Footfall bounce back delayed by wet weather
New figures have shown that footfall in UK retail destinations dropped by 4.1% last week from the previous seven-day period.
The data from Springboard reveals that high streets saw the biggest week-on-week fall at 6.6% whereas retail parks and shopping centres experienced declines of 1.3% and 1.5% respectively.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Rain across much of the UK for most of last week meant that footfall dipped again from the week before. The impact of the rain was evident, with a more modest drop in activity in the enclosed environments of shopping centres and in retail parks that are easily accessible by car than in high streets.”
Springboard found that all types of high street locations were impacted by the week’s rainy weather with footfall down as much as 10.1% in market towns. However, footfall in central London was virtually level with the week before compared with a drop of 5.2% in outer London. Despite this, footfall in central London was still 61.2% lower than in the corresponding week in 2019.
Meanwhile, footfall across UK high streets and shopping centres was down by 35.6% and 27.2% respectively year-on-year from 2019, but the decline in retail parks was just 1.3%.
Wehrle added: “The ongoing resilience of retail parks throughout the pandemic in retaining shopper numbers meant that last week footfall in this destination type was only marginally below the 2019 pre-pandemic level. In contrast footfall in both high streets and shopping centres remained more than a quarter below than their levels in 2019, however it is likely to be these two destination types that will receive the greatest boost from the reopening of indoor hospitality next week.”
