Placer.ai: Which States Drive the Most Retail Traffic?
Sun Belt states have a disproportionately high share of retail visits relative to their population.
Mar 26, 2026
While a state’s number of brick-and-mortar retail visits generally tracks with how many people live in the state, new research from foot traffic research firm Placer.ai found that the relationship is not always exactly proportional.
“Some states, such as Texas and Florida, generate a larger share of retail traffic than their population size alone would suggest, while others, such as California and New York, account for a smaller portion of visits relative to their population base,” Placer.ai wrote.
Texas has around 9% share of the U.S. population, and its share of retail visits in the U.S in 2025 sits closer to 10%. New York’s share of the U.S. population is close to 6%, while its overall retail site visits in 2025 hovers just below 6%.
Across much of the Sun Belt, retail visits tend to over-index relative to population, while under-indexing is more common along the West Coast and in parts of the Northeast.
“Several structural dynamics may help explain this regional divide. Migration into Sun Belt markets has been driven in part by lower costs of living, and once there, households may have more discretionary income relative to high-cost coastal markets—supporting more frequent in-person shopping trips. At the same time, consumer behavior differs across regions: in higher-cost coastal and Northeastern markets, shoppers may be more likely to consolidate trips or shift spending online, contributing to fewer retail visits per capita,” Placer.ai wrote.
The research firm concluded that Sun Belt markets may offer outsized opportunities for physical retail expansion, as higher-than-expected foot traffic signals strong in-person engagement and potential demand for additional brick-and-mortar supply.
In other recent retail news, the National Retail Federation (NRF) recently forecast that retail sales in 2026 will grow by 4.4% from 2025 to $5.6 trillion, based on a newly enhanced forecasting approach developed in partnership with Oxford Economics.
NRF said the 2026 sales forecast compares with 3.6% average annual sales growth over the last 10 years, excluding the pandemic period from 2020 to 2022.
