Shopping centre footfall increases for first time in three years

Customer traffic to shopping centres edged up 0.2% last month, marking the first increase since March 2017. It was also only the third month in the last four years that footfall has grown, according to data from Springboard.

Retail parks also registered an uptick in shopper numbers during January, growing 1.4%, but high streets suffered a 1.8% decline.

That meant footfall overall was down 0.5%, despite the positive figures delivered by shopping centres and retail parks.

The shop vacancy rate in town centres dropped to 9.8% – its lowest level for a year.

Springboard hailed signs of “some stability” for bricks-and-mortar businesses and said the figures brought “some much-needed hope” for shopping centres, which have consistently suffered falling footfall during the past two years.

Springboard marketing and insights director Diane Wehrle said: “It seems that this is an early sign that the regeneration schemes long planned by owners to broaden the offer of malls to incorporate a greater experiential element, particularly in the larger malls, are working and they now better reflect consumers’ demands.

“It is likely that this is part of the reason why footfall in high streets declined by 1.8% in January, as consumers were attracted back into shopping centres.”

Wehrle added: “This result reinforces the benefit of a single ownership structure and also demonstrates the realisation that the old format of 100% retail is no longer relevant.

“While the gestation period for shopping centre investment may be a long one, once the chess pieces are finally in place a single owner is often more readily able to deliver meaningful change than a high street, which can be weighed down by a multiplicity of owners, all of whom have varying objectives and aspirations for their particular asset.”