Footfall across UK retail destinations declined by -2.2% last week from the week before when it had risen by +4.7% following two prior consecutive weeks of decline, according to the latest data from MRI Springboard.
The week on week declines on each day across all UK destinations ranged from less than -1% (Monday, Tuesday and Friday) to -8.1% on Saturday, with a decline of -15.2% in high streets on Saturday. On Saturday, smaller high streets were particularly hard hit, with a week on week drop in footfall of -20.1% on that one day.
Footfall was -0.5% lower than in the same week in 2022, the first time this has occurred since the week of Easter Sunday.
A very minor improvement in the gap from the 2019 footfall level to -10.8% from -10.9% in the week before last
Diane Wehrle, insights director at MRI Springboard, comments: “Following a bounce back in footfall in the week before last, the rain last week, together with a rail overtime ban, took its toll on footfall across UK retail destinations with yet another week on week decline, the third in the past four weeks. Somewhat inevitably, of the three key destination types the hardest hit was high streets, with only a marginal drop in footfall in shopping centres as many shoppers headed for their covered environments. In retail parks footfall rose marginally as shoppers made the most of their easier access by car.
“With rain hitting the UK virtually every day last week, it was not surprising that footfall also declined from the week before on every day other than Thursday and Sunday, when the weather improved in many parts of the UK. On Saturday when the heaviest rain fell due to Storm Antoni hitting the UK, the drop in footfall was more than double that on any other day with high streets particularly impacted.
“The drop in footfall last week from the week before in high streets spanned the entire UK except for Scotland, and in shopping centres both Scotland and in Wales. However, the reverse was true for retail parks, where there were rises in footfall in all areas other than Greater London and the South East
