A record 15,000 chain stores across the US are expected to shutter this year – or more than twice as many as last year – and fast-growing online retailers from China are a major factor, according to a study.
As of the third week of the new year, 2,041 stores have either closed or were part of a store closing announcement – compared with just 470 during the same period last year, according to Coresight Research’s “Store Tracker US Store Openings and Closures 2024 and 2025 Outlook” released Thursday.
Retailers that have announced the most closures this year so far include Party City, Big Lots, Walgreens Boots Alliance, 7-Eleven and Macy’s.
Some of the legacy retailers are getting slammed by fast-growing competitors — and they hail from overseas, the report said.
China-based Temu, which sells a broad range of consumers goods, and Singapore-based Shein known for its fast-fashion are expected to expand further into automotive, home and pet categories, becoming greater forces to be reckoned with, according to the report.
Shein sells some apparel items for as little as $2, according to its website.
“Temu and Shein are the biggest names here, with about $100 billion in global sales in 2024,” according to John Mercer, head of global research for Coresight.
Their rise comes as consumers are increasingly turning to e-commerce.
Online shopping will increase to 23.1% of all retail sales in 2025, up 8.3% from last year as shoppers show a growing frustration with retailers that are frequently out of stock or don’t offer a good experience, according to the report.
Consumers “want the best prices, but they also have no patience for stores that are constantly disorganized, out of stock, and that deliver poor customer service,” Coresight Research chief executive Deborah Weinswig said in a statement.
In 2024, some 1,754 discount chains including Big Lots, Family Dollar and 99 Cents accounted for nearly 25% of US store closures or the highest proportion of all shuttered locations,
In 2023, just 382 discount stores closed.
The massive number of store closures anticipated this year tops the previous record of 9,822 in 2019 and the largest number since Coresight began tracking the data in 2012.
There were 51 retail bankruptcies in 2024 – including the Container Store, Express and teen apparel chain Rue 21 – or twice as many as in 2023.
“We’re seeing [the] effects of bankruptcies and closure programs from 2024—such as Big Lots and Party City, and potentially mass closures from Joann,” right now, Mercer told The Post.
Temu grew to 51.4 million users in January 2024 from its launch here in September 2022, while Shein’s users increased to 26 million over the same period from 20.9 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report, which cites data from Sensor Tower.
Temu’s rapid growth was fueled by aggressive marketing. It shelled out $2 billion on ads in 2023 alone, becoming the biggest spender on Facebook and Instagram, according to the publication.
Meanwhile, Shein reportedly more than doubled its profits in 2023 to more than $2 billion, according to a Financial Times report.
The privately-held companies are notoriously secretive about key metrics describing their growth. Shein had hoped to go public in the US but is now eyeing a debut on London’s Stock Exchange, according to reports.