Shops high street

 

Retail footfall in the UK has suffered its sharpest decline since February 2014, new figures from the British Retail Consortium have revealed.

Retailers suffered a 2.8% year-on-year fall in footfall in June, with high streets particularly badly hit, the BRC’s footfall monitor showed.

All retail locations suffered a year-on-year fall in footfall - the first time this has happened since 2013. Footfall in high streets was down 3.7% on June 2015, while shopping centres recorded a 2.3% fall. Retail parks, typically the least affected by dwindling footfall, saw a 1% decline.

On a regional level, Wales was the only part of the UK to buck the trend, with a 0.9% rise in footfall. The sharpest declines were seen in the West Midlands, Greater London and Scotland.

The disappointing results were down to a number of factors, said Springboard, the retail intelligence company that conducts the research with the BRC. “The results are shaped by a political and economic storm against a backdrop of rain downpours and generally inclement weather throughout the whole month,” said Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle.

BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said events such as Euro 2016 and Wimbledon also meant shopping had “slipped down the priority list for many”.

But it was not all bad news, she said, as retail sales had increased by 0.5% over this period. And she stressed that Brexit need not result in a poor summer for retailers.

“Although there is a level of uncertainty, it is important that this doesn’t deter us from the shopping and leisure activities we all enjoy. The EU referendum will not have changed the in-store experience for customers and, crucially, the price of goods on the shelves,” she said.

“Now is a great time for shoppers as the summer sales begin in earnest following on from a record 38 months of falling shop prices.”