bridal chain DaVinci and home-furnishing giant Ikea rounded out the list.

You can download the full report over at inmarket.com/insights.