Royal wedding may not be enough to buck retail downturn, says Experian
Published: 26 April, 2011
Consumer behaviour analyst Experian FootFall anticipates that the bank holiday bonanza - incorporating the Easter weekend, royal wedding and May Day - will lead to mixed performances in shopper footfall numbers.
While the Easter bank holiday has traditionally shown a drop in footfall of about -25 per cent year-on-year, when compared to a ‘normal’ Monday, the number of shoppers are anticipated to rise by 2 per cent for the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before the royal wedding.
This increase in activity is attributed to shoppers ‘stocking up’ on food and alcohol in preparation for royal wedding street parties and opportunistic holidays.
It is anticipated that shoppers will steer clear of stores on Friday, preferring to socialise instead. Experian FootFall predicts that the day will follow a similar pattern to the preceding Good Friday, with a similar dip in shopper activity. As such, expectations are that footfall for April 29 will decline by -16 per cent, when compared to last year.
Retailers will be happy to hear, however, that it is likely that Saturday 30 will see some ‘bounce back’ recovery of lost footfall from the wedding day dip, before a return to more regular patterns of performance.
Neil Bennett, product manager at FootFall, said: “Current progressive footfall for this year is down by around -1.2 per cent, year-on-year in the UK, but buoyed by a strong January. February and March were more challenging, with run-rate performance closer to -2.0 per cent. The addition of an extra holiday day for the royal wedding, the timing of Easter and for some, better weather will mean more leisure time for people, it won’t necessarily mean they spend this time shopping.”
