Ipsos says UK retail footfall down -12.7 per cent
UK retail footfall took a hit of -12.7 per cent year-on-year on the day that new cases of the covid-19 virus exceeded 100 for the first time, according to Ipsos Retail Performance
The first weekend of the month (Sunday 1 March) saw a slight a slight increase of +0.2% year-on-year which could be symptomatic of shoppers hitting the shops in stockpiling efforts for household goods in particular.
Commenting on the findings, Dr. Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance said: “It isn’t a surprise that footfall has taken a big hit since the outbreak of Coronavirus really ramped up a notch last week.
“Shoppers will likely be wary of stepping into stores knowing that they might be exposed to a harmful virus – a sharp decline of -12.7% YOY shows how habits are shifting. We are almost at the same level of decline in footfall from the outbreak that we saw last month when the storms caused such disruption.
“My advice to shoppers would be to continue practising vigilant personal hygiene in everyday life as recommended by the NHS. Stockpiling will put unnecessary strain on retailers, so if shoppers refrain from ‘panic buying’, then I think we will all be in a better place.
“It will be interesting to see how the retail landscape progresses as the pandemic continues, and we can hope for the retailer’s sake that the future starts to look brighter very quickly”.
