According to retail expert Springboard, footfall across UK retail destinations rose last week from the week before.
However, much of this was a rebound from the significant drops on the Monday and Tuesday of the week before last, when the UK experienced an extreme heatwave.
From Wednesday onwards, when the comparison was against days with more normal summer temperatures, there was a modest week-on-week rise.
“Footfall rose from last week in all three destination types, with the largest rises occurring in high streets and shopping centres.
Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle
Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle said: “Footfall rose from last week in all three destination types, with the largest rises occurring in high streets and shopping centres. All types of towns benefited from increased consumer activity, with Central London recording the largest increase, although the uplift here is likely to be due to increased tourism, which typically occurs during the school summer break, rather than employees returning to offices.
“This is demonstrated by the fact that the rise in footfall was more muted in both Springboard’s ‘Back to the Office’ Central London benchmark and in city centres outside the capital (which generally attract fewer tourists). The rail strike on Wednesday led to a significant drop in footfall in Central London and other city centres around the UK, while footfall in market towns rose as employees worked from home.”
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.
