Christmas footfall fell as Black Friday bought trading forward

Overall retail footfall fell 2.5% in December year on year, after Black Friday brought traditional festive trading forward leading to a “noticeable decline over the two weeks leading up to Christmas”, according to data company Springboard.

Springboard said the 2.5% drop was at the “upper end of the scale of decline” for December and noted that footfall had declined in the month in all but one year since 2009.

Springboard also said the footfall result “reflects the caution and spending restraint of consumers”, which typifies the sort of low confidence among shoppers that has marked much of the last three years.

High street footfall fell 3.5%, following from the 2.1% decrease in the previous month.

Retail park footfall fell 0.5%, while shopping centre footfall fell 2.1%.

Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle said: “The 2.5% drop in footfall across UK retail destinations during December was not a surprise as footfall has declined in December in all but one year since 2009.

“The challenge for destinations and stores was not only that this was the eighth consecutive year that footfall has decreased in this key trading month, but that it was also at the upper end of the scale in terms of the magnitude of the decline.

“All of this was despite the occurrence of Black Friday during the December trading month, which, in conjunction with Cyber Monday, helped to increase footfall in the first two weeks by 0.1%.

“Essentially this discounting bonanza pulled Christmas trading forward, demonstrated by a drop in footfall of 6.1% over the third and fourth weeks of December, which was nearly three times as large as the 2.2% drop in the same weeks in 2018.”