Pre-Christmas footfall set to rise, aided by Super Saturday boost

Christmas footfall declined 0.9% week-on-week in the seven days to December 14 and was down 5% year on year, according to Springboard.

This decline is a sharp contrast to the same week the previous year when footfall rose 3.4% week on week and was broadly flat year-on-year.

Springboard’s insights director Diane Wehrle said: “We are not surprised that footfall has not increased over the last week, as it follows a Black Friday success that confounded expectations. Consumers clearly took advantage of early discounts to purchase Christmas presents, and are now waiting for discounts to deepen once again in the days immediately before Christmas as retailers do their best to shift unsold stock.”

Against this backdrop, Springboard has forecasted that footfall will climb 5% week-on-week in the coming week, spurred by a 10% rise in footfall on Saturday, December 21. This anticipated increase on this peak day of trading is up 3% year-on-year.

Footfall for the week of trading overall is forecasted to edge down 0.9% year-on-year.

“Super Saturday is once again expected to be the peak Christmas trading day, although with Monday and Tuesday still offering consumers opportunities to purchase last-minute gifts, its success will be more muted than if Christmas were landing on Monday or Tuesday when purchasing opportunities post-Saturday would be more limited,” said Wehrle.