Sensormatic Solutions has released shopper traffic data for UK brick-and-mortar retail stores and shopping centres from Saturday 17 December. Footfall data from the Sensormatic IQ platform, which captures 40 billion shopper visits globally each year, showed that despite the early timing of Super Saturday this year, taking place eight days ahead of Christmas Day, retailers enjoyed a strong in-person turnout as shoppers looked to complete their Christmas gift shopping and avoid disruption to the mail and rail services caused by ongoing strike action.
Shopper traffic on Super Saturday was up +15 per cent compared to 2021, while compared to the previous Saturday (10 December), Super Saturday shopper visits increased by 7 per cent week-on-week. High Streets led the way in shopper traffic performance, up 18.5 per cent year-on-year.
Andy Sumpter, EMEA retail consultant at Sensormatic Solutions. “With industrial action across the mail and rail networks risking online delivery disruption to Christmas orders, we’ve seen shoppers take matters into their own hands and head out onto the High Street in a bid to wrap up their Christmas shopping.”
Major cities and shopping hubs saw footfall rally, with London shopper traffic up 19.5 per cent year-on-year, while Manchester saw a 12.5 per cent uplift and Cardiff and Edinburgh saw 19 per cent and 21.9 per cent improvement in shopper counts compared to 2021. Nottingham fared the strongest of the UK cities, with footfall rising 25.8 per cent on 2021 figures.
“The fact that Super Saturday traffic saw such an uptick in footfall will be a welcome boost for retailers, who will hope shopper visits and consumer spending continue into next week. We expect traffic to continue to build with some very busy days ahead as we head towards the Big Day,” Sumpter continued.
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