Footfall slumps following Black Friday weekend

High street footfall slumped by 5.5% in the week following the Black Friday weekend, according to figures from retail analysts Springboard.

The group said the decline was “inevitably”, given that the week followed directly on from the “furore of Black Friday and included the online focussed Cyber Monday”. Furthermore, all three destination types were impacted in similar degrees during the week with drops ranging from 4.3% in retail parks, to 6.5% in shopping centres.

According to the group Tuesday 27 November was “the worst day for footfall”, with double declines across all three destination types. Activity improved marginally over the week, culminating in uplift in footfall of 0.5% on Friday.

A statement by the group read: “Geographically, the decline was universal; and it was all about trying to identify those areas with the smallest decrease. For high streets, these were Northern Ireland and Wales (-0.3% and -1.8%) whilst in seven of the eight remaining areas the drop was in excess of -6.0%.

“In shopping centres, the result was even bleaker with declines in footfall in excess of -4.0% in every area.  And whilst retail parks were a little more resilient, in five areas the drop was more than -4.0%, reaching -10.3% in the West Midlands.”