Retail footfall remained virtually static last week
New data has shown that UK retail footfall remained virtually flat last week with a marginal drop of 0.2%.
The figures from retail specialist Springboard also reveal that the number of visits to high streets and shopping centres edged up 0.2% and 0.6% respectively, but footfall in retail parks declined by 2%.
Consumers gravitated towards larger city centres in the week as footfall in central London climbed by 9%. There was a drop of just 0.9% in regional cities, but footfall in market and coastal towns fell by 2.5% and 6.8% respectively.
The figures also show that the gap in footfall from 2019 in central London was 53.2% compared to a decline of 27.9% in regional cities.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard commented: “Footfall shifted from day to day, but overall the first part of the week from Sunday to Tuesday was more heavily impacted than the remaining four days from Wednesday to Saturday.
“On the plus side, it seems that the appeal of larger city centres over smaller high streets rebounded last week, following shifts the other way in the previous two weeks.
“The lack of uplift in footfall on a week on week basis means that the gap from 2019 widened for the third consecutive week, although footfall remained noticeably higher than in the same week in 2020 which was the second week of trading following the lifting of lockdown 1.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
