UK footfall in retail destinations has been fluctuating on a weekly basis, indicating a persistent gap between the current period and the pre-pandemic era. According to MRI Springboard, a specialist tracking firm, footfall across high streets, shopping centres, and retail parks declined by 5.2% last week compared to the previous week, which had seen a rise of 3.8% following a sunny half-term break. However, when looking at the year-on-year perspective, footfall was up by 6.3%, marking the largest increase since Easter.
The weather appears to be a significant factor in these fluctuations, with footfall rising by 2.5% on Saturday due to shoppers taking advantage of the heatwave. Throughout the week, high streets also saw an increase of 4% in footfall. However, footfall was lower than the previous week on every day between Sunday and Friday, with the largest dip of 11.2% occurring on Tuesday across all UK destinations and up to 15.1% in shopping centres.
Coastal towns, which typically benefit from sunny weather, experienced a decline in footfall by 14.5% compared to the previous weeks’ average increase of 16.1%. This drop can likely be attributed to the boost provided by school holidays in the previous weeks. However, footfall in coastal towns was still up 12.5% compared to the previous year.
Central London saw a 3.4% dip in footfall from the previous week but rose by 8.1% compared to the previous year. Regional cities experienced a decline of 7.6% on a weekly basis but saw an increase of 12.3% compared to the previous year.
Although there have been improvements in footfall, there remains a gap between the current levels and those seen in 2019. Last week, this difference widened to -7.2% compared to -3.4% the previous week. Shopping centres saw an even wider gap of -15.5% compared to the week before last (-7.5%). Coastal towns were only 2.5% behind 2019 figures, while regional cities were down by just 1.1% compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, central London experienced a larger decline of 14.8% compared to the footfall numbers of 2019.
These figures demonstrate that while footfall in the UK is showing signs of improvement, it has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels in all areas.
Useful links:
1. BBC: UK retail footfall returns to pre-pandemic levels
2. The Guardian: UK retail footfall still lagging behind 2019 levels
