High street footfall up for sixth consecutive month
THE number of people visiting high streets and retail parks rose again last month despite concerns that rising inflation and low real wage growth will stifle consumer spending.
Overall footfall grew in Wales by 1.7%, the third fastest rate of the UK nations and regions, and the sixth consecutive month of footfall growth.
Footfall has now grown in nine of the past 12 months.
The increase is one percentage point lower than the three-month average of 2.7%, which reflects the strength of footfall growth in Wales so far in 2017. It was above the 12-month average of 1.5%.
Footfall on the high street in Wales has now grown for six consecutive months, and for five consecutive months in retail parks. The growth was 2.1% on high streets and 3.8% in retail parks. In shopping centres footfall fell by 0.8%.
Sara Jones, head of policy and external affairs at the Welsh Retail Consortium, said: “It was another successful month in terms of visitor numbers to Welsh high streets, resulting in sixth months of continuous growth in footfall.
“These positive figures complement the retail sales growth which also increased by 1.2% on a like-forlike basis from June 2016.
“Whilst this data might paint a rosy picture there’s a question mark over whether this footfall momentum will last, as household expenditure is increasingly squeezed from rising inflation and slowing wage growth.
“The reality is that retailers’ efforts in absorbing mounting cost pressures into their margins are already being tested, and we continue to press the case in Wales for increased recognition of an industry that employs almost 140,000.
“The Welsh Government has this month launched a debate on how new tax powers might be introduced, and we’d strongly urge caution on introducing any additional burdens on households or on retailers at a time when our industry is undergoing such fundamental change.
“The focus instead should be on reforming business rates, already under the control of ministers, to recast business rates for the decade ahead and ensure it better reflects economic and trading conditions.”
Diane Wehrle, Springboard Marketing and Insights director, added: “The rise in Wales’ footfall of 1.7% in June was greater than the 0.8% across the UK, and tells a different story to some of the sales statistics we are seeing, with the Springboard Sales Tracker recording drops in sales in department stores of 1.6% and of 2.3% in fashion stores.
“However, sales do present a very varied picture, dependent on the breadth of the measure used and inflationary pressures which push sales values up.
“The uplift in June was the sixth consecutive month of footfall increases in Wales, and brings the year to date result to 2.4% compared with a drop of 0.9% over the same six months in 2016.
“The driver of this change has been an improvement in both high street and shopping centre footfall, both moving from negative to positive positions between January and June in 2017 from 2016.
“In recent months, we have seen rising footfall in the hours after 5pm, illustrating the growing trend towards leisure trips after retail trading hours, demonstrated by the rise in hospitality sales of 0.3% in June.
“However, the better weather also supported the increase in footfall during daytime hours in June and encourages consumers to visit bricks and mortar destinations, particularly external environments such as high streets and retail parks which recorded stronger results in Wales than shopping centres.”