Footfall impacted by colder weather and showers last week
New figures have shown that footfall at UK retail destinations edged down 2% last week from the previous seven-day period.
According to the data from Springboard, the decline was driven by a fall of 6.1% in high streets. In contrast, footfall in shopping centres and retail parks rose by 2.8% and 1.6% respectively.
However, footfall increased across all retail destinations over the bank holiday weekend with an uplift of 3.2% on Saturday and 7.2% on Sunday.
Springboard’s figures also reveal that footfall in Scotland and Northern Ireland rose by a respective 74.9% and 45.7% following the opening of non-essential retail stores and outdoor hospitality.
Looking at the same week in 2019, Springboard found that by Saturday the gap from 2019 in all UK retail destinations had widened to a decline of 25.9% from a drop of 19.9% the week before. However in less than a month since reopening in England on 12 April , footfall was was at virtually the same level as it was after three months following the end of the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, and in retail parks it was just 2.9% lower than the 2019 level.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Footfall across UK retail destinations dipped a little last week from the week before, driven by fewer shoppers visiting high streets whilst in retail parks and shopping centres customer activity rose. In part, this is likely to have been due to the rain and cooler temperatures in the second half of the week in a number of areas across the UK which will have deterred shoppers from external locations.
“Despite this, activity rose in regional cities outside of London, whilst in tourist destinations and smaller high streets it declined, suggesting that the appeal of major stores that are present in large city centres was enough to offset the less favourable weather. The uplift in footfall in both Scotland and Northern Ireland following the opening of non-essential retail last week was significant, with these being the only areas of the UK where footfall rose from the week before.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
