Shopping centre and retail park visitors down 4% on Black Friday
The number of Black Friday shoppers in UK shopping centres and retail parks fell by 4% on last year according data released by the British Council of Shopping Centres and retail intelligence company FootFall.
The BCSC said the fall was relatively marginal in comparison with Black Friday 2014 which resulted in a 10% increase in footfall on 2013 when the event was first fully adopted in the UK.
Visitor numbers before 7am showed an increase on last year, with the exception of midnight to 2am, which showed a decrease of 40%. The rest of the day was lower than last year until after 6pm when a peak at 9pm saw visitor numbers grow by 43% compared to the same time for on Black Friday 2014.
Year-on-year, BCSC and FootFall expect shopper traffic numbers to show a rise of 0.5% for Saturday and to have fallen by 2% and 0.5% respectively on Sunday and Cyber Monday.
The BCSC said the fall in Black Friday shoppers was the result of some major retailers not participating in this year’s event, while others scaled back their sales periods on the day or offered special offers over multiple days or weeks.
Ed Cooke, director of policy and public affairs, BCSC, said: “Despite the widely-reported growth in online retail over the Black Friday period, the data suggests that a high number of shoppers still want to make purchases in person, or use stores to pick up goods they’ve ordered online, especially in the run up to the busy festive season.
“Evidence suggests that the most successful retailers adopt an omnichannel approach, with complementary physical bricks-and-mortar shops and online stores combining to enhance customers’ experiences.
“Physical shops and shopping centres also play a critical role in sustaining local communities, ensure the vitality of town centres, offer employment opportunities and underpin the wider economy.
“We now look forward to Cyber Monday, another key date in the retailing calendar, to see what we can take from the data about the continuing evolution in consumer shopping behaviour.”
