Shop visitors continue to fall as online shift accelerates, BRC finds

In a further indication of UK shopper's switch to online stores, the decline in footfall deepened in November but not as badly as some had feared.

According to data by the British Retail Consortium and researchers Springboard, footfall fell by 1.0% in the month compared to a year ago, a slight deterioration on the 0.9% drop in October and lower still than the three-month average of -0.8%.

Shopper numbers visiting high street shops fell for the third consecutive month, with a 0.7% drop accelerating the decline from the 0.4% fall in October.

Footfall in retail parks fell 0.1% after growth of 1.1% the previous month and taking the three-month average to 0.3%, while shopping centres saw a tenth consecutive monthly decline with a 2.3% plunge to drag the three-month average to -2.2%.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said the footfall data mirrored what the BRC had seen in its monthly Retail Sales Monitor report: that Black Friday did little to impact the overall monthly trend in footfall.

"Whilst the event clearly attracted shoppers to stores, it was retailers’ online offerings who were the real winner, with shoppers for non-food items spending more than one in four pounds online, setting a new record for online share.

“It’s clear that the browser is rapidly replacing the high street as the venue of choice to hunt down a bargain. With that trend set to continue, the role of physical stores - still an enormously important part of retail - is shifting and retailers are having to re-engineer and reinvent their real estate to work seamlessly with their digital presence.”

The concerning ongoing trend was the further decline in footfall to shopping centres, added Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard.

"Some of this reduction is inevitable, as malls are dominated by retailers that trade equally effectively online, leading to a shift away from the need for frequent functional trips to longer, leisure driven trips that are undertaken less often.

"The challenge for malls is future proofing their success by delivering an integrated retail experience that satisfies consumers appetites, suggesting that if investors don't regain confidence to invest in upgrading their shopping centres, the decline could continue throughout 2017.”

Analyst Clive Black at Shore Capital said the BRC-Springboard data was "somewhat mellower albeit far from disastrous" but offered a stark indicator and reminder of ongoing channel shift in the British retail scene.

"Indeed, the UK is a market where firm change has and continues to take place in retailing with more than one in five non-food items now procured online, making it one of the highest online participation rates in the world; Black Friday data revealed a participation approaching one-third of total sales activity for non-food. Shops are increasingly serving as showrooms whilst technological advancement, particularly mobile telephony, is driving such change."