High Street footfall suffers against out-of-town shopping
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Footfall on Britain’s high streets has declined yet further thanks to the rising popularity of out-of-town shopping complexes, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The BRC/Springboard Footfall and Vacancies Monitor found that town centre shopping malls reported the largest decline in footfall, falling 2.8% compared with the same time last year, while high streets experienced a 1.6% decline in footfall.
Overall, there was a 1.2% decline in footfall in January this year when compared to January 2014, up from a smaller 0.7% fall in December.
Despite this, footfall in out-of-town locations saw an increase of 1.5% year-on-year.
Five regions in the England reported footfall above the UK average including the East (1.2%), South East (1%), Greater London (-0.7%), West Midlands (-0.7%) and North & Yorkshire (0.9%).
Wales reported the greatest fall in regional footfall, down 4.6% year-on-year, while Scotland reported its first decline in footfall since June 2014, down 3%.
Helen Dickinson, director general at the BRC, said: “January is traditionally strong for online sales and this year was no exception. This has undoubtedly impacted on footfall for high streets and shopping centres and is further evidence of the impact of our changing shopping habits.
“Retailers will be looking closely at these figures to help them harness the growth of e-retailing to drive consumers to their bricks and mortar stores. Click-and-collect services are an excellent example of how this is happening right now and innovations in this area are set to continue for some time to come.”
The monitor also found that the national town centre vacancy rate in the UK was 10.4% in January 2015, an increase from October’s rate of 10.3%.
Five regions of England had a vacancy rate lower than the UK average – the East (6.8%), Greater London (7.1%), the South East (8.9%), East Midlands (9.6%) and the South West (9.9%). Scotland and Wales reported a rise in vacancy rates to 9.7% and 15.5% respectively.
