Footfall on Super Saturday (20 Dec 2025) failed to deliver the expected flurry of festive footfall, as consumer hesitancy delays spending with shoppers holding out for last-minute deals, according to data from Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls.
Its ShopperTrak Analytics data, which captures 40 billion store visits globally each year, showed that store visits yesterday (20 Dec 2025) dipped -6.9% year-on-year. High Street destinations saw the most resilience, with a less pronounced decline of -3.7% compared to 2024.
“As one of the ‘make or break’ days of Christmas trading, soft footfall performance on Super Saturday will have dealt a blow to retailers who would have been hoping to capitalise on trade,” said Andy Sumpter, EMEA retail consultant at Sensormatic Solutions.
While shopper counts fell below 2024 levels yesterday, Super Saturday still delivered a weekly boost to stores as visits increased +1.5%, with Retail Parks seeing a marked uptick of +10.9% versus the week prior. Retail traffic in the week preceding Super Saturday (07 – 13 Dec vs 14 – 20 Dec 2025) also rallied, up +11.2%.
“Throughout this year’s festive trading season, we’ve seen consumer caution cause spending hesitancy and upend usual demand patterns. Shoppers are taking longer to validate purchases, with many still holding out and hoping that retailers may bring forward Boxing Day promotions pre-Christmas, as they did last year,” said Sumpter.
“We expect the usual last-minute rush to be particularly pronounced, with shoppers leaving purchasing right up to the wire,” he added.
Footfall is expected to rally in the next few days, with Tuesday (23 Dec 2025) – the last full shopping day before Christmas – expected to be the third busiest shopping day of the Christmas period, according to predictions from Sensormatic. Meanwhile Boxing Day (26 Dec 2025), which has seen some migration online in recent years, is still expected to be the fourth busiest day for footfall of Peak Trading.
