Week two of store trading post-lockdown – what you need to know

Non-essential retailers reopened their doors in England and Northern Ireland on June 15, with Welsh stores joining them on June 22. Stores in Scotland reopened on June 29, marking the start of a return to some form of normality across the UK.

Footfall across the UK remains low year on year at -49.8% less than the same period last year, though this marks a continued improvement from the all-time low of -80% at the height of lockdown, according to the latest footfall figures from Springboard.

The gradual reopening of stores has meant an upward trend across all regions. Wales, in particular, saw a surge in footfall as stores reopened to the public last week.

However, footfall in Wales still remains low at -55.6% year on year, just 10 percentage points above Scotland where stores remained closed until this week.

Regional differences

Footfall across destinations in Wales saw the biggest jump, up 38% week on week. Shopping centres saw the biggest return, surging by 57.9% week-on-week according to the latest data from Springboard.

Meanwhile, shopping centres in Scotland and Northern Ireland also fared the best of the retail destinations, seeing 8.1% and 14.7% rises week on week respectively.

In England, footfall across all destinations inched up, but high streets led the way, up 9.5% week on week. Shopping centre footfall in England rose 5.6% week on week, whereas footfall at retail parks increased by just 1.4%.

This may be because retail parks have fared better throughout the pandemic due to the presence of supermarkets and other non-essential stores. Footfall at retail parks in England is down just 25.1% year on year compared with -58.0% and -50.2% on high streets and in shopping centres respectively.

High streets in countries other than England were less popular, with Northern Irish streets even seeing a drop of -0.3% week on week. High streets in Scotland saw a 1.1% rise in footfall week on week.

Welsh high street footfall rose 37.4% but this paled in comparison to the rise at shopping centres.

Looking forward

With two weeks of trading under their belts, England and Northern Ireland have seen 6.6% and 3.5% increases week on week as footfall continues to recover. As shops across the whole of the UK reopen, next week’s figures will be even more revealing.

Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said: “The second full week of retail trading in England and the first full week in Wales delivered a further increase in footfall across UK retail destinations last week. However, it was a far more modest uplift than the week before and still means that footfall remains at about half of that last year.

“In retail parks, which benefit from food and homeware stores, footfall has recovered to around three-quarters of last year’s volume, although with a wider choice of retail for consumers to choose from increases are now more incremental. With only a partial opening of stores in Scotland [on Monday], the next important signal of what the future holds for bricks-and-mortar retail will come from the opening of hospitality in England on July 4.”