Non-essential retail reopening sees jump in footfall in England

The reopening of non-essential retail in England last week saw a footfall rise of +40.3% across all UK retail destinations, compared to the week before.

Non-essential stores only re-opened in England on Wednesday 2 December, but looking at the whole week from Sunday 29 November to Saturday 5 December, compared to the week before, there was still a footfall rise of +61.1% in shopping centres, +40% in high streets and +19.1% in retail parks overall.

In England, the rise in footfall from Wednesday onwards compared with the week before was a more substantial +81% across all retail destinations, seeing a whopping +121.3% rise in shopping centres, +79.8% in high streets and +40.7% in retail parks.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said: “The first week of the reopening of non-essential retail stores in England delivered a significant rise in footfall across all retail destinations last week compared with the week before, but particularly in shopping centres.

“This is not an unexpected outcome, as shoppers tend to gravitate towards shopping centres in the run up to Christmas as they host the greatest number of stores in a single location, which also tend to be larger stores with a wider choice of products to choose from.”

Despite the uplift from last Wednesday onwards, footfall across all retail destinations remained -41.3% lower last week than the same week in 2019, while it was -51% lower in high streets and -45.6% lower in shopping centres year-on-year.

Wehrle added: “Despite the rises in footfall over the week, recovery from the decline that has occurred since the start of the first lockdown is still a way off, with the volume of customers in bricks and mortar destinations remaining far below the level recorded in 2019.”