Retail footfall rose marginally last week
New data has shown that UK retail footfall edged up 0.8% last week from the previous seven day period.
The figures from footfall specialist Springboard reveal that the number of people visiting high streets declined by 0.5%, which may have been a result of the weather being too hot for some shoppers. Meanwhile, footfall in shopping centres and retail parks rose by 2.4% and 1.9% respectively.
In contrast, the weather did boost footfall in tourist and historic towns where it rose by 0.3% and 0.9% respectively. This compares to respective declines of 4.1% and 2.5% in the same week last year when the weather was ten degrees cooler and rainy throughout the UK.
Springboard said the increase in activity in retail parks last week means that footfall is now just 13.2% lower than last year in this destination type, compared with shopping centres and high streets where footfall remains over a third lower than in 2019.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The first week of the peak summer holiday period delivered spectacularly hot weather but largely lacklustre footfall performance. Customer activity across UK retail destinations rose marginally from the week before but the uplift was less than a third of the increase recorded in the previous week. It was clearly high streets – where footfall marginally decreased – that subdued the overall result, whilst in shopping centres and retail parks footfall rose from the week before.”
Footfall in regional cities was down 0.7% last week while the decline in central London was even greater at 4.5%.
Photo by Georgia Hawkins
