UK retail footfall up 6.8% YoY in March 2023

UK retail footfall has increased by 6.8 per cent on year-on-year (YoY) basis in March 2023. However, March saw a drop of 3.6 per cent in footfall compared to February and worse than the three-month average increase of 9.5 per cent, a new data revealed.

High street footfall rose by 8.6 per cent YoY in March, while posting a 9.2 per cent decline as against the previous month. It was behind the three-month average increase of 14.5 per cent, according to data from British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Sensormatic IQ.

Retail parks saw footfall decrease by 5.9 per cent YoY in March, 2.6 percentage points weaker than February, and worse than the three-month average decline of 5.2 per cent, the data indicated.

Shopping centres across the UK registered an 8.2 per cent footfall growth in March (YoY), but the rate was 3.5 per cent lower compared with the previous month. It also stood behind the three-month average rise of 11.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, Scotland reported the highest footfall growth at 12 per cent in the UK during March, followed by Wales and Northern Ireland, which recorded 9.1 and 7 per cent, respectively. England saw the lowest footfall growth at 6.5 per cent. UK retail footfall continues to lag behind the pre-pandemic levels year-over-four-year (Yo4Y) by 10.2 per cent in March 2023.

Total retail footfall in the UK is still behind the pre-pandemic (Yo4Y) levels by 10.2 per cent in March 2023. High streets, retail parks and shopping centres registered 11.5, 5.3 and 20.3 per cent lower footfall, respectively, on a Yo4Y basis, it pointed out.

“Footfall remains below pre-pandemic levels, and the rate of strong recovery slowed in March,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive, British Retail Consortium. “Households avoided big ticket purchases, resulting in lower footfall at retail parks, meanwhile high streets and shopping centres saw strong footfall growth as these locations continued to make up ground lost during the pandemic.”

“Another sign of the return to pre-pandemic footfall patterns is the return of weekend shopping, as the ongoing return to the office caused many to refocus their shopping trips back to the weekend,” Dickinson added. “In this challenging economic environment, retailers remain committed to keeping costs low for consumers, including expanding value ranges and offering discounts to vulnerable groups. However, Government should ease the regulatory burdens that hinder industry investment into lower prices.”

“Shopper traffic counts in March saw an improvement on last year, which is no small feat given the backdrop of ongoing cost-of-living pressures, stubbornly high inflation and strike disruptions continuing to simmer away,” commented Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions. “Retail parks remained the outlier, with a slightly more suppressed recovery due to their tenant mix of predominantly furniture, kitchen and bed retail outlets, as shoppers expressed spending caution and held off purchasing big ticket items.”

“While the retail footfall recovery slowed marginally last month compared to pre-pandemic levels, we continue to see shopper numbers continue to normalise and the ebbs and flows in performance are becoming less pronounced,” Sumpter further said. “We also see, perhaps as a consequence of hybrid working becoming the norm, the significance of the weekend rising, leaving Friday and Monday trailing behind.”