Retail footfall plateaued last week
New figures have revealed that footfall in UK retail destinations edged down 0.7% last week from the previous seven day period.
According to figures from retail footfall specialist Springboard, the number of visits to high streets remained flat, but footfall in retail parks and shopping centres declined by 1.5% and 1.6% respectively.
While the drops in retail parks and shopping centres were seen in all but one UK area in the week, high streets only experienced declines in four areas with the largest rises occurring in the devolved nations.
Meanwhile, footfall in Greater London and in market towns declined by a respective 3.4% and 1.4%, although footfall in Central London increased by 2.7%. Regional cities also experienced a rise with an uplift of 2.1%, as more people returned to the office.
The fact that footfall did not change significantly last week from the prior seven days, meant that the gap from the 2019 levels shifted only slightly to -14% across all destination types from -13.5% last week. According to Springboard, UK footfall was 28.1% higher than in the same week in 2020, which was an improvement from +24.5% in the week before.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Last week UK footfall was flat in high streets, but small declines in activity in both retail parks and shopping centres suggests that discussions in the media around the impact of supply issues on the availability of Christmas products have not yet impacted consumer behaviour.
“In parallel, indications are that the trickle back to the office is accelerating, with footfall in both outer London and market towns – locations where resilient activity levels are synonymous with home working – declining from the week before, whilst rising in Central London and regional cities outside the capital.”
