Warning sign for retailers following shock drop in footfall on New Year’s Eve

Stats show

According to the latest data from retail experts Springboard footfall dropped significantly on New Year’s Eve across the UK, declining by -10.5 per cent over the 24 hours and by -7.2 per cent between 7pm and midnight. This poor performance follows drops in footfall on Boxing Day (-4.5 per cent) but then also post Boxing Day, with a drop in footfall of -2.3 per cent over the period from 27th December to 30th December. Over this four day period post Boxing Day, retail parks remained the most resilient with footfall declining by -1.7 per cent against drops of -1.9 per cent in high streets and -3.8 per cent in shopping centres.

Footfall recovered on New Year’s Day, rising by +16.8 per cent from New Year’s Day last year; however, at least part of this uplift will have been due to the fact that it fell on Monday this year. And despite this noticeable uplift in footfall from last year, the rise of +16.8 per cent is not as great as the drop of -23.8 per cent on New Year’s Day last year resulting in an overall drop of -7 per cent over the two year period as a whole.

Despite the annual rise in footfall on New Year’s Day footfall dropped away markedly from 30th December – declining by -14.4 per cent between 30th December and New Year’s Eve, and then by a further -9.7 per cent between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director, Springboard: “The drop in footfall on New Year’s Eve was unexpected, and particularly the magnitude of the decline. Last year footfall rose on New Year’s Eve, but this was a response to a significant drop in 2015 which saw severe weather conditions. It was against this backdrop that it was anticipated that footfall would rise modestly. The mitigating factor may have been the wind and rain that was evident earlier in the day – from Storm Dylan – which could have led consumers to change plans, however, the weather had mainly cleared up by the early evening.”