According to the British Retail Consortium, the exception of out-of-town locations, retail venues of all types in the U.K. suffered drops in footfall this August compared to August 2013. The BRC/Springboard Footfall Monitor found that footfall fell 1.1 percent y-o-y in August, and that it fell 0.6 percent compared to July. Most worrying were the high street figures, which showed a 2.8 percent decline from a year ago.
“Footfall might be down slightly this month but retail sales performed well in August,” said Helen Dickinson, British Retail Consortium Director General. “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.” She added that retail parks had done well in connection with the improving housing market, as they typically include furniture retailers.
