UK’s shopping centres, high streets and retail parks saw a 6% rise in footfall last week

Bank Holiday Monday marked the final day of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, spurring consumers across the country to make the most of the discounted prices at their favourite hospitality venues. Retail analysts Springboard stated that the August Bank Holiday weekend was a “remarkable success”, as retail destinations saw only 11% less footfall compared to last year.

Springboard also reported that last week’s footfall increased across the UK’s shopping centres, high streets and retail parks, which has given the sector its best week since the end of lockdown.

Across the UK’s retail destinations, shopping centres saw footfall increase by 9.1%, high streets reported a jump of 4.8% and retail parks grew by 5%. While footfall has remained 26.1% down in comparison to year, this increase has been a welcomed improvement on the previous week’s figure of 30.7%.

One way venues can sustain this growth in consumer confidence is by turning to technology. Through retail and hospitality apps such as Ubamarket and uBARmarket, venues will be able to maintain safety and hygiene protocols as well as offer a range of features designed to improve and streamline the shopping and hospitality experiences safely. These include aisle sat-nav, till-less checkout, map search, remote ordering, in-app payments and automatic loyalty points.

Will Broome, CEO and Founder of retail technology app, Ubamarket, commented on the increase in footfall and how retailers can continue to grow despite the COVID recession:

“This growth in footfall is fantastic to see as more people feel more confident about venturing to the UK’s retail destinations, and will undoubtedly give struggling hospitality venues a much-needed boost and bodes well for the future of the sector.

“However, with increased footfall across all retail destinations, there are increased safety and hygiene concerns. As such, it is more important than ever that hospitality and retail venues adapt and develop the customer experience by implementing new approaches and technologies to not only safeguard the safety and wellbeing of customers and staff, but also to allow venues to take advantage of the increase in footfall.

“Ultimately, tech-based solutions such as Ubamarket will be key in combating the challenges posed by increased safety and hygiene measures, while also helping venues dramatically improve the safety and convenience of their customer experience, leading to increased popularity, success and growth beyond the Coronavirus crisis.”