High street footfall surges 51 percent as stores reopen

Footfall in retail destinations in England increased by 41.7 percent up to 12pm Monday as non-essential stores reopened for the first time in three months, new data from retail experts Springboard reveals.

The greatest increase was observed in high streets which saw a 51.7 percent jump in comparison to last week, while footfall in shopping centres was up 37 percent.

But those figures were still down compared to the same day last year, with a 34.2 year-on-year drop across all retail destinations and a 41.2 percent year-on-year drop across high streets.

Shoppers are understandably cautious about returning to stores. A study by Springboard and AL Marketing found that observing social distancing (29 percent), limiting the number of people in stores (26 percent), and the availability of hand sanitisers (22 percent) are the main safety factors shoppers want to see in-store.

“Footfall in retail parks that are dominated by high street retailers (UK Retail Parks – high street retailers) has risen by 41.7 percent in England, but by only 25.1 percent on England's retail parks as a whole; demonstrating that shoppers have switched from homeware stores and food stores to locations with high street retailers such as Marks & Spencer and Next,” said insights director at Springboard, Diane Wehrle, in a statement.

“Some of the uplift in footfall is a consequence of a drop in footfall last Monday from the Monday before, but nevertheless the rise is significant; and we must remember that these results are only for the period up to 12pm. Footfall is likely to increase further by early afternoon as people come out later in the day and during their lunch hours.”

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