Christmas shopping: UK high street benefits from rise in customer numbers at start of Christmas shopping season

The UK high street benefited from a slight rise in footfall last month as retailers started selling their Christmas ranges.

Footfall rose by 0.2 per cent in November, according to data from Springboard. This was a significant improvement on last year, when footfall fell by one per cent year-on-year.

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However, Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said the slight rise in footfall “should be taken with a pinch of salt” and didn’t necessarily suggest a change in fortunes for retailers.

She said there was evidence that much of the rise in footfall was due to an increase in leisure spending; during retail trading hours, customer numbers were down 0.3 per cent. However, after 5pm, footfall climbed 1.7 per cent across all retail destinations.

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“November was characterised by significant discounting with flash sales of up to 50 per cent off, which culminated in the Black Friday period at the end of the month,” Wehrle said.

“Whilst Black Friday was largely an online event, the rise in footfall of 3.3 per cent from the first half of the month to the second half demonstrated that it drove activity into retail destinations, both in the lead up to it the day itself and over the weekend post Black Friday as shoppers collected online purchases.”

In London, customer numbers fell by 0.1 per cent; the fifth month in a row of falling footfall. However, it was an improvement on November last year, when retailers faced a fall of 0.8 per cent.