Sunny weather brings out the shoppers, says Springboard
In contrast to the prevailing news of last week of struggling bricks and mortar retail, footfall rose by +1.6 per cent against the same week last year. This follows on from a decline of -2.6 per cent for the same week last year. Unsurprisingly given the previous week contained the bank holiday and many schools were on half term, footfall dropped from the previous week by -2.9 per cent.
The most obvious factor at play last week was the weather in determining the type of location consumers chose to visit. The rise in footfall was driven by the high street, which saw an increase of +3.2 per cent from last year. A contrast to the drop of -4.8 per cent recorded for the same week in 2017. The rise in consumer numbers was comprehensive across the country with North and Yorkshire leading the way with an annual growth of +8.8 per cent.
Shopping centre performance remains consistent, unlike the volatility of the high street performance, with numbers slipping annually -1.1 per cent on top of the fall of -1.5 per cent last year. And, with the exception of Scotland and Wales, the drop was across all geographies with the East Midlands posting the lowest result of -4.1 per cent. Retail park numbers, unaffected in their use by changes in weather or holiday periods as usual, grew +0.7 per cent against last year and only dipped -1.0 per cent against the previous week.
