Data from retail industry experts Springboard revealed on Monday that footfall across UK retail destinations rose 1.5% week-on-week, following a rise of 6.7% in the week before.
While footfall in high streets declined 1.7% across Britain as the snow deterred shoppers, there were rises of 3.9% in shopping centres and 6.1% in retail parks.
With snow falling on much of the UK at the beginning of the week, Springboard said a 7% decline between Sunday and Tuesday was no surprise, but also noted that this was compensated for by rises across the rest of the week.
Annual footfall was down 61.4% across all UK retail destinations.
Springboard’s insights director Diane Wehrle said: “Despite Beast from the East 2 hitting virtually all of the UK at some point last week, footfall across retail destinations continued to rise from the week before. The weather did impact high streets, but it was more than compensated for by increases in footfall in shopping centres and retail parks.
“Last week was the fourth consecutive week in which footfall has increased from the week before, delivering ever more evidence that shoppers are experiencing lockdown fatigue and are increasingly willing to travel to retail destinations, whatever the weather. In fact, in the seven weeks since Lockdown 3 came into effect on Boxing Day, the only declines have been in the first three weeks of the lockdown, which included the two weeks following Christmas when footfall typically drops anyway.”
Wehrle also noted he drop in footfall from the same week last year was now the lowest it’s been since the second week of the lockdown.
