Latest data from retail expert Springboard reveals footfall across all UK retail destinations increased by +40.3% last week from the week before. This includes a rise of +61.1% in shopping centres, +40% in high streets and +19.1% in retail parks.

However, these results underplay the extent of uplift in footfall following the reopening of retail stores in England on Wednesday, which averaged +62.6% across all retail destinations but +93.1% in shopping centres.

In high streets, footfall rose by an average of +64.5% over the four days and by +26.2% in retail parks. Inevitably in England, the rises in footfall from Wednesday onward compared with the week before were even higher; +81% across all retail destinations, +121.3% in shopping centres, +79.8% in high streets and +40.7% in retail parks.

Footfall across all retail destinations remained 41.3% lower than in 2019 last week. However, in high streets it was 51% lower and in shopping centres it was 45.6% lower. The support afforded to retail parks by food stores and garden centres that continued to trade through the lockdown, combined with other stores that opened on Wednesday, means that over last week as a whole retail park footfall was just 16% lower than in 2019. Plus, between Wednesday and Saturday, it was just 5.5% lower.

On Saturday alone, footfall in retail parks across the UK was just 1.3% lower than in 2019. In retail parks in England, the gap between last year and this year was even narrower; footfall was just 0.5% lower than in the same week in 2019.

Commenting is Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard.

“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. 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. The most modest rise in footfall occurred in retail parks, but these locations have been the most resilient of all three destination types in retaining footfall, and so started from a higher base.

“It appears that extended trading hours are helping a little. Whilst the hours post 6pm only generally account for around 30% of footfall across a 24-hour period, there was a marginally greater rise in footfall post 6pm than during day time trading hours of 9am to 6pm.

“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.”

For further information on Springboard, please click here.