The number of visits to retail locations strengthened in March, although footfall remains 15.3% below pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The figures from Springboard show that this was an improvement on February when footfall was 20.7% below 2019.
Levels last month also nearly reached those seen last November prior to the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid.
Looking at the different destination types, high street footfall fell 17.4% across the month compared with March 2019, an improvement of about a third from February this year.
Footfall in shopping centres was down 21.3%, while retail park footfall declined by 4.2% compared with pre-pandemic levels.
However, Springboard noted that the figures are likely to offer only short term good news for retailers with increased energy, fuel and food prices set to reduce many people’s disposable income and potentially impact consumer spending.
Diane Wehrle, Springboard insights director, added: “Alongside price inflation, the longer term challenge for physical retail destinations is hybrid home/office working that now appears to have become widely adopted. With many employees opting to work at home for at least part of the week, the recovery in footfall – particularly in large city centres – has been constrained and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.”
