Latest data from retail expert Springboard reveals footfall rose by +9% across all UK retail destinations last week; a sharp contrast to the drop in the previous week of -10.9% and the average of -22.6% over the preceding four weeks. This means the annual result strengthened slightly to -65.3% across all retail destinations, from -67.5% in the week before.

Footfall rose in all three destination types from the week before, despite the national lockdown remaining in place. The rise was of a similar magnitude in high streets and shopping centres (+10.9% and +9.2%), with a smaller increase of +4.5% in retail parks.

Apart from Tuesday and Wednesday when footfall declined on both days, averaging -2.2%, footfall increased on every other day averaging +13.9%; reaching as much as +23.2% on Thursday.

On Saturday, which remains the peak shopping day despite the pandemic, footfall rose by +16% from the week before.

The increase in footfall in London (+17.1% in Central London and +18.6% in Outer London) was nearly double that across high streets generally. It was also noticeably higher than both the rise in footfall in regional cities outside London (+4.5%) or in smaller high streets (+11.4% in market towns, +9.9% in coastal towns and +9% in historic towns). There was significant variation across the UK, with the most modest rise of +0.6% in Wales and +2.2% in Northern Ireland.

Commenting is Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard. “Despite rain and snow last week across much of the UK, footfall rose in retail destinations last week from the week before for the first time in five weeks; perhaps providing the first indications of lockdown fatigue emerging once again.

“The last rise in footfall was in the peak Christmas trading week beginning 13 December. Even then, the rise was only a third as large as last week’s; since then, there has been a double-digit drop in footfall in each week.”