United Kingdom: retail footfall change in high streets 2019-2024

Retail footfall in British highstreets bounced back from the pandemic-driven sluggish shopper numbers around January 2023. But despite the recovering numbers, high streets still struggled with diminishing visits. In the most recently reported period in October 2024, for example, there was a decrease of 3.6 percent of visitors to UK high streets. This trend was not peculiar to high streets either. Footfall decreased in shopping centers, as well. 

Retail locations out of favor

With more and more shoppers turning to the convenience of online shopping, the landscape of high street retailing is transforming as store closures are dealing many retail and leisure store categories hard blows. This was exacerberated by the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2023, there were over 10,000 store closures in the United Kingdom.

Store closures before the pandemic

Even before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit, UK retail sector had been going through what many have dubbed as "the retail apocalypse". Many retailers saw store closures and ensuing job losses a year before the pandemic. Among these, Poundland had the highest number of staff lay-offs resulting from store closures.