Retail footfall one-third lower than pre-Covid level despite shop re-openings

Visits to UK outlets rose dramatically in April as coronavirus restrictions had been lifted, however stayed properly under ranges seen earlier than the pandemic, new information exhibits.

Retail footfall in April was 240.8 per cent increased than the identical month final 12 months when the nation was absolutely locked down, in keeping with analysis firm Springboard. Nonetheless, the brand new determine was nonetheless practically one-third (32.7 per cent) under April 2019’s ranges.

A sluggish begin to April 2021 improved for retailers as soon as non-essential outlets and outside hospitality venues had been allowed to open, Springboard discovered. The agency expects additional restoration from mid-Might when indoor socialising is permitted.

Within the first week of April, UK excessive streets reported a 65.1-per-cent slide in footfall in opposition to the identical interval for 2019, which recovered to a decline of 32.3 per cent for the second, third and fourth weeks.

Total the excessive avenue footfall decline was 41.5 per cent in April in comparison with 2019, however retail parks proved to be extra resilient, notching solely a 7.4-per-cent drop in visits.

Springboard’s advertising and marketing and insights director, Diane Wehrle, mentioned: “The outcomes for the month mirror our predictions for a considerable increase to footfall following retail reopening and is proof of great pent-up shopper demand for bricks-and-mortar shops.

“This pent-up demand can be mirrored within the UK retailer emptiness price which strengthened in April to 11.5 per cent from 11.7 per cent in January.

“Not less than a part of that is prone to be as a result of growing emergence of pop-up shops and the pattern for digital manufacturers to deliver their manufacturers to life by way of bodily house.

“With the approaching opening of indoor hospitality within the subsequent two weeks, we’re anticipating that the hole between the extent of footfall in 2019 and 2021 will slender additional, though the extent to which this happens will likely be a operate of the diploma to which there’s a return to workplace working, the expansion in each home and abroad tourism within the UK and the affect on employment of the tip of the furlough scheme in September.”

The brand new information got here a day after Debenhams, a casualty of lockdown’s affect on in-person purchasing, revealed the date on which its final bodily outlets would shut.

The chain’s remaining websites will shut for good on Saturday 15 Might, following its collapse into administration on the finish of 2020.

In the meantime, consumers are reportedly turning into extra assured about returning to supermarkets as an alternative of counting on web deliveries.

The BBC reported NielsenIQ, a analysis agency, as saying that on-line gross sales progress had slowed to 25 per cent in April following a large rise throughout lockdown, whereas visits to bodily supermarkets rose by 3 per cent.

“Whereas on-line gross sales stay excessive, we’re noticing a rebalancing of customer baskets as shoppers unfold their spend past the lockdown staples,” NielsenIQ’s Mike Watkins mentioned.

Extra reporting by Press Affiliation