April rise in shopping footfall seen

APRIL saw another encouraging improvement in UK shopper footfall as the spring sunshine and Easter festivities brought consumers back to stores.

Total UK footfall was down 13.1% last month on pre-pandemic April 2019, a 2.3 percentage point improvement from March, according to BRC-Sensormatic IQ data.

Footfall on high streets was down 17.2%, 0.6 percentage points better than March, while retail parks and shopping centres were 3.3 and 8.2 percentage points higher respectively.

British Retail Consortium chief executive Helen Dickinson said: “After a slow start for footfall in April, as the weather improved, customers were more inclined to visit their favourite shopping destinations.

“Retail parks and shopping centres experienced the biggest improvement to footfall, as the public visited locations with the largest mix of shops to scope out the best deals.”

Meanwhile, accountancy firm BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker found the retail sector’s strong start to 2022 has started to falter, with like-for-like sales growth significantly slowing in the second half of April. BDO’s Sophie Michael said: “Consumer confidence is lower than at any point since 2008 or so.”