Footfall Index
Published: 17 March, 2011
2009 saw the National Index fall by -4.1 per cent in February and then 2010 experienced a marginal u-turn being up by +2.1 per cent. The -1.8 per cent year-on-year therefore seen in February 2011 perhaps seems somewhat of a counterbalance to the previous year’s performance.
Traditionally footfall increases from January to February within the year and this year has seen no change in that trend, with footfall increasing by +5.5 per cent month-on-month. However with the exception of 2009, the footfall for February remains the lowest for this month in the past four years.
January was a strong month relative to the past four years so the surge in shoppers visiting shopping centres at the start of the year has slowed down in February. There was however, a 7.1 per cent year-on-year increase in footfall in the last week of the month but this was falsely inflated by the difference in half term dates from 2010 to 2011.
Unlike January where footfall differed considerably by region; February experienced more consistency between regions. There were three regions where footfall decreased at -4.2 per cent (East Midlands), -4.9 per cent (Yorkshire-Humber) and -5.6 per cent (North West). There were pockets of snow throughout the middle of February in the North West & Yorkshire-Humber which may have impacted these regions over others.
Although in January Scotland was the second worst performing region, it showed some bounce back and was up +0.6 per cent year-on-year in February, the best performing region. The South West & Wales and West Midlands were second and third respectively which again underlines there consistency over recent months in outperforming the National average.
The Retail Park Index followed its strong performance in January with an increase of 1.2 per cent year-on-year in February. It again outperformed the UK National Index and although perhaps expected to increase as weather conditions get better, the Index is performing strongly on last year irrespectively. This maybe somewhat of a surprise as fuel prices have increased and traditionally retail parks are found on the fringes of towns and cities and accessed more easily by those with cars.
There was a definite difference in shopper patterns over the half term week between retail parks and shopping centres and this has contributed to the differential in footfall year-on-year levels between the two destinations.
