Retail footfall up 0.3% in May
UK retail footfall rose by 0.3% year-on-year in May to mark an improvement on the 2.4% decline seen in April.
The figures from the British Retail Consortium and Springboard in their monthly footfall monitor show that high street footfall increased by 1.2% in May following a 4.7% fall in April. This was the best performance on the high street since July 2013, excluding Easter distortions.
Footfall in retail park locations edged up 1.2% while shopping centre footfall was down 2.1%.
Helen Dickinson BRC chief executive said: “With total footfall figures up and High Streets seeing a reversal in fortunes, today’s figures offer some respite from the relentless downward trend we’ve seen building in recent months.
“However, we know from our recent data that it’s online, rather than stores, that has driven May’s sales upturn. Footfall up and store sales down gives credence to the trend of an increasing use of the high street for leisure activities and the researching of purchases made online either later or on the move through mobile devices.”
Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said the figures show the month’s footfall increase emanated from a 4.7% rise in the first week of the month stimulated by the May bank holiday weekend. For the rest of the month, footfall dropped by an average of 1.1% in the remaining three weeks.
She added: “This is only the 14th time over the last six years that footfall has risen, and over this period footfall increased in two consecutive months only twice. We would need to see at least a three-month increase in footfall to indicate the upward trend spells anything more than a break in the clouds. With the uncertainty created by the EU referendum affecting consumer confidence, it will be challenging for this three month trend to establish just now.”
