Latest data from retail experts Springboard reveals that footfall across all UK retail destinations rose last week by +19.5% from the week before, with rises of +26.3% in shopping centres and +21.1% in high streets. In retail parks footfall rose by +9%, however in shopping parks – those parks dominated by high street retailers – footfall rose by +15.5%.
Footfall rose in large city centres by slightly more than in smaller towns (by +29.7% in regional cities versus +20.9% in market towns), but by far the greatest increase occurred in the largest shopping centres across the UK (more than half a million sq ft) where footfall rose by +35.5%.
Despite increases over the past two weeks, footfall remains substantially lower than last year; 29.9% lower than in 2019 across all destinations, and in high street and shopping centres 38.1% and 33.2% lower. The ongoing attractiveness of retail parks to shoppers is evident by the fact that footfall in this destination type is now just 8.6% lower than last year.
Diane Wehrle Insights Director at Springboard commented: “In the second week following the reopening of non-essential retail stores footfall across UK retail destinations continued to rise. The uplift was smaller than in the first week, but it was still significantly greater than in the second week following the reopening of retail in June, indicating the desire of shoppers to visit bricks and mortar stores in the run up to Christmas. The demand by shoppers to visit retail destinations is highlighted by the contrast with this week in 2019 when footfall declined, following a surge in demand in the previous two weeks, most likely as a result of Black Friday.”
