Heavy rain waters down consumer enthusiasm as footfall slows
Footfall fell by 3.1 per cent last week across all UK destinations, as rain put off shoppers from heading outside.
The high street was the hardest hit area during the last week, with footfall falling 5.4 per cent, according to the latest data from Springboard.
In shopping centres and retail parks, where less time is spent outside and rain impacts trips to a lesser degree, footfall dropped by just 1.3 and 0.1 per cent respectively.
Over the four days from Sunday to Wednesday the number of punters out and about in all destinations declined by an average of 3.5 per cent, but on Thursday and Friday, when the rain hit the UK hard, footfall fell by a more severe 5.1 per cent.
Only on Saturday when the rain eased did footfall recover, with a rise of 1.1 per cent.
At its worst, footfall fell by 9.9 per cent on high streets badly hit by the rain, with London the worst area affected.
Footfall in central London fell 9.5 per cent in the rain, while footfall in Greater London dropped 10.1 per cent.
Measured against the same period in 2019, the number of shoppers was 22.8 per cent lower across all retail destinations.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said the news that Covid regulations would not be eased also appeared to have dampened consumer activity.
“For most of the UK rain dominated the last few days from Thursday onwards, which inevitably impacted high streets most heavily of the three destination types; here the drop in footfall between Thursday and Saturday was more than twice that between the previous days,” she added.