Overall retail footfall increased by 2.3 per cent last week, with more crowds drawn to High Streets by the warm and sunny weather, according to the latest figures from Springboard.

The number of people visiting UK High Streets jumped by 4.2 per cent compared to the previous week.

Shopping centres saw a slight increase in numbers, with a 0.5 per cent rise in footfall. In retail parks, footfall was only up 0.1 per cent compared to the week before.

From Thursday onwards - when the weather became warmer - footfall rose from the week before by 8.1 per cent across all retail destinations and by 12.4 per cent on High Streets.

The following day, the uplift doubled to 16.1 per cent across all retail destinations, while footfall on High Streets doubling to 25.8 per cent.

“The favourable weather from Thursday onwards had a positive impact on footfall across UK retail destinations last week; footfall rose from the week before in all three destination types, but particularly in high streets which is typically the destination of choice for shoppers when the weather is warm and dry,” said Diane Wehrle, insights director, Springboard. “Footfall rose in all town types, with an uplift in coastal towns that was double that in any other type of town centre, not a surprising result in light of the good weather."

Wehrle added: “Footfall rose from the week before on five of the seven days last week, with drops on Sunday and Wednesday when it rained across much of the UK. There was a surprisingly strong uplift in footfall in high streets on Friday given that it was a working day, which was more than five times as large as the rise on Saturday. Interestingly, this could be a real sign that hybrid home/office working may be making it more feasible for consumers to make spontaneous trips to destinations outside of the weekend, a trend we expect to see rise.”

Share Story: