Black Friday helps boost retail footfall

The week of Black Friday combined with the recovery from Storm Bert provided UK retail destinations with a welcome boost in footfall, according to the latest data from MRI Software.

Footfall rose by +13.6% in all UK retail destinations last week compared to the week before. This was driven by a surge in high street footfall (+17%), followed by shopping centres and retail parks experiencing rises of +13.3% and +6.9%.

A strong start to the week highlighted retail destinations made a swift recovery from the turbulent weather from the week before and while footfall levels remained modest mid-week, this soon lifted from Thursday onwards as shoppers prepared for the Black Friday sales and likely the start of the festive party season.

Saturday was particularly strong however a portion of this will be attributed to the rebound from Storm Bert, especially with footfall levels in high streets rising by almost half from the week before.

All town types saw strong performance both year on year and week on week with Central London and historic towns seeing particularly strong results. This could be due to festive events and markets attracting visitors into towns and cities. Regionally, the South West were the clear winners with footfall rising by almost a fifth week on week

Footfall on Black Friday, compared with Black Friday 2023, surpassed levels by +3.4% in all UK retail destinations. This was driven by a boost in retail park and shopping centre activity which rose by +5.5% and +4.4%, respectively suggesting many shoppers likely waited until after work to take advantage of the Black Friday sales.

Much of this rise occurred post 5pm where footfall rose by an average of +7% in retail parks and by +12.8% in shopping centres. The late-evening activity could also reflect the added appeal of the leisure and hospitality options available within these retail destinations.

High streets also witnessed an annual rise in footfall however this was much more modest at +1.9% however week on week activity was much stronger with activity levels up by +16.8%. Shopping centres also saw week on week activity rise by 20.3% whereas retail park activity rose by +7.2%.

MRI added that with consumer spending reportedly higher up until 1pm on Black Friday compared with Black Friday last year alongside a boost in footfall week on week and against Black Friday last year, this suggests that consumers are “shaking off a challenging Autumn/Winter” to make the most of the festive deals which will come as welcome news for retailers with less than four weeks until Christmas Day.