Retail footfall down 73% in May
Retail footfall dropped by 73.3% in May as the Covid-19 lockdown continued across the UK.
The figures from Springboard reveal that retail parks fared best with a 55.1% decline as the destinations benefited from shoppers visiting essential food and homewares stores and the mid-month reopening of garden centres.
Meanwhile, footfall in high streets and shopping centres declined by 78.2% and by 80.5% respectively.
Diane Wehrle, Springboard marketing and insights director, said: “The second month of lock down meant that retail footfall in May continued to remain at an unprecedented low, declining by 73.3 % year on year. This was a marginal improvement on the drop of 80.1% in April, reflecting the immediate response of consumers to the easing of government restrictions as garden centres and home stores were given the green light to reopen.
“However, in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where restrictions were not relaxed, footfall was 75% lower than in May 2019, reflecting the more limited movement of consumers.”
Springboard said the huge queues seen outside of homewares stores during the weekend before 1 June was evidence of a pent-up demand for in-store shopping.
Wehrle added: “The key trend to be watched over the period of retail reopening in June, and over subsequent months, will be whether this signals the beginning of a new era for local high streets. Certainly, what is likely is that those destinations and retailers that are best able to manage customer numbers to ensure social distancing will be the most in demand by consumers as safety during shopping is paramount.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins.
For the four weeks covering 3 May-30 May. The key points are;
- The drop in footfall in May of -73.3%, whilst still at an unprecedented low, improved marginally from -80.1% in April.
- Retail parks fared best, with a -68.1% drop in footfall, supported by the presence of essential food stores and home stores which opened mid month. Footfall in high streets declined by -78.2% and by -80.5% in shopping centres.
- Footfall was helped by the month being the sunniest May since 1957, combined with two bank holidays which bookended the month. In the week leading up to each bank holiday UK footfall rose b
