Springboard Data Shows Decline in Christmas Eve Retail Footfall

It seems that the majority of consumers have finished their Christmas shopping, as over the period up to 12pm today (Christmas Eve) footfall is -6.0% lower than yesterday (23rd December). Footfall is also -7.8% lower than on Christmas Eve last year, reflecting the trend for a decrease in footfall over the year seen over the past two weeks.

Footfall today in retail parks has been slightly more resilient than that in high streets and shopping centres, with a decline of -3% from yesterday, versus drops of -7.4% in high streets and -5.8% in shopping centres. This is likely to be due to the tail end of food shopping, as yesterday it was retail parks - with their representation of supermarkets - that had the most positive result of an increase in footfall from Saturday of +10.1% compared with just +0.5% in high streets and +4.0% in shopping centres.

Springboard's footfall data demonstrates that yesterday (Monday 23rd December) was the busiest trading day.  Footfall was +3.7% higher than on Super Saturday (21st December) and +11.4% higher than on Sunday 22nd December, albeit that part of this increase will have been due to shorter trading hours on Sunday. 

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.