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Sandra Halliday Published
January 4,黑帽SEO快排中继 2025
The UK saw a “healthy boost” for footfall over the festive period compared to the previous month, despite the challenging economic climate.
That’s according to specialist tracking firm MRI Software with its figures showing on Thursday that Black Friday may have grabbed the attention in November, but the traditional Christmas shopping month remains key for most consumers when it comes to visiting physical stores.
In fact, footfall across UK retail destinations rose by 6.1% from November to December, boosted by the final trading week before Christmas. That’s hugely encouraging after worries that December might turn out to be a damp squib and several years in which Black Friday has stolen some of December’s thunder when it came to festive shopping.
Shopping centres led the charge with a rise in footfall of 11.1% in December from November followed by retail parks (+5.9%) and high streets (+3.7%). This is indicative of the diverse offerings of shopping centre destinations, from eating out to a multitude of retail brands, making them a preferred choice for consumers during the festive season.
Landsec, which operates malls like Bluewater in Kent, Trinity in Leeds and Westgate in Oxford, as well as outlets like Braintree Village and Gunwharf Quays, highlighted the positive period for shopping centres.
It told us: “Across our UK-wide portfolio, we saw a marked increase in visitors throughout the festive period as people flocked to prime retail destinations. Following one of our strongest Novembers on record, the number of people visiting prime retail destinations during December remained high, with footfall well ahead of industry benchmarks and up 3.1% compared to last year. The week before Christmas is always one of the busiest for retail and this year we outperformed expectations, with more than half a million extra visits to our retail destinations compared to last year and footfall soaring by 23% across our outlets.”
Meanwhile, back with the wider figures from MRI, year on year footfall rose marginally (by 0.2%) across UK retail destinations in December, mainly driven by a rise in footfall of 1.2% on high streets.
But while the month turned out to be better than some had feared, footfall had both its ups and downs. MRI Software said “a month of two halves emerged as footfall declined week on week in the first two weeks, likely due to poor weather and rail disruptions, but lifted in the final two trading weeks before Christmas Day”.
And it added that “investment in festive events and attractions paid off for high streets with noticeable increases in footfall year on year and week on week throughout December”.
That said, while the gap from the pre-pandemic footfall level narrowed, it was still a chunky 10.4% in December. But that was better than the 11.2% in November, driven by an improvement across all destination types.
And what about after Christmas? The week between Christmas and New Year tends to follow a historical trend of lower footfall from the week before. This time, Boxing Day footfall was 4% higher than Boxing Day 2025, primarily driven by high streets (+8.8%) whereas retail parks and shopping centres both saw a year-on-year decline of 1%. And overall Boxing Day footfall was 14.9% lower than 2025 levels, suggesting more shopping online, which may have started as soon as Christmas Day.
But Central London saw a notable uplift in Boxing Day footfall year on year (+10.6%), and compared to 2025 levels it was up 1.6%, which is a key milestone given how footfall has consistently lagged the pre-Covid era.
As for this month, the analysts are expecting “a natural post-Christmas slump with footfall projected to decline in the region of 20% to 25%”.
Weather warnings and a one-week delay in the return to school for many regions across the UK, may lead to subdued footfall at the start of the month. But it should improve as the month progresses, compared to 2025 levels, “particularly with more and more employees returning to offices”.