Scotland sees shopper numbers boost

Jan 21 2013

Scotland saw the second largest increase in shopper numbers in the UK last month, new figures have revealed.

The number of people visiting stores was 6.2% higher than in December 2011, according to the Scottish Retail Consortium/Springboard footfall monitor.

Scotland was just one of four parts of the UK to record an increase in the number of shoppers, and was second only to the West Midlands, where there was a 10% rise.

The Greater London area also experienced a rise in shopper numbers, but at 3.1% the increase was half that experienced north of the border

Meanwhile, Wales suffered the largest fall, with 11.5% fewer people in the stores in December than there had been a year before.

It comes after figures earlier this month showed that total sales in Scotland last month were 1.5% higher than a year ago - making it the first time the retail performance north of the border has equalled that of the UK since January 2011.

Scottish Retail Consortium director Fiona Moriarty said: "Scotland saw the second best rate of footfall growth of any part of the UK in December. That's a really positive result and bears out the optimism of our sales figures last week, with growth in line with the rest of the UK for the first time in nearly two years."

She added: "The signs are that many people planned ahead for Christmas so that they didn't have to keep an excessively tight rein on their festive shopping. With the post-Christmas sales still in full swing, retailers will be hoping that this boost to shopper numbers sustains some momentum in January's figures."

Across the UK shopper numbers for December were 1.2% lower than the final month of 2011. This included a 0.5% decline in shoppers on the country's high streets, a 1% decrease in the number of people going out of town for their purchases, and a fall of 2.8% in the number of people visiting shopping centres.

Diane Wehrle, research director at Springboard, said: "The tough trading conditions faced by retailers are reflected in footfall trends." She added that shoppers were making fewer trips but were spending more on their visits to the stores.