According to two reports released on Tuesday, the retail footfall in the UK remained resilient during the late August bank holiday weekend. Ipsos Retail Performance’s weekly tracker indicated a 12.3% decrease in footfall for the non-food sector compared to 2019. However, the holiday weekend saw an increase of 4.3% in footfall compared to the same pre-pandemic weekend and a 1.8% increase compared to the previous week.
Towns outperformed cities in terms of footfall by 7 percentage points, with city footfall increasing by 2.4% compared to 2019 and 0.5% compared to the previous week. On the other hand, towns saw a 7.5% rise in footfall compared to 2019 and a 1.5% rise compared to the previous week. Shopping centers experienced a 6% increase in footfall compared to 2019, but only a 0.6% increase compared to the previous week. High streets saw figures of 3.6% and 0.3%, respectively. Retail parks performed well once again, with an 8.1% increase in footfall compared to 2019 and a 5.5% increase compared to the previous week.
However, the boost in footfall during the weekend was offset by lower footfall earlier in the week, resulting in lower overall figures. High streets experienced a 9.1% decline compared to 2019 and a 0.8% decline compared to the previous week. Retail parks saw deficits of 12.8% and 1.2%, respectively, and shopping centers saw a decline of 14.8% compared to 2019, but a 1.1% increase week on week.
When analyzing the weekend activity in more detail, Springboard’s figures showed a UK-wide rise of 5.4% on Saturday and 5.3% on Sunday, but a drop of 6.4% on Monday. Diane Wehrle, Director of Insights at Springboard, noted that the favorable weather over the bank holiday encouraged shoppers to visit retail destinations. High streets benefited the most, with footfall being 8% higher on Saturday and 9.4% higher on Sunday compared to the previous week. However, footfall on Monday declined by 10.1% on high streets and 11.5% in shopping centers, while it rose by 6.8% in retail parks as shoppers stocked up on food and groceries for the week.
Wehrle also pointed out that visitor-friendly towns experienced the highest uplift in footfall during the weekend, including coastal and historic towns, market towns, and regional cities outside of London. Footfall in coastal towns was 24.3% higher than the previous week on Sunday, and footfall in historic towns was 17.7% higher. Shoppers also visited city centers across the UK, with an average footfall increase of 10.4% on Saturday and Sunday, compared to a 3.1% increase in Central London.
Useful links:
Retail Gazette: UK Retail Footfall
Springboard: Insights and Data
