The week of Black Friday combined with the recovery from Storm Bert provided UK retail destinations with a welcome boost in footfall.
New data from MRI Software revealed that while footfall levels remained modest mid-week, this soon lifted from Thursday onwards as shoppers prepared for the Black Friday sales.
All town types saw growth performance both year-on-year and week-on-week, with Central London and historic towns seeing particularly “strong” results. Regionally, the South West was the clear winner with footfall rising by almost a fifth week-on-week.
Footfall increased 13.6% in all UK retail destinations last week compared to the week before. This was driven by a surge in high street footfall (17%), followed by shopping centres and retail parks experiencing rises of 13.3% and 6.9%, respectively.
A strong start to the week saw footfall rise by an average of 16.1% in all UK retail destinations on Monday and Tuesday, which is likely to be a rebound from the week before.
The momentum continued as the week progressed with footfall levels rising significantly from Thursday onwards, which was likely due to consumers preparing to shop the Black Friday sales.
Footfall on Black Friday, compared to the previous year, surpassed levels by 3.4% in all UK retail destinations. This was helped by a boost in retail park and shopping centre activity, which increased 5.5% and 4.4%, respectively
Much of this rise occurred after 5pm, where footfall rose by an average of 7% in retail parks and 12.8% in shopping centres, suggesting many shoppers likely waited until after work to take advantage of the Black Friday sales.
The late-evening activity could also reflect the added appeal of the leisure and hospitality options available within these retail destinations.
High streets also witnessed an annual rise in footfall. This was much more modest at 1.9%. However, week-on-week activity was much stronger with activity levels up 16.8%.
Shopping centres also saw week-on-week activity rise 20.3%, whereas retail park activity rose by 7.2%.
“[The data] suggests that consumers are shaking off a challenging autumn/winter to make the most of the festive deals which will come as welcome news for retailers with less than four weeks until Christmas Day,” reads the report from MRI Software.
