City centre is bouncing back!
New figures place Stoke-on-trent eighth in an index showing retail footfall since start of pandemic
STOKE-ON-TRENT has been named in the top 10 ‘bounce back’ cities for retail recovery across the country.
New figures from the Ipsos Retail Recovery index place the city eighth, when footfall is compared to the same period two years ago.
While that figure is still 15.9 per cent lower than in 2019, it is much higher last year, with national footfall down 25 per cent in 2020.
The index praised the city’s ‘impressive retail bounce back’, as the rise in shoppers returning to the high streets has not been experienced nationwide.
Areas of central London, for example, are still down 50 per cent.
At the other end of the scale, Harrogate in Yorkshire beat off competition from Harrow, Coventry and Newcastle upon Tyne to take top spot, with consumers generally continuing to shop locally rather than visiting larger cities.
And Stoke-on-trent Business Improvement District (BID) expects footfall to improve even further as we head into the busy festive period.
Paul Williams, BID board member and lead director for place marketing, said: “These latest retail recovery figures are another encouraging sign that shoppers and other consumers are once again visiting the retail and hospitality businesses in the city centre rather than travel to nearby destinations.
“While the bounce-back footfall figures represent growing consumer confidence they also suggest that people are keen to demonstrate their loyalty and appreciation of the significant work that the BID and local businesses have
done to ensure the city centre is a safe, welcoming place with a varied offer.
“I expect this impressive level of performance to continue as we enter the busy festive period.
“With an exciting programme of Christmas events and activities throughout advent, I am optimistic that we’ll see further sustained
growth in footfall, dwell time and in-store spending return to precovid levels. Oliver Hillier, senior retail analyst at Ipsos, said that after a challenging period of lockdown, it was encouraging to see that shoppers are keen to return to the high streets.
He added: “Over the festive period we expect to see this situation improve with leisure and hospitality venues opening. Our Retail Recovery Index paints a positive picture for most locations as we head towards the golden quarter and the continued success of smaller cities and large towns suggests that many shoppers continued to visit stores close to their homes.”