Retail footfall figures are scrutinised intensively year round, but as the autumn season dawns and the all-important festive spending season begins, they’re even more in the spotlight.

The latest footfall data from MRI Software on Thursday showed that footfall fell by 3% from August to September in all UK retail destinations, with the biggest decline being in high street footfall (-4.5%) while shopping centres (-1.4%) and retail parks (-1.6%) were less affected.

Month-on-month declines aren’t unexpected during September as kids and adolescents return to school/college while workers go back to their offices and shopping tins to take a backseat for a week or so. But there seems to have been a particular impact this time on the back of widespread flooding in parts of the UK.

And there are predictions that footfall may be patchy this month and in the months ahead given rising energy bills and uncertainty around the Autumn budget.

Year on year, footfall in UK retail destinations rose but by only 0.1% in September, driven by a 2.6% rise in retail parks and a 0.5% rise in shopping centres. High street footfall remained the worst performer and fell by 1.2%.

Weekend footfall in the UK’s retail destinations rose by 0.1% from August to September whereas weekday activity declined marginally by 0.4%.

While people returning to their offices may have dented September footfall overall, MRI Software said that a boost in footfall of 4.9% during the penultimate week for high streets may well have coincided with many more employees who returned to offices “settling into a routine”. 

This was especially noticeable in regional cities outside of London (+9.6%) and office-dense locations within the capital, as measured by MRI Software’s Central London Back to Office benchmark (+6.8%), reflecting a much stronger return to offices compared to this time last year.