UK shoppers continue to visit out-of-town locations over high streets

Retail footfall continues to drop across the UK, as data from the BRC/Springboard

footfall monitor shows that overall footfall across the UK dropped by 0.7 percent year-on-year in June.

This decline comes after the 0.2 percent dip in May and is below the three-month average of a 0.3 percent drop. Once more, UK's high street were the worst hit retail locations, with a 1.7 percent decline year-on-year, followed by a 1.2 percent decline in shopping centers.

However, out-of-town retail parks and locations saw a 2.4 percent increase on last year in June, which highlights the growing changing in UK consumer shopping habits.

“At first glance, this month’s figures don’t paint a rosy picture for the retail industry with the headline figure showing footfall shrinking once again,” commented Helen Dickinson, director general at British Retail Consortium (BRC).

“However, out-of-town shopping destinations continue to outperform high streets and shopping centres, reinforcing the fact that shopping is something we increasingly do as a leisure activity and that well managed ‘destinations’, whether in or out of town, still have the power to pull in the shopping public.”

Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, add: “June is the sixth month in a row in which activity in retail and shopping parks has increased, and so it appears that the trend for consumers to favour out of town locations over urban shopping environments has established itself as a key feature of 2014.”

“As importantly, the difference in performance is not isolated to a single region but widespread. In virtually all parts of the UK footfall in out of town locations has increased in every month this year, whilst in nearly all regions of the UK high streets and shopping centres have recorded footfall decreases in every month of 2014."

One region in particular stood out among the rest within the UK. Retail footfall in Northern Ireland increased 11.8 percent last month, surpassing footfall numbers in Scotland and Wales, which dropped 0.6 percent and 1.4 percent year-on-year respectively.