BRC FOOTFALL MONITOR SHOWS MOMENTUM BUILDING FOR CHRISTMAS

The British Retail Consortium (BRC)-Springboard Retail Footfall Monitor has shown that shopper numbers fell sharply in the second calendar week of December.

The data also shows that:

• on an annual basis footfall was down in all locations, falling 2.6%
• footfall in shopping centres reported the biggest decline, falling 4.3%, followed by out-of-town locations (-2.1%) and high streets (-2.0%)
• footfall on a week-on-week basis increased in all locations – up 3.3% – an improvement on the previous week
• shopping centres saw the biggest boost to footfall week-on-week, up by 5.7%

BRC Director General Helen Dickinson said: “At first glance the year-on-year fall in shopper numbers doesn’t look great but there are several factors at play. Online shopping will be more important this Christmas than ever before and with Christmas falling on a Tuesday this year many of us feel that we have a few more days to finalise our festive shopping.

“The good news is, shopper numbers went up by 3.3% last week compared with the previous week, showing that momentum continues to build as we move into the final week before Christmas. It’s not a massive leap in shopper numbers, but this weekend is ‘the big one’. We’re predicting a last-minute rush which means it’s all still to play for in terms of how Christmas trading ends up overall.”

Springboard research director Diane Wehrle said: “Footfall across all formats declined annually last week, continuing the trend recorded since mid-November. This is symptomatic of the pressures on the retail sector this Christmas. However, the upside for high streets and retail parks is that they have recorded smaller annual declines than shopping centres.

“On the previous week shopping centres and retail parks were the clear winners in attracting shoppers – in shopping centres the increase in footfall was nearly twice that recorded in the previous week, and in retail parks activity rose on a weekly basis for the first time. Footfall in high streets increased by 2% last week, tailing off a little from an increase of 2.2% the week before. This suggests that shoppers might be holding off for a last minute surge to take advantage of discounts and added value offers in the final days.”

Source: BRC