Footfall down 30% in September
UK retail footfall decreased by 30.1% year-on-year in September as additional Covid-19 restrictions were put in place.
According to figures from the British Retail Consortium and ShopperTrak, high streets suffered the most with a drop of 36.9%. Meanwhile, footfall in shopping centres and retail parks declined by 36.1% and 6.9% respectively.
In the first week of September footfall was down 24.3% on the same time last year, then fell steadily over the month to a decline of 33.6% in the fifth week. However, September footfall was up 4.7% on August.
Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, said: “As the second wave of the pandemic sweeps the UK and additional restrictions come into force, footfall has steadily dropped during the month as many shoppers chose to stay at home. Despite this, September footfall remains an improvement on the previous month. Retail parks, while down on a year ago, continue to perform significantly better than high streets and shopping centres thanks to the prevalence of supermarket stores and the availability of onsite parking.”
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
