UK Boxing day footfall pleases as shoppers ignore rail strikes

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 27, 2022

Footfall to UK retail destinations rose as much as 38.8% on Boxing day (26 December) with high streets up 44.1% and Central London surging a massive 66%, despite train strikes on the day the clearance sales traditionally start.

Tracking specialist Springboard said that footfall UK-wide actually increased by 50.1% up to noon and across the day, it was up 40.4% in shopping centres and 25.9% in retail parks.

In retail parks, the greatest increase in footfall from last year occurred in the largest parks with a 37.2% increase compared to the smallest locations (+19.2%) .

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As mentioned, Central London boomed, and in the morning, footfall there was up a high 139.2%. It remained below Boxing Day 2019, but only by 7.8%, which is the narrowest gap seen since stores reopened post-lockdowns.

Across the UK as a whole, footfall was down 18.2% on 2019, however, although the afternoon this year was busier than in 2019.

Diane Wehrle, Insights Director at Springboard, said: “Boxing Day was far from doom and gloom this year. [The] positive results come in line with the first Christmas post-pandemic without any formal social restrictions and in spite of the cost-of-living crisis and the rail strikes, which inevitably affect retailers negatively.”