The high street suffered its first decline in visitors for a Black Friday on record, although data shows that overall trade was buoyant as shoppers picked up bargains elsewhere.
According to data from retail specialist Springboard, high street footfall declined by 1.5% last week. However, footfall in shopping centres and retail parks increased by 6.5% and 4.9% respectively, leaving the number of people visiting all retail destinations up by 2% over the seven days.
On Black Friday itself, footfall strengthened significantly with uplifts from the week before of 17.9% in shopping centres and 11.4% in retail parks. However, high streets still saw a decline of 0.5%.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The overall results for the week leading up to and including Black Friday weekend was dampened by a far weaker footfall performance in high streets than anticipated, and a drop in high street footfall on Black Friday itself for the first time in history.”
She suggested there were three factors behind the drop in footfall in high streets.
Wehrle explained: “Firstly, the large proportion of office employees continuing to work from home meant that rather than visiting high street stores during the working day on Black Friday, for those shoppers who wanted to shop in store on Black Friday it was easier to head out to shopping centres and retail parks.
“Secondly, a reduction in overseas tourists in the UK has resulted in far fewer leisure shoppers who on Black Friday would typically head to Central London, large city centres around the UK and towns attractive to tourists such as historical and coastal towns.
“The third factor was the adverse weather on Saturday, which acted as a severe deterrent to shoppers in making trips to towns and cities. However, despite these challenges, the more substantial retail offer in larger towns and cities appealed to high street shoppers more than smaller towns.”
The data supported early evidence that consumers were hunting discounts in the run-up to Christmas amid fears around the rising cost of living and potential product shortages.
Barclaycard Payments, which processes nearly £1 in every £3 spent in the UK, reported a 26.6% leap in the volume of payments up to midnight compared to the same period on Black Friday 2020, with the figure 1.2% ahead of 2019 levels.
The card business also reported a jump in spending for Cyber Monday, with the volume of payments up by 16.7% on 2020 and 4.5% on 2019.
NAM Implications:
- Patently a message for High Street dependent suppliers…
- …to seek alternative channels for growth.
- Especially when the Black Friday stimulus fades…
