Sensormatic Solutions has released shopper traffic data for UK bricks and mortar retail stores and shopping centres from Super Saturday (17th December).
Footfall data from the Sensormatic IQ platform, which captures 40 billion shopper visits globally each year, shows 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.
Shoppers were looking 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% compared to 2021, while compared to the previous Saturday (10th December), shopper visits increased by 7% week-on-week. High streets led the way in performance, up 18.5% year-on-year.
Andy Sumpter, EMEA Retail Consultant at Sensormatic Solutions, says: “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% year-on-year, while Manchester saw a 12.5% uplift and Cardiff and Edinburgh saw 19% and 21.9% improvement in shopper counts compared to 2021.
Nottingham fared the strongest of the UK cities, with footfall rising 25.8% 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 concludes.
