Shoppers were waiting for the sales
FootFall Index shows post-Christmas surge
January 3 2003
Consumers have been waiting for the bargains in the post-Christmas sales rather that splashing out on the full price in the weeks before Christmas, according to the FootFall.
The measure of customer traffic at UK shopping centres and high streets showed that Christmas Eve figures were down 11.3 per cent on the same period in 2001.
However, 3.9 per cent more people were out shopping during the whole of the Christmas week compared to the same period last year.
David Smyth, marketing manager at FootFall, said: “Based on the fact that Christmas Eve was so heavily down on last year, yet the week in total was up 3.9 per cent, we can only deduce that consumers have been leaving it to the post-Christmas sales to make their visits to the shops.”
The FootFall Index figures for the days following Christmas Day show that Boxing Day was up 8.6 per cent on last year, while Friday December 27 was up 10.7 per cent compared to Friday 28 last year, an was the busiest day of the sales so far.
The weekend following Christmas was also up by 0.5 per cent on last year: Monday December 23 was the busiest trading day of 2002 overall.
Smyth said: “This data indicates that volumes may have recovered, but until we can see the trading statements of the retailers we will not know whether this has made up for the lost margins as a result of the reduced sale prices.”
The FootFall Index covers 40m sq ft of retail space, which includes 100 shopping centres and over 5,000 retail outlets UK-wide.
