UK retail footfall rises 5.4% week-on-week

Retail footfall rose in the seven days ended 3 December as consumers headed to the shops ahead of the holiday season.

According to retail experts Springboard, UK retail footfall increased 5.4% week-on-week, with footfall up 6.9% in high streets, 4.8% in shopping centres, and 3% in retail parks.

Footfall rose every day of the week, apart from Friday when footfall was 6.1% lower than on Black Friday in the previous week, while on Saturday, footfall rose by 2.2% across all destinations, but by 7% in Central London and 7.5% in cities across the UK.

Springboard noted that all areas of the UK benefited, with increases ranging from 18% in the East to 10.1% in Wales, 12.3% in the South West, and 12.6% in Northern Ireland.

The annual increase doubled to 8.8%, up from 4.2% in the week before last, while the gap from the 2019 footfall level narrowed to -11% from -14.1% in the previous week.

Springboard's Diane Wheel said: "In the face of the cost of living crisis, last week offered a glimmer of optimism for retailers with a rise in footfall across UK retail destinations from the week before. This result is in line with pre-pandemic trends when footfall rose across UK retail destinations in the equivalent week every year since 2013.

"The rise in footfall last week was greater than in the same week in every year between 2013 and 2018 but it was a third lower than in the same week in 2019, demonstrating a degree of consumer caution this year around spending."

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com