Footfall boosted by Christmas light switch-ons
Footfall in UK retail destinations increased by 4.1% last week from the previous seven days.
This follows an uplift of 1.5% in the prior week.
In high streets the increase was even greater at 6.2%, while shopping centres saw an uplift of 3.3%. Meanwhile, footfall edged up 0.4% in retail parks which was a marked improvement from the 1.1% drop seen in the week before.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “High streets led the charge – undoubtedly supported by Christmas lights being switched on in town centres across the UK – with an uplift in footfall that was virtually double that in shopping centres.”
Uplifts were seen across all types of town centre last week, with the greatest rises coming in Central London at 8.3% and regional cities outside of the capital at 11.4% as shoppers gravitated to larger destinations where Christmas festivities have begun.
In outer London and market towns, the rise was more modest at 2.2% and 3.6% respectively.
Wehrle added: “Shoppers were clearly gravitating to larger towns and cities in order to soak up the Christmas atmosphere as, whilst there were significant rises across all types of town centre, there were with particularly large increases in Central London and city centres outside of the capital.”
Last week’s uplift meant that the gap from 2019 continued to narrow to -12.4% compared with -14.8% in the previous week.
