​UK weekly footfall suffers as shopper numbers dip

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jun 14, 2021

Footfall across all UK retail destinations couldn’t maintain some impressive gains made at the start of the month, falling 6.7% week-on-week in the seven days spanning 6-12 June.

That contrasts sharply to the rise of 11.6% in the previous week, latest Springboard data shows. In all, last week’s numbers were still 18.4% below the 2019 level.

Activity dipped in all three destination types. High streets lost around half of the gain made in the week before with a decline in footfall of 9% versus a rise of 17.4% in the previous week. 

Shopping centres also dropped 7.5% after rising 8.7% rise in the previous week. In retail parks, the 0.9% drop was around a third of the gain of 2.3% made in the week before.

Footfall dropped across all types of high street, but by the greatest proportion in coastal and historic towns (-19% and -13.1%) and in regional city centres (-13.4%). Footfall in market towns and in outer London dipped by just 2% and 2.6% respectively.

Diane Wehrle, Insights director at Springboard, said: “UK retail destinations suffered post-Bank Holiday blues last week, with footfall dropping back by around half of the uplift recorded in the week before, when the school half term holiday coincided with the Spring bank holiday and amazing weather. 

“Despite this, the gains made in the week before meant that the gap in footfall from 2019 remained narrower than at any point since the start of the pandemic other than last week”.

She added: “With the removal of restrictions set to be delayed by as much as a month, footfall is not likely to strengthen significantly over the next four weeks. However, it should receive a huge boost in the second half of July, particularly as this coincides with the start of the school summer break”.