UK footfall declines for second consecutive week

Footfall across retail destinations in the UK fell 3.5 percent last week from the week before.

The drop was largely driven by a 7.1 percent drop in footfall across high streets, while shopping centres remained flat on the week before and retail parks rose marginally by 0.8 percent. That’s according to the latest figures from retail analysts Springboard.

Heavy rain played a factor in that, with torrential rain hitting the country from Wednesday onwards. Footfall increased from the week before by an average of 1.1 percent between Sunday and Tuesday but then fell each day between Wednesday and Saturday at an average of 7.1 percent.

Footfall across all retail destinations is now 31.4 percent lower than the same period last year, although retail parks are just 11.8 percent lower than last year levels. Following last week, high street footfall is now 39.4 percent lower than last year. Footfall in shopping centres has also slipped on an annual basis and is now 33.7 percent lower than last year.

“For the second consecutive week, and only the third week since the beginning of May, footfall across retail destinations declined last week from the week before,” Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said. “Part of the cause of the decline, particularly in high streets, was the rainy weather during the second half of the week that led to a double digit drop in footfall on both Friday and Saturday.

“However, the 10pm curfew is clearly having an impact; whilst shopping centres and retail parks with only minimal evening economy activity are holding their own, high streets - where the majority of evening economy activity occurs - are feeling the effect, with a drop in footfall post 7pm that is twice as great as that during working hours, and four times as great post 11pm.

“Inevitably the gap in activity from last year widened further, particularly in high streets, where footfall is now more than a third lower than it was in 2019.”

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