Heat drives shoppers to covered mall, finds Springboard
The ongoing sunshine in comparison to heavy rains in the same week last year, saw footfall dip annually just -0.6 per cent last week across all location types, an improvement upon the -2.2 per cent in 2017. However, the weekly result of -0.3 per cent is lower than the +0.1 per cent last year.
High streets saw the biggest change with an annual increase of +1.0 per cent influencing the overall result. This comes from a polarisation of results across the country with five regions seeing a lift of up to +3.4 per cent (Greater London) and the remaining sending a drop down to -4.3 per cent (East). The increase can be caveated as a consequence of the decline of -4.3 per cent in 2017, which included several days of rain following a prolonged period of sunshine.
Shopping centre footfall increased +1.1 per cent against the previous week with daily increases from Wednesday onwards and six of the nine regions and nations contributing. Unfortunately, this did not translate into annual change, footfall declined -2.9 per cent overall in comparison to -0.9 per cent in 2017 as consumers seem to have shifted between high streets and shopping centres depending upon the weather in each year (amongst other influences).
Retail parks also saw a distinct change decreasing annually -1.8 per cent following a rise of 1.2 per cent in 2017. The weekly result also took a downturn, dropping -1.2 per cent.
Overall, only Scotland saw an annual rise, lifting +0.4 per cent against last year with increases in both shopping centre and high street numbers.
