Retail footfall ticks up but consumers increasingly cautious - Springboard

Footfall across destinations rose 0.8% from the week before, with footfall on high streets up 1.6%, mainly thanks to a bounce-back of 10% on Wednesday following a weak comparable due to rain. Excluding Wednesday, footfall last week was flat on the prior week.

Footfall in city centres rose 3.3%, while Central London saw a 4.4% jump, suggesting an increase in office versus home working last week. Footfall at retail parks dipped 0.4%.

Springboard said all signs point to an increased level of cautiousness amongst consumers. While there were marginal rises in footfall during weekdays, on Saturday footfall declined across all three key destination types.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said the fact that footfall excluding Wednesday was flat is "a strong indicator of the cautiousness of consumers in the light of the current economic challenges".

"This cautiousness is particularly apparent in a drop in footfall across all three key destination types on Saturday, the peak trading day of the week. Whilst consumers are clearly being cautious, the signs pointed to employees gravitating into their offices last week.

"Footfall in larger cities across the UK rose by twice the high street average, with an even greater uplift in Central London whilst in market towns and Greater London - which have become strong indicators of the extent of home working - footfall was weaker. The increase in office working last week will have supported footfall across the UK, and in both high streets and shopping centres it rose in six of the ten UK geographies last week.

"In contrast, in retail parks - which are further away from office locations - footfall declined in all but one area of the UK. The bounce back in footfall on Wednesday meant that footfall strengthened from 2021 across all three key destination types last week, and the gap from the 2019 level narrowed."