UK retail footfall falls in February; woes continue for retailers

There seems to be no respite for the high street retailers or those in retail parks, as retail footfall continues to fall.

Retail footfall across the UK slumped by 73.5 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) in February – all thanks to lockdown imposed all across the country.

According to British Retail Consortium (BRC), the fall of 73.5 per cent is just a marginal increase of 3.4 percentage point from what it was in January. Importantly, BRC says it’s the largest footfall drop in the country since May last year, when the slump was 81 per cent.

Footfall on the high street fell by 68.3 per cent Y-o-Y and is worse than 3-month and 12-month average fall of 60.6 per cent and 55.7 per cent, respectively.

Shopping centres too suffered big! The fall was 75 per cent Y-o-Y majorly owing to huge presence of non-essential retailers that includes lots of apparel and fashion retailers.

Retail parks witnessed a footfall slump of 34.5 per cent, better than that on high street and shopping centres.

Amongst the regions, Wales, which had only few days back extended its lockdown, saw a huge footfall decline of 75.4 per cent during the month.

Also Read: Wales’ lockdown extended for another 3 weeks

Northern Ireland and Scotland too saw a drop of 65.6 per cent and 69.2 per cent, respectively.

Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive, BRC, says that unless stores are allowed to reopen in April, difficult times will continue for retailers across the UK.