Cool weather dampens footfall
UK retail footfall dropped by 1.7% last week from the previous seven day period after cooler weather deterred people from going out shopping.
According to figures from retail specialist Springboard, high streets fared the worst with a decline of 2.2% while the number of visits to shopping centres and retail parks fell by 1.3% and 1% respectively.
In contrast, footfall in the same week last year was boosted by the Eat Out to Help Out scheme which led to a rise of 4.1%.
Footfall declined in all but one geographical area last week compared to the week before. Week-on-week drops ranged from 0.6% in the South East to 3.3% in the North and Yorkshire. The weather meant that footfall was also down in coastal and historic towns where there were respective drops of 2.9% and 3.3%.
Meanwhile, Greater London was the only area to experience an increase with a marginal uplift of 0.2%. Furthermore, footfall in Central London rose by 5% from the week before, meaning the area has benefited from a seven week run of improving figures.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The penultimate week of the school summer holiday period was something of a damp squib. Rain most days across all areas of the UK accompanied by cool temperatures led to footfall across UK retail destinations dropping from the week before, eradicating all of the uplift gained in the previous week. As is usually the case when it rains, high streets fared worse than both the covered environments of shopping centres, and retail parks which are easy to access by car and have parking in close proximity to stores.”
The figures mean that that the gap from 2019 footfall levels has widened once again to -20.6%, with the greatest impact being felt in high streets where the gap moved to -26.3% from -21.7% last week. However, Springboard’s figures show that UK footfall overall was 15.1% higher than in the same week last year, and 20.8% up in high streets.
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
