Westfield bucks trend with an increase in visitors over Christmas

Westfield has revealed that 14.1 million shoppers visited its Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City shopping centres over the Christmas period, an overall increase of 1 percent on 2016.

The shopping centres experienced three peak trading periods over the festive period, starting with Black Friday, which they state has been transformed from a one-day event to a three-day shopping weekend with more than 850,000 shoppers visiting Westfield centres for the first festive sale.

This was followed up by the last weekend before Christmas, dubbed ‘super weekend’, where retailers benefited from a full weekend of trading before Christmas Day welcoming more than 800,000 visitors across the two centres, which helped the pre-Christmas week trade to 1.85 million pounds.

The final milestone was on Boxing Day, where visitors topped 320,000, showing that the day still continues to be a big sales day in the British retail calendar.

Myf Ryan, chief marketing officer of Westfield UK and Europe, said: “Westfield continues to be a leading UK destination by offering the best mix of retail, dining, events, leisure and entertainment.

“Over the Christmas period, we offered many unique and immersive experiences to our customers. With over 70 million visitors coming to the centres each year, we are looking forward to creating even more exciting experiences and activities for our customers to enjoy in 2018.”

Westfield attracts more than 14 million shoppers over Christmas period

Ryan added: “Boxing Day is Westfield’s busiest day of the Christmas trading period. The significance of the Boxing Day sales has been questioned in recent years but the sheer volumes of shoppers in our centres today show there is a huge appetite from the British public to get out early and look for the very best Boxing Day.”

In 2016, Westfield welcomed 14 million visitors over the Christmas period, who spent on average 660,000 pounds per hour and generated half-a-billion pounds in total sales. Westfield expects to see similar numbers from 2017, currently tracking at an increase of 3.1 percent on last year for the Christmas trading period.

Westfield London houses more than 360 luxury, premium and high street fashion and beauty retailers, showcasing more than 750 brands, anchored by House of Fraser, Waitrose, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer and Next. While Westfield Stratford City is home to more than 330 stores and more than 80 dining options, anchored by leading UK retailers John Lewis, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.

Image: courtesy of Westfield