UK retail footfall bounced back last week, suggesting that activity levels are stabilising following the school half-term break, specialist tracking business MRI Software said on Monday.

With only two weeks until Black Friday, this rebound “is encouraging for retail stores and destinations. Early festive deals may also be enticing eager shoppers, setting the scene for a strong seasonal kick-off”.

So let’s look at the numbers. Retail footfall rose by 4.5% across all UK destinations last week compared to the week before. This was led by a 4.8% rise in shopping centres and a 4.7% rise in high streets. Retail parks saw a more modest rise of 3.7%, but it was still encouraging. A strong week emerged in total with footfall rising daily from last week and peaks recorded on Sunday (7.6%) and Wednesday (5.5%).

Central London outperformed many of the town types, recording a week on week rise of 9.4%. Regional cities followed closely behind with a rise of 6.2% compared to the week before and 7.5% year on year. 

This aligns with many of the festive displays and markets across the UK. 

Overall, footfall was 2.9% higher than 2023 levels, helped by high streets (3.8%) and retail parks (4.3%), but shopping centres saw a marginal drop of 0.2%. This is likely to be due to the adverse weather experienced in the same week last year, which saw retail destinations suffer slightly and which would have affected locations like high streets and retail parks where consumers are exposed to weather conditions.