Springboard reports a drop in pedestrian traffic as Christmas looms
Footfall analysts Springboard predicted a lull in trading would occur post Black Friday, which it report came to pass. The past week saw a drop in footfall across UK retail destinations of -0.9 per cent over the week and an annual decline of -5 per cent.
Springboard reports that the drop in footfall contrasts sharply with the same week last year, when footfall rose by +3.4 per cent from the week before and declined only very marginally over the year by -0.1 per cent. it says the clear distinction is the success of Black Friday; whilst footfall dropped on Black Friday last year by -5.4 per cent this year it rose by +3.3 per cent which effectively removed the head of steam that had built for Christmas shopping.
The analyst is anticipating that footfall will improve steadily in the run up to Christmas with a rise of +5 per cent between this week and next week and will drop only marginally this week by -0.9 per cent from the same week last year.
Springboard adds that footfall is anticipated to peak on “Super Saturday” which falls on the 21 December, at +10 per cent higher than the Saturday before. It is also expected that footfall will be higher than the on same Saturday last year, with an increase of +3 per cent, however, this increase looks particularly strong as it comes on the back of an annual drop of -4.4 per cent last year.
