Last Week's Footfall Boosted By Sunny Weather

Springboard has published retail footfall data for week 12 (2/03 - 26/03) advising that sunny weather boosted footfall, two years on from the first lockdown.

Springboard Index - High Street Index - Week 12 2022

2022 vs 2021 = +116.4%

2022 vs 2019 = -15.7%

Week-on-week = +7.8%

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

"The second anniversary of the start of the first lockdown in 2020 delivered positive news for UK retail destinations last week, helped by warm and sunny weather across the UK which lasted the entire week. 

Not only did footfall rise significantly from the week before across UK retail destinations as a whole, but there were strong rises in each of the three destination types.  As is typically the case when we benefit from good weather, high streets benefited most with a week on week increase that was nearly double that in shopping centres and retail parks.  There were rises every day in high streets and retail parks, and on five of the seven days in shopping centres.

The increase in footfall last week was comprehensive; all UK geographies recorded uplifts in footfall from the week before, with the strongest rise in the South-West which dovetails with a double digit rise in footfall in coastal and market towns.  The good weather appeared to also encourage employees into their offices, as footfall rose in large city centres with an increase in Springboard's Central London "Back to the Office" benchmark that was a third larger than across Central London as a whole.

However, despite the strong uplift in footfall last week, the gap from the 2019 - pre-pandemic - footfall level widened slightly in shopping centres and retail parks, only narrowing marginally in high streets."

Source : Springboard

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