Toys R Us, which filed for bankruptcy in September, is reportedly considering the closure of 200 stores across the U.S., according to Bloomberg.  

As retail evolves, location data is becoming even more vital in understanding how people shop in the real world. Toys R Us is yet another example of just how powerful location data can be in predicting business health. In June, inMarket added the toy seller to its list of at-risk retailers due to low customer loyalty. The study was based on inMarket’s first-party data from more than 50 million consumers, as verified by comScore.

More than half of these at-risk retailers have shuttered stores and slowed growth in 2017, including Gap, bebe and H&M.

To read the full retail loyalty report, please visit inmarket.com/insights.

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."

Looking to avoid the crowds this holiday season? December 13 appears to be your best bet, according to our new Holiday Foot Traffic Report (available at inmarket.com/insights).

Business Insider had the scoop:

Black Friday crowds and the before-Christmas rush are top of mind during any mall trip in mid-December. For shoppers looking to avoid crowds, InMarket has data on the most- and least-crowded days in stores. InMarket has store traffic data from 50 million consumers from last year's holiday shopping period. For customers looking for a calm in the storm, December 13 seems to be the best day to shop in stores.

Check out the full report at inMarket inSights today.

Music festivals are the epicenter of young consumerism. And at $300+ for a basic general admission ticket, these parties are attracting young people with lots of disposable income.

At inMarket, we're constantly measuring foot traffic patterns for 50 million consumers per month. In our latest inSights Report Card, we're analyzing foot traffic at leading U.S. music festivals and breaking them down by attendee income. There are a few clear patterns, specifically in terms of which advertisers are targeting upmarket and midmarket income levels.

To view the full report, head over to inMarket.com/inSights. To learn more about the methodology, contact us anytime.

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.

Are Crocs cool? According to inMarket Location Data, the answer is... yes.

Crocs has topped inMarket's Back-to-School Retail rankings for 2017, drawing the largest spike in foot traffic of any retailer during the busy July/August shopping period. Aeropostale, Staples, PacSun and Kids Foot Locker also had strong draws druing the 2017 back-to-school rush. 

Contrarily, Neiman Marcus, Gap and Banana Republic all saw dips in foot traffic this summer. All three have announced store closures in the past 10 days.  

You can download the full report today at www.inmarket.com/insights. If you're interested in learning more about the rankings, just give us a shout over at www.inmarket.com/contact.

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.

At inMarket, we've harnessed the power of location data in advertising since 2010. From our early in-store campaigns to the sophisticated, online-to-offline programs we run today, one thing has remained consistent: We've always managed those campaigns in-house.

But the demand for accuracy in programmatic has become too great. Today, we're extending our hyper-accurate Audiences segmenting product to programmatic trading desks. Brands and agencies can now access our walled garden of first-party location data previously only accessible via high-ROI managed campaigns.

Audiences will provide trading desks with unprecedented accuracy via our location database, which uses full cycle GPS, WiFi and the world’s largest beacon platform in a waterfall to continually validate data points. Opt-in consumer location data paired with our vast point-of-interest marketing platform reveals consumers’ journeys between POIs -- while personas derived from machine learning across billions of consumers data points make targeting more precise than ever.

Audiences also enables new first party location precision that dramatically reduces crossover contamination in dense markets -- for example, when a laundromat is next store to a restaurant. This unlocks superior targeting for brands. The same first party dataset enables inMarket to predict major business trends across America -- like customer loyalty -- via inMarket inSights.

If you're interested in learning more about inMarket Audiences, contact us today.