Boxing Day fails

SHOPPERS STAY AWAY AMID COVID RISE High street retailers struggle as footfall drops but online sales soar

SCOTS shunned Boxing Day sales on the high street due to Omicron fears – but are spending more than ever shopping online instead.

The sales are traditionally the biggest shopping day of the year but research shows bargain hunters are staying home because of worries about Covid-19.

Numbers of in-person Boxing Day shoppers fell to almost half of prepandemic levels across Scotland, down 48.3 per cent.

Footfall at shopping sites across the whole of the UK on Boxing Day was 41 per cent below the 2019 level, data from industry analyst Springboard shows.

Stores are usually bustling with customers hunting for post-Christmas bargains but the footfall in high streets was 37.7 per cent lower than in 2019, while it dropped 48.4 per cent in shopping centres and 40.2 per cent in retail parks.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “A major reason for the significantly lower footfall compared with 2019 will be due to consumers’ ongoing nervousness about the Covid infection rate.

“This will have been compounded by the fact that a few multiple retailers opted not to open on Boxing Day which will have deterred some shoppers.

“In addition, Sunday generally has the lowest footfall on any day in the week, so a comparison with 2019 when Boxing Day fell on a Thursday will always have meant that footfall would be lower than two years ago.”

The number of in-person customers was 47.6 per cent above the 2020 level across all UK destinations, including 61.5 per cent in high streets, 57.6 per cent in shopping centres and 7.4 per cent in retail parks. However, shoppers are still planning on snapping up Boxing Day sale bargains but are increasingly looking online from the safety of their homes.

Research from credit card firm Barclaycard said the country would spend £1.4billion online and £2.5billion in shops.

The average shopper will splash out £247, up from £162 last year and £186 in 2019, before the pandemic hit.

Barclaycard said Boxing Day remains the most popular day to start sales shopping for almost four in 10 people (37 per cent), up on the 27 per cent who said the same in 2020.

Some bargain hunters admit they started browsing the sales on Christmas Eve (30 per cent), while 27 per cent will have spent some time shopping on Christmas Day.

Clothes, shoes and accessories (31 per cent), and food and drink (25 per cent), are at the top of shoppers’ sales lists this year.