UK shopping data shows upbeat pro-Remain areas, but malls in Leave-voting areas suffer

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 7, 2017

Predictions about what would happen after the UK Brexit referendum last year proved wide of the mark, but some new data has shown some interesting effects a year down the line.

Coniq, a CRM platform for shopping centres, took a snapshot of what was going on in shopping centres on July 4 this year compared to the same day a year ago and found some huge differences.

It tracked 200,000 shoppers in 25 malls and said UK mall ‘footfall’, which it defines as the number of individual customers that made a transaction (even if that individual made multiple transactions) was up 31% year-on-year. But despite that rise, the areas that voted to leave the EU saw a ‘footfall’ decrease of 65%, while areas that voted to stay in saw a rise of 33%.

The company said the uplift highlights that, despite the economic uncertainty of the Brexit negotiations, customers are starting to feel more confident in spending.
 
But that confidence is clearly not country-wide. As we’ve seen, the results varied dramatically depending on whether shopping centres were in areas that voted to leave or remain. Interestingly, it was the leave areas that have pulled back most on their shopping visits. Areas that voted to leave the EU
saw a decrease in actual transactions of 55%, with revenue dropping 68% as the average transaction value went down by 27% year on year.

Meanwhile remain areas saw transaction numbers rising by 40% and revenue up by 50% as average transactional value increased by 12%.
 
Ben Chesser, founder and CEO at Coniq, said of all this: ‘It is tough on retailers in today’s climate, where not only do they have to tackle ‘living wages’, rising business rates and steep competition, but also political decisions that affect the economy have a huge sway on customer trends and spend.

“As the UK finds itself in a period of uncertainty it is unsurprising that spend dips in some areas. But following the latest election results and strong response from remain areas, perhaps some of the feeling of instability has passed and shoppers are now looking to return to their usual purchasing trends.”