Easter delivered a weekly boost to footfall as shoppers splashed out on Easter eggs, seasonal treats and entertaining over the four-day bank holiday weekend, the latest data from Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, reveals.
Data from Sensormatic’s ShopperTrak Analytics insights platform, which captures 40billion store visits globally each year, showed that footfall on Good Friday (18 April 2025) delivered a +40.8% week-on-week increase to store visits across all retail destinations.
As retail’s second biggest trading event after Christmas, GlobalData tipped Easter spending this year to have exceeded £2.3billion, with food & drink expected to have accounted for 70% of shoppers’ Easter budgets. Lidl also reported a surge in garden sales as UK consumers geared up for the Easter weekend, with sales of seeds and bulbs rising by over a third in March with warmer weather prompting purchasing.
The Saturday of the Easter weekend (19 April 2025) also saw footfall rising compared to the week prior, up + 11.6%, according to Sensormatic’s data. Meanwhile, week-on-week shopper counts on Easter Monday (21 April) jumped +17.4%, with Retail Parks seeing the greatest increase, up +27%. However, while Easter delivered a welcome boost to weekly shopper traffic, it couldn’t match last year’s footfall performance, with total store visits declining -7.5% over the Easter weekend compared to 2024.
Andy Sumpter, Sensormatic Solutions’ EMEA retail consultant, commented: “After a slow start to Spring for shopper traffic, and the late dates of Easter this year hitting footfall performance in March, retailers will have been counting on a bank holiday boost to over the Easter weekend.
“While they will have welcomed the uptick in shopper traffic compared to the week before, many retailers may have been left feeling disappointed that footfall performance didn’t match that of 2024; proof, perhaps, that when it comes to peak trading retail events, you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. In light of continuing consumer caution and shaky shopper confidence, retailers need to double down on delivering the compelling ‘reasons to visit’, which keep shoppers coming back – both to browse and to buy,” Sumpter added.
