Total UK footfall increased by 3.7 per cent in November, with high streets faring particularly well seeing an eight per cent jump. This is compared to 2021 data.
Shopping centres also saw more people last month (an increase of seven per cent), while retail parks decreased by four per cent.
The latest BRC-Sensormatic IQ Footfall Monitor covers the four weeks 30 October to 26 November 2022 and is now measured against 2021.
This comes after the BRC’s equally positive news earlier this week that total UK retail sales increased by 4.2 per cent in the same period last month, and like-for-like sales jumped by 4.1 per cent.
However, still comparing against pre-pandemic data, the report showed that total UK footfall dropped by 13 per cent against 2019, with shopping centre figures the worst recorded at -23.2 per cent.
“The figures are positive,” the report said, “as, while retail remains below its pre-pandemic levels, it has continued to improve over the past year.”
The BRC will return to providing year-on-year comparisons in January, as well as pre-pandemic numbers “for continuity”, it said.
Again compared against 2019, the North East of England saw the sharpest decline in footfall last month (-18.8 per cent), South West England was in the middle (-15.7 per cent) and Norther Ireland only saw a small decline of just seven per cent.
Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said that many big cities were “particularly hard hit”, with Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester all seeing the biggest drops in footfall since January.
Andy Sumpter, Retail Consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, added: “While train strikes did spell disruption to many, concerns that the untested format of a ‘Christmas World Cup’ could take the shine off retailers’ Black Friday efforts proved unfounded, with the results in-store bettering the results on the field for England and Wales.
“With footfall on Black Friday surpassing 2021 levels, retailers will be hoping this signposts a resilience in consumer demand, even in the context of the rising cost-of-living, as they head into the critical December Christmas trading period.”
