Footfall rises marginally as cold snap impacts performance

Footfall across UK retail destinations rose marginally last week (Dec 5-12) by +0.3% from the week before, with a varied performance across the three key destination types, according to Springboard.

It found that shopping centres were boosted by their ability to offer shelter from the elements, as footfall rose by +2.2% from the week before versus a drop of -0.9% in high streets. In retail parks, which benefit from ease of access by car, footfall rose by +0.9%.

Footfall peaked on Tuesday with a rise of +6.4% before the cold weather hit on Wednesday. By Friday footfall was lower than the week before and on Saturday it dropped by -4.9% across all UK destinations and by -7.3% in high streets.

Whilst footfall in UK high streets declined, it rose in central London by +3.8% and by +1.4% in outer London. Central London was supported by significant increases in footfall on Tuesday and Wednesday (+12.2% and +6.8% in Central London versus +6% and +1.8% across UK high streets).

By Saturday, however, even Central London was impacted with a drop in footfall of -7% from the week before which was only very slightly better than the -7.3% drop across all UK high streets. City centres outside of the capital did not perform nearly as strongly as Central London, with a drop in footfall of -3.5% over the week.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “As forecast, footfall across UK retail destinations went into a lull last week following the boost delivered in the preceding two weeks by Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There was only a very marginal rise in footfall from the week before, with a clear reduction in activity from Wednesday onwards when the cold weather hit.

“Somewhat inevitably, high streets were particularly hard hit as shoppers are exposed to the elements, while shopping centres performed best of the three destination types, reflecting the advantage of their temperature controlled internal environments.”