Good weather leads to rise in UK footfall

UK footfall rose 7.8% week-on-week in the seven days ended 27 March, according to retail experts Springboard, with shops on high streets, in retail parks and in shopping centres all welcoming more shoppers through their doors.

Footfall increased in all three destination types, with a 9.8% uptick in high streets, a 5.8% increase in retail parks and a 5.5% improvement in shopping centres.

Springboard said the increase was principally due to good weather throughout much of the week, with the greatest footfall rise occurring in coastal towns, up 16.6%, while Greater London footfall rose 12% and market towns footfall was up 11.5%.

Footfall rose on every day of the week, with the greatest rises on Wednesday and Saturday, when it was likely that some trips were prompted by Mother's Day on Sunday.

While footfall on the two-year anniversary of the UK's first Covid-19 lockdown was 15.7% below the same week in 2019, a slight widening of the gap from the week before last when it was 15% weaker, it was still more than double the level in 2021 when Britain was, yet again, in Lockdown.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: "Last Wednesday marked two years since the beginning of the first lockdown and delivered positive news for UK retail destinations last week, which was helped by warm and sunny weather across the UK which lasted the entire week.

"Not only did footfall rise significantly from the week before across UK retail destinations as a whole, but there were strong rises in each of the three destination types. As is typically the case when we benefit from good weather, high streets benefited most with a week on week increase that was nearly double that in shopping centres and retail parks. There were rises every day in high streets and retail parks, and on five of the seven days in shopping centres."