According to MRI Springboard, footfall across UK retail destinations declined by -7% last week from the week before, a far greater decline than in the week before last when footfall had dropped by a modest -1.1%.
High streets were by far the hardest hit by the severe weather with a decline in footfall of -10.1%, versus -5.1% in shopping centres many of which offer a sheltered enclosed environment, and -2.5% in retail parks.
Footfall declined each day last week, but over the three days from Sunday to Tuesday – before the worst of the storm hit – this averaged just -2.1%, versus an average decline of -13.3% over the three days from Wednesday to Friday when the weather was at its most severe.
On Saturday, with calmer conditions, footfall strengthened with rises in customer activity from the week before in both shopping centres and retail parks (+1.9% and +1.4%) although footfall remained -6.7% lower than the previous week in high streets.
While the decline in footfall from the week before spanned all UK geographies, the impact varied; footfall in Wales, the West Midlands and Northern Ireland declined over the week by -10.5%, -10.4% and -8.7% while in Scotland footfall declined by just -0.7%. Results also varied across the town types, with footfall in Central London -11.2% lower than the week before, -9.4% lower in Outer London and -10.3% in market towns, versus -8.7% in cities outside of the capital.
The reduction in footfall last week meant that footfall was -2.9% lower than last year, compared with an annual increase of +6.9% in the week before last. In high streets, the impact was even more significant moving from +10.1% above 2022 in the week before last to -5.3% below 2022 last week.
Inevitably, the gap from the 2019 footfall level widened last week, to -15.7% from -10.9% across all UK retail destinations and in high streets to -19.4% from -11.8% in the week before last.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at MRI Springboard, commented: “The extreme weather last week had a severe impact on footfall across UK retail destinations with a week-on-week decline which – apart from the post-Christmas week – was the worst for four months.
“All destination types were impacted, but inevitably – with their exposure to the elements – by far the worst affected were high streets, with a decline in footfall from the week before which was double that in shopping centres and four times as great as in retail parks.
“While the most significant drop in footfall occurred over the three days from Wednesday to Friday, when the adverse weather hit the UK, there was a week on week decline in footfall on every day last week.
“All UK geographies were impacted, with the greatest drops in footfall occurring in Wales, the West Midlands and Northern Ireland, and all types of high street felt the effect although city centres across the UK fared better than Central London.”
