Scottish footfall decreased by 17.5% in February, down 1.3% on the January figure, according to the latest Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic data.
This is worse than the UK average decline of 14.9%, with Scotland recording the steepest decline in footfall of all UK regions.
Shopping centre footfall declined by 31.2% in February, although this was an improvement on the decline of 36.6% in January.
In February, footfall in Glasgow decreased by 19%, which was 1.4% worse than January.
SRC director David Lonsdale said there was little boost to retailers from the rescinding of the work-from-home order at the start of the month.
“As such this was an underwhelming and disappointing performance - that said, the dip wasn’t uniform across all destinations as shopping centres saw their first monthly improvement since the autumn.”
He explained that concerns about the cost of living and even the bleak weather in the second half of the month could well have exerted a downward pressure on visits to stores.
”However, these figures do underline the protracted nature of the recovery and the need for concerted action and a more upbeat message from policy makers in the short-term to encourage and entice shoppers back.
”The devolved government’s new city centres recovery fund provides a timely opportunity to breathe life back into city centre retailing, which has been hit especially hard by the exodus of office workers and tourists during the pandemic, however it must be put to good use swiftly.”
TOTAL FOOTFALL BY CITY (% CHANGE Yo2Y)
GROWTH RANK |
CITY |
% GROWTH Yo2Y |
1 |
Manchester |
-3.0 |
2 |
Portsmouth |
-4.5 |
3 |
Liverpool |
-7.2 |
4 |
Leeds |
-13.7 |
5 |
Bristol |
-13.9 |
6 |
Nottingham |
-14.4 |
7 |
Birmingham |
-14.6 |
8 |
Cardiff |
-17.0 |
9 |
Belfast |
-17.8 |
10 |
Glasgow |
-19.0 |
11 |
London |
-21.9 |
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant for Sensormatic Solutions, commented: “While February’s shopper traffic fell back in Scotland, the total footfall across the UK still leads the top five European markets’ footfall recovery, suggesting a collective growing confidence among shoppers.
”With UK Governments announcing the further easing and ending of restrictions, this represents what many, not least retailers, hope will be the ‘beginning of the end’ of the Covid crisis - our latest data shows consumer concern about in-store safety fell by 18% year-on-year - however, shoppers now face new and growing pressures.
”The cost-of-living squeeze and inflation, which is putting downward pressures on disposable income, and a volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical climate could create a perfect storm of uncertainty for consumers, which could still impact the long-term retail recovery as it looks to build back post-pandemic.”
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