UK footfall figures declined by 6% for the first week of 2022, compared with the previous week, as working from home guidelines continue to take their toll.
The latest footfall figures from researcher Springboard showed that the drop occurred only in high streets (down 10.9%), while retail parks saw footfall increase by 2.9%.
The fall occurred in all types of high street in all parts of the UK, with the exception of outer London, where there was a marginal rise.
Said Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle:
“High streets bore the brunt of the drop in shopper activity, with the decline from the new year week more than twice that in shopping centres, although to some degree shopping centre footfall may have been insulated by the great Christmas present return.”
The Springboard High Street Index highlighted that footfall for Week 1 was down 30.9% on the same week in 2019, but up by 134.7% on 2020, when the impact of the December lockdown was beginning to make itself felt.
Looking the broader picture, Wehrle added: “This is a familiar result in the first week of the year – it has occurred every year since 2011 – and the magnitude of the drop in footfall last week was almost identical to that in the same week in 2019 and slightly lower than in the same week in 2020.”