Number of January browsers remains flat
According to retail analyst FootFall, browser numbers in the first month’s trading of 2006 have shown no improvement so far.
The figures show that the change for week 3 (16th January 2006 – 22nd January 2006) is a decrease of 1.1 per cent, with the change for week 3 year on year at minus 5.4per cent.
The FootFall UK Town Centre Index shows a decrease of 1.5 per cent for the week of 16th January 2006 – 22nd January 2006 and week 3 year on year change at minus 7.2%.
Although the year-on-year gap of 5.4 per cent is worrying, it has not significantly widedned since week two.
Natasha Burton, at FootFall, comments, “The number of people visiting retail destinations has remained slow throughout weeks two and three, with both weeks showing disappointing results. This suggests that after the last-minute surge in spending before Christmas, consumers are still holding on to their purse strings tightly. People are wary of overspending in the New Year with many still waiting for January pay-cheques”.
“Once the January sales have finally petered out to make way for fresh stock, we expect to see movement back towards the high street. But until we see stores getting back to normal after the Christmas period it is hard to predict what is on the horizon for retailers in 2006”, concludes Burton.
