Tuesday saw Brit bargain hunter surge in stores, but London was weaker

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 30, 2022

Boxing Day may traditionally be the day that physical clearance sales kick off in the UK, but it seems that many shoppers chose to stay home on that day and instead chose Tuesday (the second public holiday this week) to hit the shops.

Although footfall was up significantly on Boxing Day (Monday) year on year, on Tuesday footfall rose almost 37% compared to the previous day.

However, central London that had seen a surge on Boxing Day was actually down 3.4% on Tuesday compared to Monday. That's perhaps surprising given that the previous day included a train, strike and many shops had opted to remain closed on Monday anyway.

In other city centres, the pattern mimicked UK footfall as a whole with a 34% increase on Tuesday compared to Monday.

That's all according to specialist tracking company, Springboard, which also said that while Tuesday footfall was higher than a year ago (+12.8%) when the virulence of the Omicron variant was keeping many people at home, it remained significantly below the equivalent day in 2019. It was 25% down on the same day during the final Christmas before the pandemic began.

The biggest uplift on Tuesday compared to Monday this year was in retail parks, although there was also an increase in people travelling to town centres. The footfall rise in retail parks was 64% day on day. Shopping centres were up 45%, although footfall was only around 20% up on high streets.

“The 36.6% increase in footfall from Boxing Day to 27 December suggests that consumers remain keen to shop for sale bargains post-Christmas,” said Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard. “Increased inflation may act as an incentive for many shoppers who are keen to secure purchases ahead of any further price rises.”