Footfall in August was 1.1% down on a year ago, down on the 0.6% fall in July and below the three-month average of a 0.8% decline, reports the latest British Retail Consortium-Springboard Footfall Monitor.
Out-of-town destinations reported the only rise – 2.9% higher than a year ago – while footfall in shopping centres was down 1.1% on the previous year.
Footfall on the high street was 2.8% down on the previous year for August.
All regions and countries with the exception of South East (1.2%) East Midlands (0.5%), Northern Ireland (4.2%) and Scotland (1.8%) reported declining footfall.
"The strong sales performance of furniture retailers, who for reasons of space tend to be located on retail parks, seems to have given a boost to the footfall figures in out-of-town locations"
Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium director general, comments: “Footfall might be down slightly this month but retail sales performed well in August. Taking account of the impact of online shopping we see that customers are spending more per trip than in recent months. It seems that customers are hitting the high streets with purpose – knowing what they want to buy ahead of time, supported by online research – and doing more shopping in a single trip.
"Out-of-town performed better than high streets. The strong sales performance of furniture retailers, who for reasons of space tend to be located on retail parks, seems to have given a boost to the footfall figures in out-of-town locations. This is no doubt driven by increasing optimism in the housing market and customers having more confidence to spend on increasingly bigger-ticket items.
"All this is yet more evidence that the way we shop is fundamentally changing as retailers continue to adapt to changes in shopping habits. The lines between bricks-and-mortar stores and digital interactions are less defined and more seamless as retailers continue to innovate in order to meet and exceed the needs of their customers. We will continue to see the whole customer experience becoming more and more important in the use of physical space.”
Diane Wehrle, retail insights director at Springboard, says: "The drop in footfall in August in high streets and shopping centres – which has occurred in all but one month this year - underlines further that it is these locations that are vulnerable to the adverse effect of change that is occurring across our retail landscape as a consequence of online shopping. The good news is that while footfall dropped, sales rose in August, primarily driven by clothing and footwear - traditionally town centre-focused purchases - indicating that at least in part the drop in footfall will have been offset by increased dwell time and transaction values. At the same time, however, out-of-town footfall has increased for the eighth consecutive month, with an average rise in 2014 of 3.2% compared with a drop of 1.5% in high streets and 0.7% in shopping centres.
"In part the success of out-of-town locations this year is undoubtedly due to the increased demand for household items driven by the rise in house prices, however, they are also delivering an increasingly attractive wider leisure-based offer with plentiful free car parking in a safe environment. Whilst high streets and shopping centres are working hard to both retain and to win back customers, if they are to prosper over the critical Christmas trading period in the face of strong out-of-town competition, it requires the speedy alleviation of obvious barriers to shoppers such as high parking costs."
