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UK footfall in May down 73.3 percent

By Danielle Wightman-Stone

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Retail

Footfall in May remains at an “unprecedented low”, with footfall down 73.3 percent compared to last year, due to the national coronavirus lockdown.

The figures for the four weeks covering May 3 to May 30 from Springboard show that footfall “improved marginally” from April, where it dropped to 80.1 percent as the first wave of lockdown restrictions were eased and some retailers reopened.

In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where restrictions were not relaxed, footfall was 75 percent lower than in May 2019, reflecting the more limited movement of consumers.

Retail parks fared best, with a 68.1 percent drop in footfall, supported by the presence of essential food stores and home stores which opened mid-month, while footfall in high streets declined by 78.2 percent and by 80.5 percent in shopping centres.

However, the sunny May weather combined with two bank holidays did ease the impact of lockdown. In the week leading up to each bank holiday footfall rose by an average of 12 percent compared with the previous week, compared with an increase of 5.5 percent in the other two weeks of the month.

Smaller high streets have been the “most resilient” explained Springboard, as consumers continued to stay local. Footfall in regional cities declining by 88.8 percent in May compared with 41.4 percent decline across the UK’s smallest high streets.

May footfall starts “long journey of recovery” with Springboard’s latest figures

Diane Wehrle, Springboard insights director, said in a statement: “The subject on everyone’s lips is what will the likely success be of the reopening of non-essential retail on June 15. The limited evidence so far has suggested that despite the growth in online shopping over the past two months, there is a huge amount of pent up demand amongst consumers for bricks and mortar shopping.

“The first indication of this were the monumental queues that built up at major home stores in the weekend before the official easing of lockdown restrictions in England on June 1; footfall strengthened noticeably in retail parks over the first few days of the week following this, with the decline averaging -42.9 percent versus -56.2 percent over the same days at the beginning of May.”

Wehrle, added: "Whilst retail parks are already seeing some recovery in footfall, this is certainly not the case for high streets and shopping centres, where the decline in footfall over the few days since June 1 still remains at more than -70.0 percent. Inevitably it has been smaller high streets that have been the most resilient as consumers stayed local, with footfall in UK regional cities declining by -88.8 percent in May compared with -41.4 percent across the smallest high streets.

“The key trend to be watched over the period of retail reopening in June, and over subsequent months, will be whether this signals the beginning of a new era for local high streets. Certainly, what is likely is that those destinations and retailers that are best able to manage customer numbers to ensure social distancing will be the most in-demand by consumers as safety during shopping is paramount.”

Image: FashionUnited

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