West Midlands revival helps retail footfall in July
UK shoppers continued to desert shopping centres and retail parks last month, though high streets enjoyed a third positive month in a row.
Total UK footfall fell 0.8% in July, the monthly survey from the British Retail Consortium and Springboard found, which was only slightly improved from the prior month’s 0.9% decline and compared with a decrease of in July 2017 of 1.1%.
Britain's high streets saw footfall growth of 0.3%, the third month of consecutive growth, helped by comparison with July 2017 when there was a decline of 2.1%.
Shopping centres performed worst, down 3.4% against a weak month last year, while footfall in retail parks declined 0.5% compared to a rise of 1.7% a year ago.
Looking at the figures on a regional basis, only the West Midlands and Scotland saw an increase in footfall growth in July, up 1.6% and 0.5% respectively.
The BRC and Springboard also found the shop vacancy rate in town centres remained unchanged at 9.2% in July, though it was much improved from 9.6% a year ago, with most regions largely unchanged since April.
The most improved region month on month was the West Midlands, where the vacancy rate improved to 10.2% from 11.8% in April, tallying with two consecutive months of footfall gains. London was behind the improvement compared to last year, while the South East was among regions to worsen.
Hot, dry weather was an important influence on the month's footfall performance, said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, providing a small lift for high streets but sapping shoppers’ stamina for longer trips to retail parks and shopping centres.
"Aside from short-term weather impacts, there’s no escaping the fact that retail is changing. With fewer people visiting physical stores and fewer purchases being made there, at the same time as costs are going up year on year, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing many retailers reduce their store portfolios."
Diane Wehrle, Springboard marketing and insights director, said summer led purchases of garden furniture and BBQ's helping to offset poor furniture sales in retail parks and gleaned insights from footfall at different times of day.
"The increasing presence of food and beverage on parks clearly boosted footfall by +0.2% between 5pm and 8pm.
"In high streets, the very marginal -0.3% decline in footfall during shopping hours and a +1.7% rise post 5pm is indicative of their ability to cater for shoppers' demands.
"In contrast, in shopping centres the drop in footfall of -3.9% during retail trading hours was exacerbated by a -0.7% decline post 5pm, driven by a paucity of hospitality offer. Shopping centres are also hampered by the dominance of fashion and department stores/large multi retail units, with footfall entering these types of stores declining by more than footfall generally."
Dickinson that that with shops continuing to close there was a need for new businesses to emerge to reinvent the nation’s high streets. "But that cannot happen if the burden of business rates they face continues to rise year on year, which is why we’re calling for a freeze in business rates in the Chancellor’s next Budget."