Retail Footfall Dropped In First Week Of The Year

Springboard has published retail footfall data for week 1, explaining that UK footfall dropped by -6% last week as working from home measures continue to influence footfall in large city centres.

Springboard Index - High Street Index - Week 1 2022

2022 vs 2021 = +137.3%

2022 vs 201 = -30.9%

Week-on-week = -10.9%

Marketing and Insights Director, Diane Wehrle, said:  

"Somewhat inevitably - given that last week was the first return to work for many after the Christmas and new year period - footfall declined from the week before.  Indeed, this is a familiar result in the first week of the year - it has occurred every year since 2011 - and the magnitude of the drop in footfall last week was almost identical to that in the same week in 2019 and slightly lower than in the same week in 2020. 

However, the drop only occurred in high streets and shopping centres, whilst in retail parks footfall rose marginally from the week before which in part will have been driven by households replenishing groceries and household products.  High streets bore the brunt of the drop in shopper activity, with the decline from the new year week more than twice that in shopping centres, although to some degree shopping centre footfall may have been insulated by the great Christmas present return. 

Footfall declined from the previous week across all parts of the UK and in all types of high street apart from in Outer London where there was a marginal rise.  With employees continuing to work from home the drop in footfall in Central London and in other city centres around the UK was far greater than in more local high streets."

Source : Springboard

For all the very latest news and intelligence on the UK's largest home improvement and garden retailers, sign up for the Insight DIY weekly newsletter.