January posts lowest footfall decline in three years

January footfall declined 0.8% according to the latest data from Ipsos Retail Performance - the lowest decline in three years. Ipsos said the figures indicate that Britain’s shoppers “are getting on with the certainties of everyday living” despite the uncertainties of Brexit.Further figures showed that year-on-year deficits over three months have declined by -2.2% over the period of November 2018 to January 2019, compared to -11.0% in March-May 2018. January’s figures marked the lowest fall back from the Christmas period since 2008, with footfall in the first month of 2019 down -26.5% compared to December. Dr Tim Denison, director of Ipsos Retail Performance, said: “Shopping was bolstered by a combination of continued falling inflation rates, which now stands below the Bank of England’s marker of 2%, and increasing wages which, at 3.4%, are growing at the strongest rate since the financial crisis. Households will not only be replenishing their depleted savings with this extra income, but are also spending some of it on the high street.” Ipsos found that the region with the weakest year-on-year figures for the sixth consecutive month was South West England and Wales, recording a decline in footfall of -3.9%. Elsewhere, stores across Northern England, Scotland & Northern Ireland, and The Midlands all experienced a growth in footfall against January 2018. Looking in greater detail at the footfall figures, the first week was the formative time of the month, when traffic rose year-on-year by +6.4% and across all regions of the country. While the first week did fall before New Year's Eve this year, this wasn’t the sole bearing on the positive results. Dr Denison added:“With the year-on-year gap in both store sales and traffic trends narrowing every month since May last year, one would be forgiven for thinking that British consumers are cocking a snook at parliamentarians over the Brexit debacle, and getting on with the day-to-day.” “Certainly January shoppers had one eye on bagging a bargain, while they had the cash to do so. However, the fact that the trend data has shown signs of strengthening for some time now indicates that shopping behaviour at the start of the year is not the consequence of consumers developing a siege mentality.”

January posts lowest footfall decline in three years

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