Cold weather keeps Christmas shoppers at home

With just one week to go until Christmas, UK consumers largely shopped from home last week as cold weather and retail strikes severely hit high street retailers.

Pre-Christmas footfall plummeted 10.2 percent according to the latest figures from Springboard, and down 20.1 percent compared to 2019.

Shopping centres saw a slight increase of 1.6 percent compared to the previous week, where customer car parks bypassed public transport disruption. The high street saw 15.7 less shoppers, with Central London taking a massive hit, down 31 percent lower than the week before.

Despite it usually being a peak trading week for retailers pre-Christmas, a sharp decline in visitors and shoppers was inevitable.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, comments: “Last week - the week prior to Christmas - should have been a peak trading week for retail destinations and stores, with footfall expected to rise from the week before as Christmas shopping moves towards its zenith. Instead, footfall across UK retail destinations took a tumble last week. Whilst the cold weather prevailed, which would undoubtedly have had some impact, the contrast with the results for the week before clearly demonstrate that it was the rail strikes that were the key impact on footfall.