Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The hot and sunny weather had a ‘hugely positive’ result for retail destinations this weekend, with an increase in footfall of +6.5% on Good Friday, +1.2% on Easter Saturday and +8.4% by 12pm on Easter Monday, according to the latest statistics from Springboard.
The provider of retail intelligence said this performance ‘is a clear contrast to Easter 2018, when rain and wind battered the country, resulting in footfall declining by -2.4% on Good Friday, -3% on Easter Saturday and -9.8% by 12pm on Easter Monday’.
On Friday and Saturday, all of the rise was due to an increase in activity in high streets (rather than in shopping centres or retail parks), where footfall rose by +19.1% on Good Friday and +8.8% on Easter Saturday.
Springboard noted: ‘This is really positive news for high streets, as footfall declined by -9.6% and -6.9% on Easter Friday and Easter Saturday last year due to the weather. However, this year’s good weather didn’t bring good news for shopping centres and retail parks, where footfall declined on both days’. Footfall dropped in shopping centres by -11% on Good Friday and -11.8% on Easter Saturday.
Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle commented: “Consumers clearly wanted to be outside enjoying the sun rather than visiting covered malls. Even in retail parks, where shoppers gravitate to buy garden furniture and plants, footfall declined by -2.4% on Good Friday and -1.3% on Easter Saturday from the same days last year.”
She added: “On Easter Sunday, with all major stores closed, it was only high streets that were able to trade and, even without the pulling power of large retailers, the opportunity for consumers to enjoy the weather led to a rise in footfall of +16.5% from Easter Sunday 2018 (when footfall dropped by -1% up to 12pm and then rose marginally by +1.9% across the day as a whole).
“With continuing good weather on Easter Monday, by 12pm footfall in UK retail destinations was +8.4% higher than in 2018. Once again, it was high streets that benefitted, seeing a rise of +16.3% versus +1.9% in retail parks and a marginal drop of -1.4% in shopping centres.”
Springboard provides insights on bricks and mortar retail activity, forecasting footfall and delivering performance metrics across key retail destination types at national and regional levels. It tracks customers throughout the UK using automated technology, recording over 70 million footfall counts per week at 4,500 counting locations across 450 different shopping sites in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
