Heavy rain drives shoppers off high streets over Easter

Footfall on high streets slumped by 9.6% year on year on Good Friday. On Saturday it fell 6.9% and, after a 1.9% uptick on Sunday, shopper numbers declined 6.4% on Easter Monday.

Visits to out-of-town shopping locations rose 5% year on year on Good Friday and Saturday. However, both suffered a fall in visitor traffic on Easter Sunday and Monday, Springboard data showed.

The poor high street performance meant that the number of visits to all types of stores fell 2.4% on Good Friday and 3% on Saturday.

Springboard insights director Diane Wehrle said: “Notwithstanding the rain impacting high street footfall, the results for shopping centres and retail parks will be a fillip for multiple retailers following the recent tough trading conditions.

“In overall terms, however, footfall is still down compared with Easter last year. Easter footfall also declined in the previous two years, so it is clear that Easter is becoming less important as a key retail trading period.”

Shopper traffic to retail parks and shopping centres is likely to have been helped by widespread discounting after a challenging quarter for many retailers, during which big names such as Toys R Us have collapsed.