High Street Footfall Boosted By Christmas Lights Switch-On

Springboard has published retail footfall data for week 46, advising of an increase in UK retail footfall last week almost three times higher than the week before.

To ensure its insights are as relevant as possible, Springboard has introduced a year-on-year 2021 vs 2019 comparison for footfall.

Springboard Index - Shopping Centres - Week 46 2021

2021 vs 2020 = +116.1%

2021 vs 2019 = -21.1%

Week-on-week = +3.3%

Springboard's Marketing and Insights Director, Diane Wehrle, said: 

"The beginning of the Christmas trading period began in earnest in many retail destinations last week, and it had an increasingly positive impact on shopper activity; in contrast with the week before when footfall rose at the weekend following the switch on of Christmas lights in a number of destinations, last week footfall rose from the previous week on every day apart from Sunday when it was flat from the week before. Across the week as a whole,  the increase in footfall last week was nearly three times that of the week before.

"High streets led the charge - undoubtedly supported by Christmas lights being switched on in town centres across the UK - with an uplift in footfall that was virtually double that in shopping centres.  Shoppers were clearly gravitating to larger towns and cities in order to soak up the Christmas atmosphere as, whilst there were significant rises across all types of town centre, there were with particularly large increases in Central London and city centres outside of the capital. Footfall in retail parks rose modestly, however, it shifted into positive territory from a decline last week from the week before."

Source : Insight DIY using Springboard data

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