Summer holidays did not significantly boost footfall for retailers

The busy summer season attracts millions of visitors to the UK but did not provide a noticeable uplift in footfall from July to August.

New data from MRI Springboard show an uptick of just 0.2 percent in footfall across UK retail destinations.

High streets and shopping centres saw marginal increases of 0.7 percent, while the number of visits to retail parks declined by 1.5 percent.

Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at MRI Springboard, said: “Footfall performance in August points to a continuing weakening in consumer demand, which is unsurprising given the recent rises in interest rates and ongoing high levels of inflation.”

“Footfall across UK retail destinations rose by just 0.2 percent from July to August 2023. However, this was not a sufficiently large enough uplift to offset the month-on-month drop of 0.3 percent from June, which was the first month-on-month drop of footfall in July for 14 years.”

Furthermore, the penultimate week of the school summer break – ending with the last bank holiday of the summer – did not provide a significant boost for UK retail destinations. Over the seven days from Sunday to Saturday, footfall was flat from the week before, which was the sixth week out of the past eight with no week on week uplift.