Good weather fails to give footfall a boost, finds Springboard
The continuing mild and dry weather last week meant that the impetus for shoppers to purchase in anticipation of the change of season was largely absent. Despite this, however, footfall dropped only marginally from both the previous week (by -0.4 per cent) and the same week last year (by -0.8 per cent). in part, however, this was a consequence of a poor comparable with last year, when footfall declined by -1.6 per cent from the previous week and by -2.7 per cent from the same week in 2016.
The shift in footfall was an improvement from last year across all of the destination types, however, there was a clear variance in performance. For retail parks the good news was that the shift was from a negative position of a drop of -1.9 per cent annually to a rise of +1.2 per cent. In high streets, footfall improved on last year’s result of an annual drop of -2.6 per cent but it still remained within negative territory at -1.1 per cent. The situation was a similar one for shopping centres, but with an even greater drop in footfall of -2.1 per cent, a magnitude of decline that we have reluctantly become accustomed to.
Geographically, footfall in all but two regions declined from last year, with only Wales and Northern Ireland recording annual rises of +1.9 per cent and +12.4 per cent. Compared with the previous week, however, there was a significant variance in performance, with positive shifts as great as +10.7 per cent in Northern Ireland, +9.2 per cent in Scotland and +4.9 per cent in Wales; to drops that were more than -2 per cent in a number of other areas.
