Good, but not good enough to bring cheer to UK retailers this festive season, given some more new figures on trading performance.

Retail performance in the final full week of trading in the run up to Christmas “will have done little to lift the spirits of retailers”, according to Rendle Intelligence and Insights. 

Its latest figures show that while footfall into stores rose 14.9% from the week before, this rise was not nearly enough to deliver an annual increase in the number of customers, which was 11.4% lower than in the same week in 2023.

Even on Super Saturday — the final Saturday before Christmas Day which is typically the peak shopping day of the year — footfall was only 4.1% higher than on Saturday 14 December, and was virtually flat on 23 December 2023 with a rise of just 0.9%.

These results follow negative annual performance over the previous fortnight following the Black Friday week that averaged -3.1%. With footfall 5.5% higher than 2023 during the Black Friday week, and spending in towns and cities on Black Friday itself 14.5% higher than on Black Friday 2023, “it demonstrates that consumers took the opportunity of discounting for gift purchasing”, noted Rendle CEO Diane Wehrle.

“The disappointing results, which come [at the same time] that we have learnt that the economy failed to grow between July and September, clearly reflect the ongoing cost pressures faced by households following a prolonged period of very high inflation. It appears this Christmas has been disastrous for retail, and a bad omen for 2025,” Wehrle added.