Retail footfall jumps fourfold as rebound accelerates

Shopper numbers across all UK retail destinations rose by 4.1 per cent last week as near 7 per cent jumps in London and the south east led a significant acceleration in activity, researcher Springboard said on Monday.

Springboard said the UK-wide number compared to a 0.8 per cent increase the previous week and a 1.8 per cent rise in the same week last year.

Despite the improvement, however, footfall was still 30.7 per cent lower than in the same week last year, though that was an improvement from an annual drop of 32.5 per cent in the week before.

Big city centres are still bearing the brunt of the crisis, with shoppers and workers failing to return after the lockdown eased and shops reopened.

In Central London shopper numbers remain 61.2 per cent lower than last year and in regional cities it is 49.8 per cent lower, Springboard estimated.

In contrast, shopper numbers in smaller, more local high streets or holiday towns have recovered to a far greater extent; in Outer London the drop in footfall from last year is now -29.5 per cent, in coastal towns it is -28.7 per cent, in historic towns -34.1 per cent and in so-called market towns -28.3 per cent.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said the incremental recovery offered “a glimmer of hope for retailers”.

She said it also seemed that increased quarantine measures on a number of overseas holiday destinations had also lifted UK footfall.

Shopping centres had been the clear winner with a week on week increase of 7.1 per cent versus 3.2 per cent in high streets and 2.7 per cent in retail parks.