Retail footfall one-third lower than pre-Covid level despite shop re-openings
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Retail footfall in April was 240.8 per cent higher than the same month last year when the country was fully locked down, according to research company Springboard. Overall the high street footfall decline was 41.5 per cent in April compared to 2019, but retail parks proved to be more resilient, notching only a 7.4-per-cent drop in visits. “With the imminent opening of indoor hospitality in the next two weeks, we are anticipating that the gap between the level of footfall in 2019 and 2021 will narrow further, although the extent to which this occurs will be a function of the degree to which there is a return to office working, the growth in both domestic and overseas tourism in the UK and the impact on employment of the end of the furlough scheme in September.” The new data came a day after Debenhams, a casualty of lockdown’s impact on in-person shopping, revealed the date on which its last physical shops would close. The BBC reported NielsenIQ, a research firm, as saying that online sales growth had slowed to 25 per cent in April following a massive rise during lockdown, while visits to physical supermarkets rose by 3 per cent.
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