Footfall rises for the seventh time in eight consecutive weeks
New figures have shown that UK retail footfall rose by 7% last week from the previous seven-day period with increases in each of the three key destination types.
The data from retail specialist Springboard reveals that this was the seventh time that footfall increased in eight consecutive weeks.
Shopping centres fared the best with an uplift of 9.8%. Meanwhile, the number of visits to retail parks and high streets rose by 6.9% and 5.7% respectively.
Looking at central London, footfall rose by 14.3% in the week but remained 78.2% below the 2020 level. However, the week-on-week growth was not as high in regional cities outside the capital where there was a more modest uplift of 2.3%.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Footfall across UK retail destinations rose once again last week – the seventh rise in eight consecutive weeks – whilst in the same week last year footfall not only declined but, as consumers were receiving more and more messages concerning the spread of the virus, the drop was greater than in the previous eight weeks.
“With non-essential stores still closed until 12 April, the steady increase in visits to high streets and shopping centres delivers further evidence of the degree of pent up demand amongst consumers to return to stores.”
