Snow slashes footfall by a quarter on Super Saturday
Published: 21 December, 2010
Snow on the last Saturday before Christmas decimated shopping, with footfall down by 24.3 per cent against the same Saturday of 2009, according to Synovate’s Retail Traffic Index.
The third week of December, from Sunday 12th to Saturday 18th December, saw retail footfall suffer further at the hands of the weather and was down by 8.8 per cent on the same week last year. The index was 5.5 per cent higher than the previous week, but this was less than the 9 per cent rise that Synovate had forecast, before the most recent snow flurries.
“At a time when retailers were looking to play catch up, after the snowfall at the start of the month, the latest turn in the weather has dealt another cruel blow”, said Dr Tim Denison, Synovate’s director of retail performance. “We thought that Christmas 2010 would be remembered for shoppers making the most of pre-VAT increase prices, rather than the impact of a white-out. Retailers will have to hope that the severe weather disappears by the end of this week, allowing shoppers at least one week of indulgence to hit the high streets bargains before the year ends.”
The regional breakdown for the week reflected weather conditions. In Scotland and Northern Ireland shoppers did, indeed, play catch up after they had been most affected by the month’s earlier snowfall. There, retail footfall was up year-on-year by 3.8 per cent for the week commencing 12th December, and up strongly, by 30.3 per cent against the previous week.
Also escaping the worst of the week’s weather, Northern England saw an 8.6 per cent year-on-year drop in footfall for the week, representing a 6.9 per cent increase on the previous week. The worse affected region was the Midlands, where footfall for the week was 11.1 per cent lower than the same week last year, representing a fall of 1.5 per cent from the previous week.
“Online shopping will have played its part last week in recovering some of the ground that would otherwise have been lost,” concluded Denison. “Many retailers will have been thankful for their multi-channel route to market, but it won’t save them this week, now that guaranteed deliveries before Christmas Day are over.
“If some shoppers can’t get to the shops, they simply won’t be able to finish off their present-buying at this late stage. Others will be anxious that the gifts they ordered on line will not arrive in time. When it comes down to it though, I’m sure most of us will accept the situation for what it is and realise there’s more to Christmas than just presents”.
