Footfall across UK retail destinations increased week-on-week in the seven days ended 20 November as the Christmas trading period began in earnest.
According to retail experts Springboard, footfall in UK retail destinations rose 4.1% last week, with increases being seen on six out of seven days, a marked improvement when measured against the previous week’s 1.5% improvement.
In high streets, the increase was even greater at 6.2%, nearly double the rise of 3.3% in shopping centres and far ahead of the 0.4% uptick seen in retail parks.
There were also increases in footfall across all types of town centres last week, with the greatest rises in Central London at 8.3% and regional cities outside of the capital at 11.4% as shoppers gravitated to larger destinations where Christmas festivities had already commenced.
Springboard also pointed out that last week’s footfall uplift meant that the gap from 2019 continued to narrow to -12.4% from -14.8% in the week before but remained more than double the levels seen in 2020.
