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Shops and malls enjoy ‘slightly more chipper’ Scottish footfall figures in October

October for Eastgate in Inverness city Centre is the early part a critical ‘golden quarter’ of festive trading. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson
October for Eastgate in Inverness city Centre is the early part a critical ‘golden quarter’ of festive trading. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

Shoppers in Scotland pounded the pavements more in October as new data recorded the second-best monthly performance of the year for footfall so far during the month.

Data collected by Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Sensormatic Solutions found that Scotland bucked a trend as footfall improved for both shopping malls and the high street compared to September – although numbers were still far below pre-pandemic levels.

Monthly total Scottish retail footfall (% change on pre-pandemic levels): Image: SRC

While total UK footfall was down 11.8% on October three years ago – a comparison to iron out pandemic discrepancies – Scottish footfall was worse with a decrease of 12% on the same period.

However in Scotland, this marked an improvement on September by 1.4 points, while footfall for England and Wales was 2 percentage points worse than October.

SRC director David Lonsdale hailed it as a win.

He said: “This is a modest but nonetheless slightly more chipper set of results for shopper footfall in the early part of what is the critical ‘golden quarter’ of festive trading.

“Scottish footfall recorded its second-best monthly performance of the year so far during October, albeit still down an eighth on pre-pandemic levels.”

Cost of living crisis ‘little sign of abating’

However the struggling shopping sector is not out of the woods yet.

“Retailers’ promotions, new seasonal ranges and signs of early festive purchasing helped drive a broad-based improvement across all retail destinations.

“Shopping centres secured their best foot-traffic performance of 2022.

“The trick as ever for retailers is converting this uptick into actual sales at the tills and sustaining the improvement against a backdrop in which concerns over the cost of living and disruption on the railways show little sign of abating.”

He urged the government to resist temptation to raise rates and add costs.

He said: “Retailers are striving to play their part by keeping down shop prices. However, that’s made all the harder due to a hodgepodge of government-mandated cost rises. The economic landscape has shifted markedly this year and decisions are needed to keep business rates down and ease the regulatory burden.”

Andy Sumpter, retail consultant EMEA for Sensormatic Solutions, said: “While Halloween sales may have given some respite to the high street, shoppers spooked by the rising cost-of-living meant that the reality of growing consumer caution played out in October’s UK footfall figures, though Scotland managed to buck this trend.

“As consumers and retailers both adapt to what’s being coined the “new abnormal,” in which economic and political uncertainty creates new – and increasingly frequent – curveballs, retailers will be hoping to minimise disruption to safeguard their Christmas performance. Furthermore, with planned postal strikes in November risking disruption to Black Friday deliveries, retailers will be encouraging shoppers to head in store, rather than risking delayed deliveries when shopping online for Black Friday deals.”

Shopping Centre footfall declined by 18.6% in October (Yo3Y) in Scotland, an improvement on the decline of 19.7% in September.

On a YoY basis, Total Scottish footfall increased by 5.8%, Scottish Shopping Centres by 7.1%

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