UK retail footfall up just 1.6% in lead-up to Black Friday

Retail footfall grew just 1.6% week-on-week in the seven days ended 19 November, according to retail experts Springboard, with consumers seemingly yet to make the most of already live Black Friday promotions.

UK retail footfall rose by 1.7% in high streets, 2.4% in shopping centres and just 0.5% in retail parks, while the uplift from 2021 dropped by nearly half to 2.8% from 5% in the week before last. On high streets, the increase from 2021 dropped by nearly a third to 2.7% from 6.5% in the week before last

The gap from the 2019 footfall levels, however, narrowed to -10.5% from -11.1% in the week before last, with most of the uplift resulting from increases over the week on Sunday and Monday that averaged 12.7% - a bounce back from a decline of -9.4% in the week before last.

Between Tuesday and Thursday footfall dropped from the week before last by an average of -3.4%, versus a 1.9% uplift in the previous week, while footfall improved on Friday and Saturday to an average of 0.6%.

Springboard's Diane Wehrle said: "As Black Friday promotions started to become evident footfall across UK retail destinations rose marginally last week from the week before. However, rather than organic growth in activity all of the uplift was a consequence of a bounce back in footfall on Sunday and Monday from noticeable drops on those two days in the previous week. Over the rest of the week through to Saturday footfall either declined or rose only very slightly from the week before.

"The pattern of footfall last week was driven wholly by high streets and shopping centres, where a large proportion of demand emanates from discretionary spend, whilst in retail parks - many of which have a food store and other essential retailers - footfall was virtually flat on the week before each day. This suggests that despite a range of Black Friday promotions already being active, consumers have not yet increased their shopping activity, and may well be holding back in the hope of securing more favourable discounts as the week progresses."

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com