The latest data from specialist tracking firm Springboard reveals that UK footfall has indeed seen a decline, as expected, with the third lockdown in England taking full effect. However, what’s surprising is that the smallest decreases have been observed in London and the South East regions, despite having the highest rates of Covid-19 infections.
Specifically, footfall in the South East only dropped by 8%, while Greater London saw a decrease of 10.7%, compared to the rest of England where footfall declined by more than 35%. Overall, retail destinations across the UK experienced a 27.1% decrease in footfall last week compared to the previous week, following a 23.2% drop in the week before that.
Shopping centres took the biggest hit with a 35% decline in footfall, high streets saw a 26% drop, and retail parks suffered a 21.3% decrease. The closure of all non-essential stores has impacted shopping centres significantly due to the absence of ‘essential’ stores within them. Conversely, retail parks have fared better among the three destination types.
In the first week of January, footfall in England was down by 63.7% year-on-year, with Scotland seeing a 66.2% drop, Wales experiencing a 66.2% decrease, and Northern Ireland observing a 68.4% decline. However, on a week-on-week basis, footfall decreased by 30.4% in England, only 0.4% in Scotland, and actually increased by 10% in Wales and 27.1% in Northern Ireland.
Despite London’s mild overall footfall decline, this was mostly driven by outer London where footfall only fell by 6.8%, as opposed to the city center where footfall decreased by 25.9%. Although Central London has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, the nearly 26% decline was lower compared to other regional cities where visitor traffic fell by at least 35%.
Year-on-year, footfall across the UK dropped by almost 64%, with shopping centers and high streets both experiencing declines of over 70%, while retail parks only saw a 42% decrease. This demonstrates that the impact of lockdown restrictions on footfall varies across different types of retail destinations.
For more information on the latest UK footfall trends, you can visit the Springboard website here.
To stay updated on retail news and trends in the UK, you can also check out Retail Gazette here.
