According to the latest report from Ipsos, footfall in UK retail is still below pre-pandemic levels in 2019, but there are signs of recovery from the challenging year of 2020. Non-food footfall was down by 24.6% compared to two years ago, indicating that there is still progress to be made before reaching pre-pandemic levels.
Interestingly, towns have been performing better than cities, with a difference of 7.7% points. This suggests that although more workers are returning to their city center offices and tourists are slowly coming back to the UK, there is still work to be done to reach pre-pandemic levels. Among the different regions in the UK, Northern England saw the best performance in terms of store visits, with footfall down by “only” 20.8% compared to two years ago.
The Ipsos Retail Traffic Index (RTI) also showed a 3.5% increase in footfall compared to the previous week. While city footfall remains a challenge, it appears to be recovering faster than other areas. City footfall was down 27.1% compared to towns, which were down 19.8% on a two-year basis. However, on a week-on-week basis, cities saw a 4.3% increase in footfall, while towns only saw a 3.8% increase.
Breaking it down by specific regions, Northern England performed better than others over the two-year period. In contrast, London and the Southeast experienced a 28% decrease in footfall, and Scotland and Northern Ireland saw a nearly 30% decrease. However, the latter regions did see an 8.5% and 4.5% week-on-week increase, respectively.
Retail parks continue to be the strongest destination types in terms of footfall, both in a two-year and weekly comparison. They saw a 16.1% decrease in footfall over two years but a 6.2% increase compared to the previous week. On the other hand, high streets saw a 29.4% decrease and a 4.8% increase, while shopping centers experienced a 25% decrease and a 4.9% increase.
These figures indicate that the recovery of footfall in the UK retail sector is underway, but there is still progress to be made. As workers continue to return to city centers and tourists gradually come back, it is expected that footfall will continue to increase. However, policymakers and retailers should remain vigilant and adapt their strategies to ensure sustained recovery in the coming months.
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