Springboard predicts Easter footfall to increase

Retail experts Springboard are predicting that retail footfall will bounce back from the 2018 decline to be 2.1 percent higher in comparison to last year’s results when it dropped by 3.3 percent.

It is expecting the high street to have the greatest rise in footfall, increasing by 4.1 percent in comparison to a decline of 7.1 percent from Easter 2017, with retail parks rising by 1.7 percent while shopping centres are forecast to drop by 1.9 percent.

In 2018, the ‘Beast from the East’ caused retail footfall to drop, particularly in high streets where footfall declined by -7.5 percent over the weekend as a whole, with drops in excess of -6 percent every day. In addition, Easter last year was at the end of the month, while this year Easter falls three weeks later, in the middle of the month, which provides “more spending leeway” for consumers.

Springboard insights director, Diane Wehrle said in a statemet: “Despite the forecast degree of uplift in footfall, this is constrained due to subdued consumer spending that currently prevails, therefore the forecast increase of +2.1 percent does not wholly make up for the drop of -3.3 percent last Easter.

“With today’s ongoing demand for experience over transaction based trips, many shopping centres are unable to satisfy the needs of their consumers due to a poorer hospitality offer than in high streets.”