Shoppers shun high street Christmas Sales despite 'Take back Tuesday' uplift

The number of shoppers heading to the high street after Christmas fell 3% against “strong” comparatives from last year, when the number of consumers hitting the high street jumped 6.2%. 

However, there were peaks of strong uplift in traffic for the high street, according to footfall specialists Springboard.

December 29, which has been labelled ‘Take back Tuesday’, reported a 5.1% increase in shopper numbers on the high street. Footfall in the town centre locations also rose 9.7% on January 2, but traffic fell 2.6% on New Year’s Day.

It was a different story for out-of-town retail parks, which reported a 3.6% uplift in shopper numbers during the period from December 29 to January 2. Shopping centres recorded a footfall rise of 1.8%.

In contrast to the high street’s News Year’s Day slowdown, shopper numbers soared 9.2% at shopping centres and 7.8% at retail parks on January 1. 

Overall footfall during the period was down 0.3%, despite a 2.7% uplift on New Year’s Day.

Springboard insights and marketing director Diane Wehrle said: “Building on strong footfall experienced by high streets this time last year was always going to be a challenge for high streets, and these figures show there a job to be done in 2016 in order for a positive uplift to be realised.”