New figures: footfall continues to decline post-Christmas
New figures have shown that retail footfall has continued to decline in the run-up to the New Year.
Figures from Springboard reveal a drop of 5.8% for Monday to Wednesday of this week compared to the same days last year.
During the three-day period, footfall fell across all three destination types. However, shopping centres put in the best performance with an uplift of 15.5% on Wednesday following a 5% drop on Tuesday and a 20.7% fall on Monday.
Across all destinations, the biggest drop in footfall was seen on Boxing Day when it declined by 7.3% year-on-year. Springboard expects footfall to continue to drop over the remainder of the working week following a 5.7% rise in online transactions from Monday to Wednesday.
It also expects footfall to decline on New Year’s Day due to Sunday’s fewer trading hours compared with Friday 1 January 2016. In addition, this year’s New Year Bank Holiday might encourage shoppers to defer their leisure outings from the weekend to Monday so Springboard is predicting that footfall will decline by between 20% and 25% compared to New Year’s Day last year.
Diane Wehrle, Springboard insights director, said: “The continued decline in footfall is in line with the longterm trend we have been recording alongside the growth of online channels. As an industry, we are learning how to best trade in a modern environment to co-exist with online, whilst celebrating British retail destinations that bring us leisure experiences the virtual world doesn’t offer.
“This festive season – the first post-Brexit – has been an experience for the industry learning how to best operate in a changed economic environment. The impact of declining footfall on retail sales is yet to be measured, but will without doubt help equip retailers with the insight needed to operate in 2017 with confidence.”
