Winter weather sees shoppers abandon the high street
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Monday 01 Feb 2021
(Sharecast News) - Winter weather kept shoppers away from UK high streets last week, industry data showed on Monday.
According to the latest data from retail consultancy Springboard, visitors to UK high streets eased by 2.0% week-on-week, or by 73.1% year-on-year.
Springboard attributed the decline to heavy rain and snow at the start and end of the week; between Monday and Friday, when the weather was better, footfall rose by an average of 4.9%.
Overall, footfall to all UK destinations nudged ahead by only 0.4% over the week. But while high streets saw shopper numbers fall, visits to retail parks and shopping centres increased, by 4.7% and 1.1% respectively. This was despite lockdown restrictions shutting non-essential shops.
Year-on-year, overall footfall across all destination types was down 65.2%.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: "Footfall across all UK retail destinations last week remained virtually level with the week before, although this was largely due to severe weather which hit the UK, particularly at the beginning and end of the week.
"At the end of what was the fifth week of the third lockdown, footfall was at a noticeably higher level than in the same week during the first lockdown, with the largest differential being in retail parks."
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