Retail footfall across the UK over the week commencing 30 November – 6 December, 2015 was down -2.7% year-on-year (YOY) as shoppers continued to snap up online flash sales as opposed to heading in-store to make purchases.
The overall decline in footfall was driven by significant falls in high street and shopping centre activity, which recorded -4.2% and -3.4% YOY drops, respectively. While retail parks bucked the trend with a +2.0% YOY increase, retail park footfall rose considerably less when compared to the same week in 2014, when footfall increased by 3.7% YOY.
Diane Wehrle, Marketing and Insights Director at Springboard commented: “The volume of activity in retail stores in the week following the Black Friday weekend has dipped further on the back of strong activity within the ecommerce space.
“While the last payday before Christmas has traditionally driven a spike in sales for brick-and-mortar retailers, there is strong evidence that the spending patterns of consumers are changing. For the first time this year, The Black Friday long weekend was an online shopping experience for consumers, and it appears that click and collect opportunities have not generated the uplifts in footfall that some retailers may have hoped for.
“Leading into Christmas, we expect to see online shopping continue to make dents in footfall activity. However, as most last order dates for online Christmas shopping occur on the 18th and 19th of December, it is possible we will see that traditional spike in footfall on the 23rd December as consumers head in store for last minute Christmas buying,” she concluded.
