28 March 2024, 08:28
By Furniture News Feb 08, 2017

Store footfall bounces back in January

January provided a bright start to the year for UK shops, with footfall falling by just -1.4% compared to January last year.

The Retail Traffic Index (RTI), published by Ipsos Retail Performance, the global retail and footfall consultant, showed that after an unexpected downturn in non-food store footfall in December 2016, when footfall on the UK high street dropped -9.3% compared to the same period in 2015, January figures bounced back.

“The month began briskly for stores in the UK – a combination of shoppers scouring the shelves for final basement bargains and returning or exchanging Christmas gifts,” says Dr Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Ipsos Retail Performance.

Store footfall was +1.2% higher in the first week of the new year compared to the same week last year, which provided the first week of year-on-year footfall growth since October 2016.

“Thereafter, high streets calmed down but remained well in touch with last year’s footfall. This month’s small drop is still a strong outcome and shows that people are not ringing the changes to their everyday lives.”

Ipsos Retail Performance’s Retail Traffic Index (RTI) is derived from the number of individual shoppers entering over 4,000 non-food retail stores across the UK.

Regionally, Scotland & Northern Ireland saw a significant footfall boost of +6.8% and London & The South East also returned positive news with a +1.7% footfall increase.

Looking back on 2016, average weekly footfall ended up dropping -3.8% on the previous year, despite starting strongly. The forecast is for the decline to grow to -4.5% in 2017 before recovering to -2.7% in 2018.

Tim adds: “We are all aware of economic storms beginning to form both in the UK and across the world. As well as an uncertain future, inflation is now up to 1.6% and heavily eroding into wage rises. It is all too easy, though, to forget that the main ingredients for consumer spending are still largely intact.

“January’s RTI figures serve as a reminder that shopping conditions remain placid. We therefore don’t expect to see demand to take a rapid turn for the worse, nor for the rate of store footfall decline to steepen dramatically in the near future.”

Footfall change: January 2017 vs January 2016

  • Scotland & Northern Ireland +6.8%
  • North of England -2.3%
  • The Midlands -4.2%
  • South West England & Wales -5.7%
  • South East England & London +1.7%

Footfall change: January 2017 vs December 2016

  • Scotland & Northern Ireland -28.0%
  • North of England -37.5%
  • The Midlands -25.2%
  • South West England & Wales -29.4%
  • South East England & London -26.0%
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