Wet weather hits November footfall

Retail footfall in November dropped 3.4% year-on-year after “severe wet weather” deterred shoppers in the last two weeks of the month, according to the latest figures from Springboard.

Springboard also revealed that footfall was likely affected by shoppers holding out for Black Friday discounts. Black Friday was deemed to have taken place outside the monthly trading period so any boost in retail traffic will be attributed to next month’s data.

High street footfall was the hardest hit and declined by -4.3%, following from the decrease of -3.8% in November last year.

Retail Park footfall decreased by -1.8%, compared with -1.4% the year prior and shopping centre footfall declined by -3.0%, following November 2018’s decline of -3.8%.

Diane Wehrle, Springboard marketing and insights director, said: “Whilst the heavy rain will have deterred many shoppers from making trips to retail destinations, the poor footfall in the second half of the month will have been exacerbated by the proximity of Black Friday discounts.

“Alerts arriving on a regular basis into consumers’ inboxes in the run up to Black Friday enabled consumers to watch the retail market easily and identify the depth and spread of discounts being offered. If they weren’t already planning on doing so, this will have led to many consumers pulling back on trips to destinations causing a spending freeze over the last two weeks of the month in anticipation of big discounts on current stock.”

She added: “The fact that the Black Friday weekend also started on payday heightened the chances of a spending spree which took place after the month had ended. This pent up demand is clearly evident from the fact that footfall in the last week of the month in shopping centres dropped by -5.2%, more than in high streets and retail parks.

“Having the greatest concentration of retailers heavily promoting discounts, it was not surprising that it was in shopping centres where footfall increased most over Black Friday.”