According to retail expert Springboard, the extreme heat last week severely impacted footfall across all retail destinations – but it was high streets that fared the worst, as shoppers sought the temperature-controlled environments offered by shopping centres and retail parks.
Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle said: “Footfall was hit hard on Monday and Tuesday as temperatures reached nearly 40degC, followed by modest week-on-week rises on Wednesday and Thursday, then further drops of a more normal magnitude towards the end of the week.
“All types of towns recorded significant drops in footfall, other than coastal towns – due to a combination of the weather and the start of the school summer break – with a larger drop in footfall in city centres than in smaller high streets as employees worked at home.
“Central London was particularly badly impacted, with by far the largest drops at the beginning of the week of any type of town which continued to Friday, while in city centres elsewhere in the UK, footfall bounced back from Wednesday onwards as the temperature cooled.”
Springboard provides insights on bricks-and-mortar retail activity, tracking and forecasting footfall and delivering performance metrics across all key retail destination types. It records more than 70 million footfall counts per week at 4,500 counting points across 480 different shopping sites in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.