“Although this is the most marginal improvement of any month in 2021, this result is more positive than it first appears. This month’s results go against the long-term footfall trend for September, which traditionally is a month in which footfall levels off or declines from the year before as schools go back and spending for the festive period is yet to start. The combination of employees returning to office working for at least part of the week, together with the beginnings of the return of overseas tourists, will add further support to footfall in retail stores and destinations as we near the Christmas trading period”, commented Diane Wehrle, Springboard Marketing and Insights Director.

Data from the retail specialist Springboard Research evidenced that the gap from 2019 had narrowed to -20.3% in September from -23.5% in August. It is believed that September benefitted from the bank holiday, which boosted high street.
 

Over the two weeks that covered the bank holiday weekend, high street footfall improved to -19.1% below 2019 versus -26.3% in the week before.

Footfall improved by 21.3% in high streets, 12% in shopping centres and 4.7% in retail parks, when compared to 2020. Narrowing the gap to 2019 was mainly the result of the performance in high streets and shopping centres; customer activity worsened only in retail parks.

Image credits: by Mitchell Luo on Unsplash