Footfall at the UK’s retail locations has improved but remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest data from BRC-Sensormatic IQ’s footfall monitor.
Total shopper visits declined by 18% in the four weeks ending 28 August, compared with the same month in 2019. However, it rose by 10 percentage points from July, above a 24.6% three-month average decline.
Retail parks stayed the most resilient out of all location types, with footfall falling by just 1.6% on 2019 levels. This was 13.4 percentage points above July’s rate and above a three-month average fall of 10%.
Shopping centre footfall dropped by 32.9% on pre-pandemic levels, 5.5 percentage points above last month’s rate and above a 36.6% average decrease over the past three months.
The number of visitors on the high street declined by 24.8% in August from its equivalent in 2019, 9.8 percentage points above last month’s rate and above a three-month average decline of 31%.
Geographically, Wales posted the shallowest footfall decline of all regions at -16.5%, followed by Northern Ireland at -16.6% and England at -17.9%. Scotland recorded the deepest decline at -21.2%.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of British Retail Consortium, said: “Following months of little improvement, August footfall was a tentative step in the right direction.
“There were minor improvements with the return of some workers to the office and domestic tourism through August, however overall footfall remained significantly down compared to the pre-pandemic peak.”
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, said: “Bolstered by staycationer shopper traffic and the back to school boost, August saw footfall recovering to its highest point compared to pre-pandemic levels so far this year.
“In every UK city we track – including London, which has sorely felt the impact of slow returning commuter trade in recent months – showed improved shopper counts, as vaccine confidence won out against the fears and spread of the Delta variant.”
Sumpter added that “shoring up supply chains to meet elevated levels of demand, and alternative delivery offers such as click-and-collect to “ease the burden” on digital fulfilment networks, will become “even more mission critical if recovery is set to continue”.
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