High street footfall impacted by ‘work from home’ announcement
New data has revealed that footfall across UK retail destinations dropped by 3% last week from the previous seven days as Tuesday’s ‘work from home where possible’ announcement impacted high streets
The figures from retail specialist Springboard show that high street footfall declined by 6.8% overall after falling by an average 11% from Wednesday to Saturday compared to a drop of just 0.6% in the previous three days.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “There was an immediate and downward shift in footfall in high streets from Wednesday onwards, which was inevitable given the prevalence of hospitality and the fact that the majority of offices are based in towns and city centres. Unsurprisingly, the compulsory closure of hospitality outlets at 10pm from Thursday onward
led a huge drop in footfall in high streets after 11pm.”
Meanwhile, footfall in retail parks and shopping centres increased by 1.1% and 0.9% respectively in the week.
The numbers mean that footfall across all retail destinations last week remained at 28% lower than the corresponding week last year.
Wehrle added: “Despite the impact on footfall of the increased government restrictions from Thursday there was little impact on the annual result, as footfall actually rose marginally over the three days from Sunday to Tuesday, possibly due to consumers making trips in advance of further restrictions, which helped to offset the drops later in the week.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
