Footfall on the High Street Holds Steady despite Negative News from the Retailers

Dec. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- The result, reported by Springboard’s National High Street Index, found that three out of four weeks in November actually experienced positive footfall on the high street and that it was week 3’s result of -2.5% which pulled the overall figure into a negative.
November also saw a -1.1% drop in footfall when compared with the previous month; a drop which is typical due to the increase in visitors to the high streets during the  half-term break in October.

   Year on Year   Week on Week
Week 45, 2011   0.5%   -8.4%
Week 46, 2011   2.4%   0.0%
Week 47, 2011   -2.5%   1.3%
Week 48, 2011   0.3%   3.7%
      
      
      
Diane Wehrle, Research Director at Springboard, says, “Footfall on the high streets held steady throughout November – a drop of -0.7% is a much softer decline than the rest of 2011. Historically, the third week of November is a struggle for retailers its one week prior to the last pay day before Christmas and families are often anticipating feeling the financial strain and avoiding the shops.”
From a regional perspective, it was shoppers in Wales, Ireland and the East Midlands who were out in force – up +12.5%, +6.3% and +3.7% respectively. However, large decreases felt by high streets in Scotland (-14.8%) the East of England (-11%) and the West Midlands (-3.3%) meant a positive result was just out of reach.
While unseasonal weather has caused a delayed reaction to festive ranges in the shops, Springboard, which monitors over 85 high streets in the UK, claims the results show that shoppers are out there, despite failing to buy.
Wehrle continues, “While Springboard figures show the high street is managing to maintain shoppers, the challenge is getting them to spend. Many people spent November window-shopping and comparing prices ahead of the Christmas shop. With so many retailers slashing their prices, consumers are reluctant to give in too early and are holding out for bigger discounts.”
   Year on Year   Month on Month
East   -11.0%   0.7%
East Midlands   3.7%   -0.5%
Greater London   -2.0%   -6.6%
Ireland   6.3%   12.0%
North & Yorkshire   4.1%   7.7%
Scotland   -14.8%   -1.8%
South East   5.1%   -1.4%
South West   -5.5%   -1.8%
Wales   12.5%   3.7%
West Midlands   -3.3%   4.2%
   

Steve Booth, CEO of Springboard, says, “We must acknowledge that high streets were severely hit by snow last November, but considering the wealth of doom and gloom reported by retailers at the minute it’s very positive to see that footfall is not continuing to slide in such dramatic proportions as previously reported.
“December’s footfall results will be a true test to the health of UK retail and it will be interesting to see whether the delayed but sudden drop in temperatures leads to a flurry of shoppers heading to the high streets.”
For a breakdown of footfall according to city/town please get in touch.
-ENDS-

For further information please contact Cat O’Donnell at Rain Communications:
0207 828 0118 / 07763 630 929
cat@raincommunications.co.uk
OR
Oonagh Spence at Rain Communications:
0207 828 0118 / 07809 603 166
Oonagh.spence@raincommunications.co.uk

Notes to Eds:
Springboard is the leading provider of automated footfall monitoring services for entire range of customer generating environments including the UK’s high streets, retail parks and shopping centres. Springboard’s data tracker gathers footfall counts continuously, 24 hours a day, across 85 UK towns and cities with 24,888 hourly counts a day, 174,216 a week and 696,864 a month. Springboard’s National High Street Index, published in collaboration with the Association of Town Centre Management, provides the only available measure of town centre performance. More information about the ATCM can be found at www.atcm.org