The UK high streets benefited from the warm weather and weaker sterling, with better than expected footfall over the Easter weekend.
According to Springboard, a leading provider of retail performance insights, although footfall declined by 5.9 per cent on Good Friday, it increased by 4.6 per cent on Easter Saturday compared with 2016. Sunday also saw a rise in footfall of 1.8 per cent compared to last year's figures, despite it not being a retail trading day.
Diane Wehrle of Springboard says: “The results to date are in part due to the shift in weather compared to last year; Good Friday was exceptionally warm and sunny – better than this year – but windy and rainy for the rest of the weekend, compared to this year’s sunny and mild weather.”
The increased footfall outside of retail hours, also indicates that food and drink retailers are leading the charge in the current economic climate.
“This is believed to be a consequence of the worsening of consumer confidence and inflation, which has led to more conservative shopper spending on retail goods and their increased preference for spending on experiences,” Ms Wehrle adds.
Online spending also increased 12.4 per cent on Good Friday compared with last year, according to data from PCA Predict, but declined on Easter Saturday when online transactions were down -4.4 per cent in line with the increase in footfall.
Mobile transactions fuelled online activity, with a +9.9 per cent rise in transactions compared with just +2.5 per cent by tablet. PC spending declined -12.7 per cent, year on year.
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