Fewer shoppers hit UK high street in August
Fewer shoppers visited the UK high street in August, prompting fresh concerns about whether consumer spending wil continue to underpin the economic recovery.
The number of customers recorded by retailers during the month was down 1.1% on a year ago, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and retail analysts Springboard.
That figure was down on the 0.6% fall in July and below the three-month average of a 0.8% decline.
Out-of-town retail parks reported the only rise, 2.9% higher than a year ago, while footfall in shopping centres was down 1.1% on the previous year.
Footfall on the high street was 2.8% down on the previous year for August, the worst year-on-year decline since February.
The BRC said the figures indicated that people were visiting the high street with specific purchases in mind, rather than browsing.
Director-general Helen Dickinson said: "It seems that customers are hitting the high streets with purpose – knowing what they want to buy ahead of time, supported by online research – and doing more shopping in a single trip."
Diane Wehrle, Retail Insights Director at Springboard, said: "Whilst high streets and shopping centres are working hard to both retain and to win back customers, if they are to prosper over the critical Christmas trading period in the face of strong out of town competition, it requires the speedy alleviation of obvious barriers to shoppers such as high parking costs."