‘Drab December’ caps another year of declining footfall on UK high street
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Visitor numbers at retail sites down 2.2% compared with 2023, raising fears of disappointing Christmas sales. High streets and other shopping destinations have had a “drab December”, ending another year of falling visitor numbers and raising fears of disappointing sales in the most important month for retailers.
Attendance at UK shopping centres, retail parks and high streets was down 2.2% in December compared with the same period in 2023, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and analysts at Sensormatic. The decrease was led by a 3.3% decline at shopping centres.
While footfall is no longer a clear guide to potential sales because of the increase in online shopping, the figures will add to anxieties about how retailers performed in the run-up to Christmas. A swathe of industry trading statements revealing how the crucial period went starts on Tuesday with figures from the clothing and homewares chain Next, which is expected to have gained market share.
Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Marks & Spencer are also likely to have done well, but some clothing and footwear specialists are expected to have struggled, with Quiz and Shoe Zone both issuing profit warnings before Christmas. Some food businesses, including Morrisons and Asda, are also thought to have faced difficulties amid some operational problems and heavy competition with some discounting of festive vegetables to as little as 8p a bag.
Lidl’s UK arm was the first retailer to reveal festive trading figures on Thursday, flagging a 7% rise in sales in the four weeks to Christmas Eve. However, Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, said the discount supermarket chain had added 3% more space during the year so that underlying growth was likely to have been less than 4%. UK food inflation is running at about 2%.
