Ipsos Retail Performance has released its latest monthly report, analyzing the retail traffic in UK retail environments and forecasting the changes across the UK regions for the month of September.
It is officially the end of summer and just as we are all ready to put our jumpers on and prepare for the cold season, retailers are getting ready to face a drop in this month’s footfall. The month-on-month change from August to July showed a 6.1% footfall decrease in the UK overall. London & The South East seem to stand out from the rest of the UK regions, being the only one that performed below the average, experiencing an overall 10.3% decrease in retail traffic compared to July. When analyzing the overall annual trend, retail footfall experienced a 3.7% decline in August versus last year, with Scotland & Northern Ireland being the only region to show an increase in footfall of 0.9%.
Since August, the summer to autumn transition marks a downward trend. A fall in footfall of 4.8%, overall in the UK, is predicted, with slight variations across the different regions of the country. Northern England and The Midlands are expected to experience a shallower footfall decrease of 0.3% and 3.5% accordingly. However, Scotland & Northern Ireland, SW England & Wales, and London & The South East are predicted to experience an even deeper decrease in retail traffic of 5.1%, 7.3% and 7.4% accordingly.
Therefore, as autumn starts to set across the country and the temperatures start to drop, the retail traffic is expected to continue its downward trend from August. In addition, a decline in consumer confidence, a trend which has been recorded ever since the Brexit referendum, retailers across the country may face a rougher month ahead of them.
By Patricia Rus, Retail Research Intern at Bayfield Training