Retail Parks And Shopping Centres Attract Shoppers As Temperatures Rise

Springboard has published retail footfall data for week 28 (10/07 - 16/07) noting that increasing temperatures drove shoppers to retail parks and shopping centres last week.

Springboard Index - Week 28 2022

2022 vs 2021 = +18.2%

2022 vs 2019 = -12.9%

Week-on-week = +0.5%

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

Footfall rose marginally last week in UK retail destinations, although it was very clearly a week of two halves.  Up to Tuesday footfall dropped in response to a rise from the week before last, but then footfall rose every day from Wednesday until the end of the week. 

Interestingly in contrast to the norm of stronger footfall performance in high streets during periods of hot weather than in other destination types, last week the reverse was true. It seems that as the temperature rose towards the end of the week, shoppers sought the comfort of the temperature-controlled environment offered by shopping centres; from Friday onwards footfall rose more in shopping centres than in high streets, with a drop in footfall in high streets over the weekend versus an increase in shopping centres.

Retail parks outperformed both high streets and shopping centres last week, both over the week as a whole and during the latter part of the week as shoppers stocked up on items such as garden furniture, BBQ products and fans to enjoy over the weekend and in anticipation of the extreme heat this week. 

Despite high streets underperforming both shopping centres and retail parks last week over the UK as a whole, somewhat inevitably footfall rose in coastal towns but also marginally in market towns as people stayed local, whilst footfall in Central London and city centres around the UK declined.  Given the warnings to restrict travel this week, it is anticipated that this gap will widen further over this week.

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.