The Easter bank holiday weekend was not enough to help significantly drive footfall in March, as wet British weather put another dampener on high street recovery.
According to the latest reading from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), total UK footfall decreased by -1.3 per cent in March year-on-year, up from -6.2 per cent in February.
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said: “Overall UK footfall declined in March as the wet weather kept shoppers indoors.
“Northern Ireland and Wales bucked the trend while shopping centres across the UK also saw a year-on-year increase in footfall, primarily driven by the start of the school holidays.”
She added:”The early Easter meant footfall rose across the UK in the final week of March, particularly in English cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool, but this was not enough to reverse the overall decline over the course of the month.”
In London, footfall figures slumped by -4.6 per cent a slight improvement from the -6.2 per cent recorded the prior month.
This morning’s developments are the latest to highlight the prolonged suffering of the sector amid a period of changing shopping habits and a clamp down on spending.
A number of brands, including Superdry, have already warned they may go bust this year, after they failed to retain their customer base amid a tough economic climate.
Damp and unseasonable weather has also been a sore spot for retailers over last year, with many citing it as the reason for depressed sales.
Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, said: “ While retailers will have welcomed the seasonal uplift in store visits last month, the choppy nature of footfall recovery we’ve seen over the past few months indicates that consumer confidence is yet to fully turn a corner, meaning we may see a bumpy recovery in shopper traffic in the months ahead.”